{"id":832,"date":"2018-08-03T10:02:32","date_gmt":"2018-08-03T14:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/limitations.ca\/?p=832"},"modified":"2018-08-03T10:02:54","modified_gmt":"2018-08-03T14:02:54","slug":"federal-the-limitation-of-actions-under-s-31-of-the-expropriation-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/?p=832","title":{"rendered":"Federal: The limitation of actions under s. 31 of the Expropriation Act"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Canada v. Milne<\/em><\/a>, the Federal Court of Appeal held that no limitation period applies to an action under s. 31(1)(a)(i) of the Expropriation Act<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

[3]\u00a0\u00a0The central issue before the motion judge was the proper interpretation of\u00a0subparagraph 31(1)<\/a>(a<\/em>)(i) of the\u00a0Expropriation Act<\/a><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 whether it provides that there is no limitation period, and thus ousts the operation of\u00a0subsection 39(1)<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0Federal Courts Act<\/a><\/em>, or merely establishes a point in time after which an action may be commenced, subject to the limitation period determined in accordance with\u00a0subsection 39(1)<\/a>\u00a0(in this case the limitation period prescribed by the Ontario Act).\u00a0Paragraph 31(1)<\/a>(a<\/em>) of the\u00a0Expropriation Act<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>reads as follows (underlining added):<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
31 (1) Subject to section 30,<\/td>\n31 (1) Sous r\u00e9serve de l\u2019article 30:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
(a<\/em>) a person entitled to compensation in respect of an expropriated interest or right may,<\/td>\na<\/em>) une personne qui a droit \u00e0 une indemnit\u00e9 pour un droit ou int\u00e9r\u00eat expropri\u00e9 peut:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
(i)\u00a0at any time<\/u>\u00a0after the registration of the notice of confirmation, if no offer under section 16 has been accepted by him, and<\/td>\n(i)\u00a0apr\u00e8s<\/u>\u00a0l\u2019enregistrement de l\u2019avis de confirmation, si elle n\u2019a accept\u00e9 aucune offre faite en vertu de l\u2019article 16,<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
(ii) within one year after the acceptance of the offer, in any other case,<\/td>\n(ii) dans un d\u00e9lai d\u2019un an \u00e0 compter de l\u2019acceptation de l\u2019offre, dans tout autre cas,<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
commence proceedings in the Court by statement of claim for the recovery of the amount of the compensation to which he is then entitled; or<\/td>\nengager des proc\u00e9dures devant le tribunal par voie d\u2019expos\u00e9 de la demande pour le recouvrement du montant de l\u2019indemnit\u00e9 \u00e0 laquelle elle a alors droit;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

[4]\u00a0\u00a0The motion judge applied the \u201cmodern approach\u201d to statutory interpretation endorsed by the Supreme Court in\u00a0Rizzo & Rizzo Shoes Ltd. (Re)<\/em>,\u00a0[1998] 1 S.C.R. 27\u00a0at para. 21,\u00a01998 CanLII 837 (SCC)<\/a>,\u00a01998 CanLII 837. He read the words used in\u00a0subparagraph 31(1)<\/a>(a<\/em>)(i) \u2013\u00a0\u201cat any time after\u201d\u00a0\u2013 in their statutory context and in light of the object and purpose of expropriation legislation.<\/p>\n

[5]\u00a0\u00a0Applying this approach, he found the words to be clear and unambiguous. He noted the Supreme Court\u2019s holding in\u00a0Toronto Area Transit Operating Authority v. Dell Holdings Ltd.<\/em>,\u00a0[1997] 1 S.C.R. 32\u00a0at 46,\u00a01997 CanLII 400 (SCC)<\/a>,\u00a01997 CanLII 400, that expropriation legislation (there the Ontario statute)\u00a0\u201cshould be read in a broad and purposive manner in order to comply with the aim of the Act to fully compensate a land owner whose property has been taken,\u201d\u00a0and observed that if accepted, the Crown\u2019s position could deprive a land owner of compensation. He interpreted the provision as expressly stating that no limitation period applies, so that\u00a0subsection 39(1)<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0Federal Courts Act<\/a><\/em>\u00a0does not incorporate Ontario limitations legislation by reference. He also took into account the decision of the Alberta Court of Appeal in\u00a0Calgary (City) v. Lafarge Canada Inc.<\/em>,\u00a01995 ABCA 313\u00a0(CanLII)<\/a>\u00a0at para. 15,\u00a0169 A.R. 363, in which the Court gave the same meaning to the phrase\u00a0\u201cat any time\u201d\u00a0as it appeared in Alberta expropriation legislation. He therefore determined that the action was not statute-barred.<\/p>\n

[6]\u00a0\u00a0In addition, the motion judge considered whether there is a discrepancy between the English text of\u00a0subparagraph 31(1)<\/a>(a<\/em>)(i), which uses the phrase\u00a0\u201cat any time after,\u201d\u00a0and the French text, which uses\u00a0\u201capr\u00e8s.\u201d\u00a0Relying on dictionary definitions, he concluded that there is no discrepancy: both texts convey the meaning of\u00a0\u201cwhatever time.\u201d\u00a0He therefore found it unnecessary to apply the rules, set out in\u00a0R. v. Daoust<\/em>,\u00a02004 SCC 6\u00a0(CanLII)<\/a>\u00a0at paras. 26-31,\u00a0[2004] 1 S.C.R. 217, that govern the interpretation of bilingual legislation where the two versions are discordant.<\/p>\n

[7]\u00a0\u00a0The Crown now appeals to this Court, submitting that the motion judge erred in interpreting\u00a0subparagraph 31(1)<\/a>(a<\/em>)(i) as providing that there is no limitation period, and in failing to interpret it as merely establishing the point after which an action for compensation may be commenced, subject to the limitation period incorporated by\u00a0subsection 39(1)<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0Federal Courts Act<\/a><\/em>. The issue of statutory interpretation raised by the appeal is an issue of law, subject to the correctness standard of appellate review.<\/p>\n

[8]\u00a0\u00a0In my view the conclusion of the motion judge was correct, substantially for the reasons that he gave. I will briefly address only one element of his reasons, as well as one aspect of the Crown\u2019s submissions in this Court that represents a change in position from that argued before the motion judge.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Canada v. Milne, the Federal Court of Appeal held that no limitation period applies to an action under s. 31(1)(a)(i) of the Expropriation Act: [3]\u00a0\u00a0The central issue before the motion judge was the proper interpretation of\u00a0subparagraph 31(1)(a)(i) of the\u00a0Expropriation Act\u00a0\u2013 whether it provides that there is no limitation period, and thus ousts the operation … Continue reading Federal: The limitation of actions under s. 31 of the Expropriation Act<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[496,498,475,445],"class_list":["post-832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-federal","tag-especially-arcane-corners-of-limitations-law","tag-expropriation-act-s-311ai","tag-expropriations","tag-federal-court-of-appeal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=832"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":834,"href":"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832\/revisions\/834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/limitations.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}