Infrastructure Lawyers

We prepare requests for qualifications and requests for proposals for public authorities conducting competitive infrastructure procurements. The mandatory requirements, evaluation criteria, and reserved rights contained in these documents shape the procurement process and determine how subsequent complaints or challenges will be assessed.

We draft procurement documents with close attention to transparency, procedural integrity, and the practical record maintained by the evaluation committee. Our objective is to establish a process in which evaluation decisions can be explained and defended by reference to the published requirements and the documented assessment.

We advise provincial and municipal purchasers on their procurement obligations under the Canadian Free Trade Agreement and the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. Public authorities require procurement processes that comply with applicable thresholds, notice requirements, evaluation rules, and procedural obligations. Bidders require a clear understanding of whether an opportunity should have been open to them and whether the process was conducted in accordance with the applicable trade agreements. We review procurement structures for compliance and advise both purchasers and proponents on complaints and available remedies where procedural obligations may not have been met.

We review consortium proposals before submission to assess compliance with mandatory procurement requirements. Our work may include the financial model, technical submission, commercial response, prescribed forms, certifications, and supporting documentation. We examine the requirements in detail and distinguish between issues that may be clarified or waived and those that could render a proposal non-compliant. Where deficiencies can be addressed, we identify them early enough to allow the consortium to respond before the submission deadline.

We represent public authorities and proponents in disputes concerning the fairness and administration of infrastructure procurements. These matters may begin with a debrief request or fairness complaint and may proceed to formal challenge or court proceedings. The outcome often depends on the rights reserved in the procurement documents, the manner in which the evaluation was conducted, and the quality of the contemporaneous record. We assess the legal and procedural issues at an early stage, advise on proportionate resolution options, and prepare each matter with the discipline required for formal review where necessary.

We negotiate design-build-finance-operate-maintain and related project agreements, together with the schedules that contain much of their technical and commercial substance. These may include output specifications, payment mechanisms, performance regimes, change procedures, reporting obligations, relief events, default provisions, termination rights, and handback requirements.

A project agreement allocates risk across a term that may outlast many of the individuals involved in negotiating and signing it. We draft and negotiate those allocations so they remain clear to the people responsible for administering the contract throughout its operating life.

We advise on the preparation, interpretation, and application of availability-payment mechanisms. Our work includes performance deductions, unavailability events, service failures, indexation provisions, payment adjustments, and the contractual procedures governing payment disputes. Using operating data, performance records, and deduction notices, we assess whether a payment adjustment has been correctly calculated and applied. We seek to resolve issues through the contractual review process before disputed deductions accumulate or affect subsequent reporting periods.

We advise on handback requirements, residual-life standards, maintenance reserves, inspection procedures, condition surveys, and the evidence required to establish compliance at the end of a concession term. Handback issues often emerge well before the formal expiry date. The inspection regime, maintenance programme, and record-keeping practices established during the operating period may determine the parties’ positions years later. We help clients identify and preserve the relevant evidence early, reducing the risk that end-of-term obligations must be assessed through incomplete or outdated project records.

We negotiate interface agreements between concessionaires and the operators, utilities, railways, municipalities, and other parties whose assets or activities interact with a project. We also advise on direct agreements among authorities, project companies, lenders, contractors, and key counterparties. Lenders require appropriate notice and cure rights before termination. Public authorities require step-in and control mechanisms that protect the continuity and integrity of the asset. We align these arrangements so that the rights and remedies under one agreement do not unintentionally conflict with those established under another.

We represent proponents throughout the environmental assessment process under British Columbia’s Environmental Assessment Act. Our work may begin with the initial project description and continue through effects assessment, consultation, information requests, the preparation of proposed certificate conditions, and the ministers’ decision. An environmental assessment certificate is a prerequisite for designated projects, and its conditions may govern the project throughout construction and operation. We help develop conditions that are clear, capable of implementation, and appropriately reflected in the project’s construction, financing, and operating arrangements.

We advise on projects that engage both provincial and federal review processes. This may involve coordination between the British Columbia environmental assessment process, the federal Impact Assessment Act, and, for pipelines or interprovincial infrastructure, the Canadian Energy Regulator. We assess the jurisdictional and evidentiary requirements of each process, identify opportunities for coordination, and seek to establish a coherent record that can support multiple reviews without unnecessary duplication.

