Sunshine Village Corporation v. Attorney General of Canada, 2017 FC 846
Background
Overview
Where we began: Sunshine Village Corporation had general access right to the access road from Trans-Canada Highway, which it used for overflow parking for its ski resort. Parks Canada triggered a large avalanche that exceeded its runout boundaries and deposited 150m of debris on the Access Road in an area previously thought to be safe from avalanche risk. Shortly after the avalanche, the Parks Canada Superintendent prohibited Sunshine from using the access road for overflow parking. Sunshine sought an application for judicial review seeking to quash the decision of the Superintendent to prohibit parking on the access road.
Our approach: Judicial Review was the only remedy available to the client and we took steps to expedite the process and the hearing to meet the client’s seasonal deadline. That tactic was complemented by a strategy focusing on the failure of the Superintendent to decide taking into account on the key evidence of his own expert.
The result: The Court agreed with Field Law’s submission that the decision was unreasonable and not supported by the evidence that was before the Superintendent. The judge quashed the Superintendent’s decision and remitted the matter to the Superintendent to be decided anew and ordered that Sunshine have a full opportunity to be heard on the question of the provision of alternative parking.
