Fast Track - A Primer On North American Rail Transactions

Ontario commercial truck drivers with less than two years of heavy-truck experience must now pass a practical road test administered by Quebec's SAAQ before transferring their licence to operate heavy vehicles in the province. This new requirement follows fatal collisions and an Ontario Auditor General audit that exposed significant gaps in training standards and provider oversight. Carriers operating across the border need to factor these requirements into workforce planning, recruitment timelines, and dis

Ontario truck drivers with less than two years of commercial heavy vehicle experience must now pass a practical road test administered by Quebec's SAAQ before exchanging their license to drive commercial heavy vehicles in the province. This new requirement follows a series of collisions involving heavy trucks in Quebec and a May 2026 audit revealing significant gaps in Ontario's training standards and oversight of providers. Carriers operating across the Ontario-Quebec border must now factor these requireme

Une enquête récente a révélé une pratique consistant à autoriser à plusieurs reprises des transporteurs présentant des lacunes en matière de sécurité à participer au Programme des travailleurs étrangers temporaires...

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on September 15, 2026, that the federal government will open Canada’s four largest airports to private investment through long-term concession arrangements. Speaking at the inaugural investment summit, Prime Minister Carney outlined a vision to unlock new capital and operational expertise while retaining public ownership of the underlying land and assets.

Le gouvernement fédéral passe de l’examen de la privatisation d’aéroports à un engagement en ce sens.

This summer, the speed limit on sections of Highways 401 and 416 in eastern Ontario was increased to 110 km/h, followed by sections on other highways, including the QEW and Highways 400, 401, 402, 403, 416 and 417.

Notre bulletin du 29 avril 2025, Nouvelles normes en matière de conduite automobile : un aperçu de la gouvernance des véhicules autonomes et connectés[1], décrivait l'architecture réglementaire applicable aux véhicules autonomes et connectés (les « VAC ») au Canada, dans l'Union européenne et aux États-Unis, y compris les six niveaux d'automatisation de la Society of Automotive Engineers (la « SAE ») et le partage des compétences entre Transports Canada et les provinces.

Our April 29, 2025, bulletin, Driving New Standards: An Overview of Automated and Connected Vehicle Governance, outlined the regulatory framework governing connected and automated vehicles (“CAV” / “CAVs”) in Canada, the European Union, and the United States, including the SAE International’s Six Levels of Driving Automation and the division of jurisdiction over CAVs between Transport Canada and the provinces. Regulatory compliance, however, is only one piece of the puzzle.

As students across Ontario prepare to head back to school, our roads will once again become busier with school buses, young pedestrians, cyclists, and families making their way to and from school.

A recent Ontario Superior Court decision has struck down blanket confidentiality rules governing Canada's air passenger complaint resolution process, finding they violate constitutional freedom of expression. The ruling distinguishes between protected mediation communications and adjudicative records, requiring that decisions and orders issued by Complaint Resolution Officers be made public.

Canada is positioning itself as a premier destination for institutional investment through legislative reforms, accelerated regulatory approvals, and a new sovereign wealth fund. With ambitious plans to catalyze $1 trillion in investment over five years, the question remains whether Canada can execute major projects with the certainty and speed required to deliver returns that global investors demand.

The AI boom is creating unprecedented demand for GPUs, servers, power systems, cooling infrastructure, and other data center assets in Canada. As highlighted in the Equipment Lease & Finance Association’s (ELFA) recent article, as part of the data center “gold rush,” equipment finance has become a critical part of the capital stack supporting data center development, with lenders increasingly financing GPU-backed infrastructure and related technology assets. Canada’s cooler environment, expansive geography and access to abundant water and electricity in certain provinces, make the country a desirable location to build data centers.

The Canada Revenue Agency has issued new guidance on how non-profit organizations can manage accumulated surpluses and investment income while maintaining their tax-exempt status under the Income Tax Act. Meanwhile, the Department of Finance has proposed expanded reporting requirements that will significantly affect NPOs with annual revenues above $100,000 starting in 2027.

Canada has announced sweeping counter-tariffs ranging from 15% to 50% on approximately C$27.6 billion of US imports, effective September 8, 2026, in direct response to President Trump's 50% Section 338 tariffs on Canadian goods. The measures target key sectors including steel, aluminum, dairy, appliances, and electronics, while the federal government simultaneously rolls out C$7.5 billion in support for affected businesses and workers. Understanding whether products qualify as US goods under Canada's markin

The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario has implemented sweeping procedural changes to address its notorious backlog and accessibility concerns.

On August 17, 2026, the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) issued Decision 30732-D01-2026 in which it denied Synapse Real Estate Corp.’s (Synapse) application to build and operate a natural gas power plant in Olds, Alberta. Unusually, the decision was made without a hearing.

The US Department of Commerce’s recent imposition in mid-June of an export licensing requirement (since lifted at end of June for select US entities) on exports, reexports, and in-country transfers of Anthropic’s Claude Mythos 5 Model and Claude Fable 5 Model to all destinations worldwide and to “all foreign persons” is a stark reminder of how export controls may go beyond the control of physical goods and also apply to intangible goods such as software, AI models, or technology transfers in the cloud. More recent news about AI models going rogue and a proposed bipartisan “AI Kill Switch” bill introduced by two US congressmen foreshadow additional controls in the near future.

A recent Ontario Court of Appeal decision in Wigdor v. Facebook Canada Ltd. has dramatically altered the landscape for equity compensation plans in Canada. The ruling found that Restricted Stock Unit forfeiture provisions may violate Employment Standards Act minimum standards, resulting in a multi-million dollar damages award. Employers using RSUs or similar equity-based compensation must now reassess whether their plan documents comply with evolving judicial interpretations of statutory notice period prote

The Supreme Court of Canada has established a national test for spoliation and clarified how courts should remedy the destruction of evidence in litigation. While document preservation demands must be taken seriously, adverse inferences do not automatically entitle parties to maximum damages—courts retain discretion to craft remedies that fit the circumstances and must ensure inferences genuinely fill evidentiary gaps rather than merely conform to existing evidence.

A change of trustee is often treated as a routine administrative change rather than a taxable event. However, it can create important tax consequences, particularly where the trust owns corporate shares, the replacement trustee has contributed property to the trust, or trustee residency affects the trust’s tax residence.