| Bernd Walter, the newly appointed Chair of the B.C. Expropriation Compensation Board appeared today at an expropriation conference in Vancouver to share his insight into provincial government plans to abolish the Board and transfer its functions to the B.C. Supreme Court.
Walter informed the B.C. Expropriation Association Fall Conference that amendments to the Expropriation Act had received Third Reading on October 19th. However, the amendments will not take effect until a later date to be determined by the Attorney General.
Although Walter was not involved in the policy making process leading up to these developments, he had learned that there were a number of considerations leading to the changes. This included a significant drop in the number of applications to the Board during recent years and a concern that Board decisions were taking too long. In addition, by transferring the functions to the court there was an opportunity for the Ministry of Attorney General to trim approximately $600,000 from its annual budget. |
