Law Times

Page 6 January 15, 2018 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com COMMENT u EDITORIAL OBITER By Gabrielle Giroday Language rights W hen one is not a French speaker or living or practising inside Quebec or other areas of French-speaking Can- ada, it might be easy to lose sight of the importance of French-speaking judges and French legal services. A recent report highlights, however, why all Canadians should be con- cerned with the state of bilingual legal services and appropriately serving the public in our country's two official languages. A recent report by the Commons Official Languages Commit- tee — "Ensuring Justice is Done in Both Official Languages" — has offered recommendations on how to improve access to legal services in both languages across the country. Bilingual lawyers say that the federal government needs to invest more resources to improve Can- adians' access to programs in French outside Quebec. For example, there are noted problems in the area of family law, such as those seek- ing divorces. Troublingly, the report also points to other concerning gaps, such as how the language skills of federally appointed judges (who self- report their level of bilingualism) can be assessed. "All witnesses criticized the fact that the current application pro- cess for federally appointed judges allows candidates to assess their own language skills," says the report. This state of affairs has led the Fédération des associations des juristes d'expression française to be- come "extremely concerned about the consequences of this subject- ive process, fearing that candidates may overestimate their language skills." No wonder. Some progress has been made. In September 2017, for example, federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould announced steps to improve bilingualism in su- perior courts in the Action Plan: Enhancing the Bilingual Capacity of the Superior Courts. These included collecting more information on applica- tions for the bench, as well as recommendations to develop better assessment tools for language skills. Applicants for the Supreme Court of Canada also needed to be functionally bilingual, said the Tru- deau government. But there is further to go yet. The report's recommendations should be studied and acted upon. LT ©2018 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or stored in a retrieval system without written per- mission. The opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the publisher. Information presented is compiled from sources believed to be accurate, however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Law Times disclaims any warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or currency of the contents of this publication and disclaims all liability in respect of the results of any action taken or not taken in reli- ance upon information in this publication. Publications Mail Agreement Number 40762529 • ISSN 0847-5083 Law Times is published 40 times a year by Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. LT.editor@thomsonreuters.com CIRCULATIONS & SUBSCRIPTIONS $205.00 + HST per year in Canada for print and online (HST Reg. #R121351134), $199 + HST per year for online only. Single copies are $5.00. Circulation inquiries, postal returns and address changes should include a copy of the mailing label(s) and should be sent to Law Times One Corporate Plaza, 2075 Kennedy Rd. Toronto ON, M1T 3V4. Return postage guaranteed. Contact Keith Fulford at .............. 416-649-9585 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . or fax: 416-649-7870 keith.fulford@thomsonreuters.com SALES AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Advertising inquiries and materials should be directed to Sales, Law Times, 2075 Kennedy Rd., Toronto, ON, M1T 3V4 or call: Sales Manager Paul Burton ............................................ 416-649-9928 paul.burton@tr.com Business Development Consultant: Ivan Ivanovitch ...................................... 416-887-4300 ivan.ivanovitch@tr.com Business Development Consultant: Kimberlee Pascoe .................................. 416-996-1739 kimberlee.pascoe@tr.com Account Executive: Steffanie Munroe ................................... 416-315-5879 steffanie.munroe@tr.com Law Times Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd., One Corporate Plaza, 2075 Kennedy Rd., Toronto, ON • M1T 3V4 • Tel: 416-298-5141 • Fax: 416-649-7870 www.lawtimesnews.com LT.editor@thomsonreuters.com • @lawtimes Director/Group Publisher . . . . . . . . . Karen Lorimer Managing Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jennifer Brown Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gabrielle Giroday Staff Writer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alex Robinson Copy Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Patricia Cancilla CaseLaw Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Leah Craven Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Phyllis Barone Production Co-ordinator . . . . . . . . .Catherine Giles Electronic Production Specialist . . . Derek Welford Builders head south, to Ontario's woe BY IAN HARVEY H ow much is a home in Toronto? Cheap money aside, it's a ques- tion of supply and demand. So why isn't there enough supply to meet demand? Ask the industry and they'll tell you a major factor is the miles of red tape and process at both the provincial and mu- nicipal level that delay development and add costs. The delays result in cancelled projects, returned deposits and buyers squeezed out of the market, which is ris- ing faster than they can cobble together a down payment. For example, Mattamy Homes is North America's largest private residential home construction outfit. Founder and CEO Peter Gilgan told Bloomberg News his company is head- ing south to seek out better opportunities and expects half of its revenues to come from the U.S. in the years ahead, because Mattamy can do an equivalent project in the U.S. for a tenth of what it costs to turn the same project around in Ontario. Those opportunities offer a bigger supply of undeveloped land and strong markets, a faster and less costly approvals process and less interference from gov- ernments. Mattamy is not alone. Minto Group, Brookfield Homes, Great Gulf Homes and FRAM Building Group are also increasingly looking at growth south of the 49 th parallel. "We see home ownership as a right and a benefit to the community," said Gilgan in the Bloomberg interview. He said a lack of land in Ontario is making the dream of home ownership unafford- able for many Canadians and prompting the company to look to grow in the U.S. For those practising in the real estate sector, it also suggests that there are more deals to be done, if only things moved fast- er. It all adds up to money left on the table. "We don't have all the solutions, but we can certainly make representation to the government, both provincial and municipal. We own lots of land, but we can't get anything approved," he said. Former premier Dalton McGuinty promised to eliminate excess red tape across the province a decade ago. Yet, here we are in 2018. There's no real prog- ress, despite the Red Tape Reduction Act 2017, which was passed in November, mostly to pacify small business owners upset over the 31-per-cent increase in the minimum wage. Even the so-called Red Tape Challenge, a series of sector-by-sector consulta- tions scheduled through 2019, finds the construction indus- try conspicuously absent. "Yeah, it's kind of weird, isn't it?," says Richard Lyall, president of the Residential Builders Construction Association, not- ing that the sector is one of the biggest economic drivers of the provincial GDP. The industry, however, isn't deterred, pushing hard to get the attention of the province, which it, in turn, hopes will di- rect municipalities to improve processes and yield up to $500 million a year in sav- ings in the GTA alone. The challenge is similar to that faced by the court system, which is still paper-dependent. RESCON says a wholesale shift to digital permit processing would speed up the process, cut costs and get more homes built to meet demand and suppress prices. Plans are already created in digital form and the same software allows planning and building parameters to be overlaid, f lagging any non-conforming configura- tion. The first screening at the permit ap- proval level would be by software; the sec- ond by human eyes, to check any f lags. "The World Bank ranked Toronto 57th in the world out of 190 jurisdictions, in terms of being development-friendly," says Michael de Lint, director of building regulatory reform and technical stan- dards at RESCON. "We've just moved up to 54 th ," he says "No one is popping champagne corks be- cause it's still not where we need to be." He notes that developments such as bike paths, transit and major industri- al-commerical-institutional develop- ments with jobs attached get fast-tracked through a special process. Using the same priority approach and leveraging off-the-shelf technology would be a big reason to get some build- ers to come home again. LT uIan Harvey has been a journalist for more than 40 years, writing about a di- verse range of issues including legal and political affairs. His email address is ianharvey@rogers.com. Queen's Park Ian Harvey

• Cover