UDI Seminar: Legal Update 2017

PAUL SULLIVAN'S SLIDE
HAYLEY HOWE'S NOTES

We are kicking off the new season with a breakfast seminar featuring updates to a few critical legal issues for developers:

• Empty Homes Tax (Vacancy Tax) 
• Property Tax
• Fraud Prevention & Fintrac
• Strata Property Act 

Mark Lewis of BLG will moderate this discussion as we explore these crucial matters with our distinguished panel.


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BIO

HAYLEY HOWE 
Hayley Howe is a Senior Manager in MNP's Vancouver Investigative and Forensic Services group. Hayley focuses on anti-money laundering / anti-terrorist financing (AML/ATF) Advisory Services, helping organizations reduce risk and stay in compliance. She has more than 20 years of management expertise in the financial services industry, with both money service business and banking experience at large global organizations. Prior to joining MNP, she was Director of Compliance, Canada and the Caribbean, for Western Union. She also served in various head office functions within the financial services sector, including acting head of anti-money laundering compliance for Canada for a large Schedule II bank. Hayley is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (CAMS) and a founding board member of the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) Vancouver Chapter. She is also a member of the Department of Finance's Public / Private Sector Advisory Committee on AML/ATF.

PAUL SULLIVAN
Paul Sullivan is a senior partner at Burgess Cawley Sullivan & Associates, will use recent case studies to review how developers can protect themselves from unnecessarily large tax bills stemming from both air space parcel subdivisions and ?split class? tax assessments. In 2010, Paul led UDI's Taxation Committee to successfully amend the regulation on vacant mixed-use development land. Prior to the amendment, mixed-use sites were often classified as 100% commercial; now, mixed-use may be considered 'split class'. However, recent appeals have revealed shortcomings with the wording in zoning bylaws that have resulted in higher property taxes being paid by developers. Paul will share his thoughts on how zoning bylaws should be written to take full advantage of the amendment.

ED WILSON
Ed practices in the real estate and municipal law fields with a specialty in real estate development. He has assisted clients in such projects as: redevelopment of industrial sites to permit multi-family residential uses; heritage designation and density bonusing arrangements; rezoning and redevelopment of shopping centres; development of office and industrial parks; development of numerous condominium projects; development and marketing of strata title hotels; restructuring of strata corporation bylaws; purchase of abandoned mining towns; development of mine sites; subdivision of pulp mills and saw mills; assisting municipalities on the redevelopment of downtown urban centres; and commercial lease negotiations for a wide variety of tenants and landlords. He is also one of the leading experts on strata corporation windups having completed a number of strata corporation windups as well as the first court approved windup in BC. Ed has been an active member of a number of committees over the years proposing changes to strata property law, including the BC Law Institute?s committee that recommended changes to the Strata Property Act that allows for more the flexible rules facilitating windups.  

MARK LEWIS
Mark Lewis is a partner in the Commercial Real Estate Group at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP.  His practice is principally focused on real estate development and transactions, with an emphasis on urban mixed-use, townhouse, seniors living and resort developments. His practice also includes commercial financing transactions, including private equity, participation and deposit protection insurance facilities.  Mark has written and spoken extensively on disclosure statement and other REDMA issues, and he is also a member of the Editorial Board for the Real Estate Development Practice Manual published by the Continuing Legal Education Society of BC.  He has been a UDI Board member, and has chaired UDI's Legal Issues Committee, since 2012.