Neamsby Investments v. Ontario (Minister of Environment)

CITATION: Neamsby Investments v. Ontario (Minister of Environment), 2020 ONSC 4064

DIV COURT FILE NO.: 798/18

DATE: 20200630

SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE - DIVISIONAL COURT - ONTARIO

RE: Neamsby Investments v. Ontario (Minister of Environment)

BEFORE: D.L. Corbett J.

COUNSEL: Richard Butler and Julie Abouchar, for the Applicant

Isabelle O’Connor and Jon Bradbury, for Ontario (Min. Environment)

Brendan Van Niejenhuis and Caitlin Milne, for Region of Halton

CASE MANAGEMENT ENDORSEMENT

[1] This endorsement reflects events culminating in a case management teleconference conducted on May 27, 2020.

[2] The parties negotiated issues among themselves concerning the terms upon which the Region of Halton would be added as a party to the application on consent. On February 3, 2020, counsel for Region of Halton wrote to the court enclosing materials reflecting the parties’ consent, including a proposed draft order. That order included deadlines for exchange of materials and for a return date of the application for hearing before the court, with the dates left blank for the court to fix.

[3] By endorsement dated February 21, 2020, I granted the order adding Halton as a party. I declined to fix a schedule and return date for the application and instead directed:

The parties shall obtain a full [day] for the hearing from the Divisional Court office and agree upon a schedule which need not be included in an order.

If the parties need assistance with scheduling then they may arrange a teleconference with me through the Divisional Court office.

[4] The formal order adding Region of Halton as a party was provided to me for my signature by email on March 19, 2020, shortly after the suspension of ordinary court operations as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

[5] On May 27, 2020, the court conducted a case management teleconference to set a return date for hearing of the application. The parties agreed to a schedule for exchange of materials and to establish of a file sharing platform by August 7, 2020. If any difficulties should arise with these arrangements, then the parties may seek directions from the court – on consent, by email – not on consent, by further teleconference with an Administrative Judge of the Divisional Court.

[6] This application for judicial review of a decision by the Minister of the Environment, declining to grant the applicants’ request that the Region of Halton be required to complete a full Environmental Assessment, rather than rely on a Class Environmental Assessment, before proceeding with a roadworks project for which the Region is the proponent, shall proceed by ZOOM videoconference before a panel of three judges of the Divisional Court, on August 20, 2020, for an estimated 1.0 day. Counsel will be provided with log-in information for the videoconference by email closer to the return date. The hearing will be streamed on youtube so that members of the public may observe the proceedings.

[7] Neither counsel nor the court shall gown for the hearing. Counsel shall establish a password-protected download-only electronic drop box from which all case materials may be downloaded and shall provide the court with the URL and password by August 7, 2020. Any difficulties the parties have respecting the drop box may be addressed with Divisional Court staff.

(a) All documents shall be uploaded to the drop box in pdf format.

(b) Documents should be labelled in a manner that identifies them clearly for members of the panel so that it is not necessary to open the document to understand what it is. Pages should be numbered sequentially within each pdf. If this is not practical, given the current state of the documents, then individual documents should be uploaded to the drop box in pdf form, so that each document is clearly labelled, enabling the court to find documents quickly during the course of the hearing.

(c) Where possible, factums should contain hyperlinks for authorities and, if possible, hyperlinks to a “Factum Compendium”, described below.

(d) Books of authorities containing the full text of authorities should not be uploaded to the drop box. However, citations to cases in the factums are to provide, if possible, a hyperlink to the version of cases. The only exceptions to this principle are authorities not available on, such as excerpts from textbooks, foreign law, or Canadian decisions not reported on: these should be collected in a small brief of unreported authorities and filed electronically.

(e) Parties may file a “Factum Compendium” containing single pages or brief portions of cases cited, and brief portions of evidence from the record referenced in the factum, hyperlinked from the factum. Where portions of cases are included in a compendium, the title of proceedings and headnote should be included as well. Where portions of the record are included in a Factum Compendium, the first page of the document and identification of where it may be found in the record should also be provided. The only exceptions to this principle are authorities not available on, such as excerpts from textbooks, foreign law, or Canadian decisions not reported on: these should be collected in a brief of authorities and filed electronically.

(f) The parties shall file their agreement on the disposition of costs, or, if the parties have not agreed as to costs, then each party shall file its bill of costs and costs outline and any brief supporting materials relied upon in respect to costs.

(g) The parties shall file counsel sheets setting out the names of all counsel appearing on the record in the appeal, and indicating the time estimate for each counsel making oral submissions to the court.

(h) All parties are permitted to (but are not required to) file a factum compendium (described above) and a compendium for oral argument in addition to documents permitted under the Rules. As stated above, all materials for the application shall be in the drop box by August 7, 2020. Notwithstanding this direction, however, compendiums for oral argument, counsel sheets and costs materials may be placed in the drop by 12 noon, August 18, 2020.

[5] From my records it is not clear whether the order adding the Region of Halton as a party has been issued and entered: staff are not able to issue and enter orders during the suspension of ordinary court operations. The order is effective as of February 21, 2020, regardless of whether it has been issued and entered.

[6] The parties are required to file one paper copy of all materials provided on the application in the Toronto Divisional Court office after the resumption of ordinary operations, and to pay any applicable fees.

[7] The court has endorsed its fiat on this endorsement this day; the unsigned version distributed to the parties today has the authority and effect of the signed version, a copy of which will be provided to the parties in due course after the suspension of ordinary court operations is lifted.

D.L. Corbett J.

Date: June 29, 2020