Readers know that from time-to-time, we like to cover the going’s on in the courts of our neighbors to the north. See here and here, for example. Although property rights are not a constitutional principle in Canada (the people did not include property as a fundamental constitutional right when the Constitution was amended last), there’s a lot for U.S. lawyers to learn from the way Canada law treats those from whom the government must expropriate property (either directly, or in what they call “de facto” or constructive takings (i.e., regulatory takings and inverse condemnation). In some ways, their system treats property owners slightly better than our constitutional system.
Well, here’s the latest in a case we’ve been following.
In St. John’s (City) v. Lynch, 2024 SCC 17 (May 10, 2024), the Supreme Court held that compensation in a de facto taking is calculated by excluding