We advise on the permits and operating authorizations required in addition to an environmental assessment certificate. These may include water licences and change approvals under the Water Sustainability Act, Land Act tenures, municipal permits, provincial authorizations, and other project-specific approvals. Each authorization carries its own application requirements, conditions, decision-making process, and potential appeal route. We assist clients in sequencing applications so that outstanding approvals do not delay financing, construction, or operational milestones already established under the project agreement.

We advise proponents and Indigenous governing bodies on consultation, accommodation, project participation, decision-making arrangements, and impact benefit agreements. Our work may include advice concerning consultation obligations, agreements under section 7 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, and commercial arrangements intended to support long-term participation in a project. Proponents require consultation and decision-making records that can withstand legal and regulatory scrutiny. Indigenous governing bodies require agreements that clearly define commitments, benefits, governance, implementation, and accountability over the life of the project. We act for clients on either side of these arrangements and prepare terms that state each party’s responsibilities with precision.

We represent clients in proceedings before the British Columbia Utilities Commission. Our work includes applications for certificates of public convenience and necessity under section 45 of the Utilities Commission Act, rate applications, energy supply approvals, and related regulatory matters.

A certificate of public convenience and necessity may determine what infrastructure a utility is permitted to construct and which costs may ultimately be recovered from ratepayers. We assist clients in developing the evidentiary record, preparing submissions, responding to information requests, and examining the technical and economic evidence before the Commission.

We draft and review power purchase agreements, offtake arrangements, and related credit-support instruments. We assess the revenue provisions against the project’s expected generation profile, operating obligations, financing requirements, and debt-service covenants. This analysis allows the parties to identify commercial or contractual gaps before they become issues during lender due diligence or financial close.

We advise generation, transmission, and storage projects on interconnection agreements, system impact studies, transmission access, cost allocation, construction responsibilities, and curtailment provisions. Developers require sufficient certainty regarding connection timing and cost to support financing and construction. Utilities require arrangements that preserve system reliability, operational control, and the interests of existing customers. We act for clients on either side of these negotiations and work to resolve the key commercial and technical terms before construction commitments are made.

We prepare and register statutory rights of way, easements, and covenants for infrastructure crossing private and Crown land. We review design drawings, construction requirements, maintenance plans, access needs, and anticipated future use to determine the appropriate width, depth, rights, restrictions, and operating provisions. Our objective is to create land rights that support the infrastructure throughout its expected life, rather than addressing only the works proposed at the time of registration.

We advise on the assembly of infrastructure corridors through licences of occupation, rights of way, and other tenures under the Land Act, including sections 39 and 40. We act for clients seeking to assemble corridors and for parties whose existing lands or tenures may be affected by proposed infrastructure. The terms governing access, compensation, construction, maintenance, restoration, and future use are often negotiated well before any compulsory process is considered. We assist clients in reaching durable agreements and advise on the applicable statutory mechanisms where agreement cannot be achieved.

We negotiate servicing agreements, latecomer agreements, development cost charge arrangements, and related municipal infrastructure terms. These agreements frequently concern works that a municipality or regional district will eventually assume and operate.

The timing and conditions of assumption determine who bears responsibility for warranties, security, maintenance, deficiencies, and operating risk during the interim period. We seek to establish clear assumption requirements and security-release mechanisms before construction begins.

We bring and defend claims arising under project agreements, including claims concerning relief events, compensation events, variations, extensions of time, performance failures, and disputed deductions. A concessionaire must satisfy contractual notice and substantiation requirements. A public authority must determine whether the alleged event falls within the definitions and risk allocations agreed by the parties. We assess procedural compliance and substantive entitlement together. A commercially significant claim may be compromised by a missed notice period, an incomplete record, or a failure to follow the required contractual process.

We represent clients in project-agreement arbitrations, dispute board proceedings, mediations, and court proceedings where permitted by the contract. Infrastructure agreements commonly establish a staged dispute-resolution process that may require negotiation between senior representatives before referral to a dispute board, mediation, arbitration, or litigation. We examine the dispute-resolution framework at the outset and prepare the matter for the stage at which a binding or commercially satisfactory resolution is most likely to be achieved.

We challenge and defend regulatory and administrative decisions through judicial review. These matters may include environmental assessment decisions, permit refusals, commission orders, and other exercises of statutory authority. We begin with the decision-maker’s record and reasons, then assess whether the proposed challenge concerns procedural fairness, jurisdiction, or the reasonableness of the decision. We also advise on the broader project consequences of judicial review, including timing, regulatory relationships, financing implications, and potential delay.