The Province of British Columbia has recently amended the Administrative Tribunals Act and a number of other enactments, including the Agricultural Land Commission Act. We want to point out one aspect of these amendments – tribunal clustering.
In this regard, Part 3 of the Administrative Tribunals Act enables the Province, by regulation, to designate two or more tribunals as a cluster if the Province believes that the tribunals are likely to be more effective and efficient together than alone. When a cluster is created, the Province would appoint an executive chair to be responsible for the management and operation of the cluster. This executive chair will effectively replace the chairs of the individual tribunals in the cluster.
Among other tribunals, the ability to cluster applies to the Agricultural Land Commission ("ALC"). As such, by regulation, the Province could combine the ALC with one or more of the many other tribunals which the Province considers to be complimentary to the ALC's decision making. While there are no regulations setting up tribunal clusters at this time, the evolution of this concept may have significant (albeit, not necessarily negative) consequences for the operation of the ALC. For instance, it may expand what the ALC - as part of a tribunal cluster - considers as relevant economic, planning and cultural factors when making decisions in specified areas of the Province.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
