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A User's Guide to Municipal By-laws, 2nd Edition
This guide will help you to draft, review and implement by-laws, revise existing by-laws, correct vulnerabilities, follow grammar rules to avoid legal loopholes, avoid claims of conflict of interest and bad faith, and defend legal challenges to by-laws.
Publication Language: English
Published: February 28, 2008
Publisher: LexisNexis Canada
Draft and Implement "Bullet-proof" By-laws
In Canada, municipalities across the country are growing and the landscape is changing everyday. Likewise, by-law drafting practices and implementation protocols are no longer the same in municipalities. In particular, sweeping changes were brought about by Ontario Bill 130 in 2007 that confers broad authority on municipalities to pass by-laws.
Authors M. Virginia MacLean, Q.C. and John R. Tomlinson draw on their many years of experience with municipal governments. Ms. MacLean is a Certified Specialist in municipal law-local government/land use planning and development law. Mr. Tomlinson recently participated in drafting the amendments to many Ontario statutes that were necessary as a result of the enactment of the Ontario Municipal Act, 2001.
Their advice will help you to...
- Draft, review, and implement by-laws confidently
- Revise existing by-laws to conform to recent changes to legislation
- Correct vulnerabilities in existing by-laws to reduce risks of invalidation by courts
- Follow grammar rules to ensure that legal loopholes are not left open
- Avoid claims of conflict of interest and bad faith
- Defend legal challenges to by-laws
Practical Tools to Simplify Drafting
- Chart of components and explanatory text that can be easily adapted to any type of municipal by-law
- Precedents for drafting some of the most commonly required by-laws, including procedural, building, and property standards by-laws
- Precedents for drafting different types of penalty provisions recently authorized by amendments to the Ontario Municipal Act, 2001 that came into force on January 1, 2007
- Checklists for drafting, amending, and repealing by-laws
A Must-Have Handbook for:
- Municipal officers and staff, including CAOs, clerks, and treasurers, seeking cost-effective guidance on by-law drafting
- Municipal lawyers and lawyers in general practice who are called upon from time to time to draft or review municipal by-laws
- Provincial government officials, including those who work in regional offices advising municipalities on municipal matters, and those who work in provincial legislative counsel offices drafting provincial legislation and regulations
- Articling law students who need guidance on drafting and reviewing by-laws
Chapter 1: Introduction to the Law, the Courts and Tribunals and to Municipal Government
Chapter 2: The Preliminaries to By-law Drafting
Chapter 3: Drafting and Enacting Municipal Bylaws
Chapter 4: Attacking By-laws
Chapter 5: Legal Pitfalls of By-law Drafting and How to Avoid Them
Chapter 6: By-laws of Boards, Agencies and Commissions
Chapter 7: Special By-laws and Commentary
