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    Public Interest Standing

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    ADVOCATE RAHUL SHARMA
    Behn challenges a city council resolution freezing salaries for elected officials by seeking judicial review. While he lacks private interest standing as a taxpayer, he argues he should be granted public interest standing. The city council objects that he fails to meet the requirements for public interest standing.

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    Public Interest Standing

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    ADVOCATE RAHUL SHARMA
    37 views2 pages
    Behn challenges a city council resolution freezing salaries for elected officials by seeking judicial review. While he lacks private interest standing as a taxpayer, he argues he should be granted public interest standing. The city council objects that he fails to meet the requirements for public interest standing.

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    Public-Interest-Standing (1)

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    Behn challenges a city council resolution freezing salaries for elected officials by seeking judicial review. While he lacks private interest standing as a taxpayer, he argues he should be granted public interest standing. The city council objects that he fails to meet the requirements for public interest standing.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    37 views2 pages

    Public Interest Standing

    Uploaded by

    ADVOCATE RAHUL SHARMA
    Behn challenges a city council resolution freezing salaries for elected officials by seeking judicial review. While he lacks private interest standing as a taxpayer, he argues he should be granted public interest standing. The city council objects that he fails to meet the requirements for public interest standing.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    CANADIAN ADMINISTRATIVE LAW – SAMPLE QUESTION AND ANSWER

    Session: Challenging Administrative Decisions

    Topic: Public Interest Standing

    Recommended time: 90 Minutes

    Score: 100 Marks

    Author: Manuel Akinshola

    Facts

    Behn resides in his own residential property in Edmonton City. He brings a challenge by way of
    judicial review against a recent resolution passed by the City Council which freezes the salary of
    the Mayor and Councillors for the next two years. This resolution follows recommendations
    made by the compensation committee which considered the economic uncertainty, soaring
    unemployment and steep drops in GDP outlooks across Edmonton arising from the Covid-19
    pandemic. The committee further recommended that at the end of the two years, the Mayor and
    Councillors were to receive the accumulated pay increase at 37 per cent interest under an
    independent formula-based system.

    Behn’s opposition to the resolution is grounded on the method the City Council adopted in
    approving the resolution. According to Behn, the recommendation ought to have been adopted
    by passing a bylaw to that effect, since the process of creating a bylaw is more robust and
    provides opportunity for public participation, debates, objections and comments before the bylaw
    is approved. He is of the belief that the issue of remuneration of the Mayor and councillors may
    affect his private pecuniary interests because as a home owner, he pays property tax which is one
    of the revenue used by the City Council in paying these remunerations. If the decision had come
    by process of a bylaw, it would have afforded him the opportunity to make inputs to the
    recommendation and make his objections known. On the other hand, a resolution does not
    provide any such opportunity for participation before its approval.
    Behn contends that he does have private interest standing to bring the application since he is a
    taxpayer and an elector in the municipality who will be directed affected by the resolution. But
    that if the court is of the opinion that he lacks the requisite private interest to challenge the
    resolution, he should be granted public interest standing to bring the challenge on the same basis.

    The City Council however raised objections to Behn’s challenge, on the grounds that Behn does
    not have any private interest standing to bring the challenge. The Council observed that the
    Resolution was made pursuant to the power delegated to the City Council by the Designation
    Bylaw that permits the subdelegation of the power to make resolutions to the Council.

    According to the Council, Behn has not shown that he has a private right that has been infringed
    by the resolution, or that the resolution will cause any special damage which extends beyond that
    suffered by the general populace in Edmonton. The Council argued further that Behn does not
    also show that he has met the requirements for the grant of a public interest standing and,
    therefore, his application should be dismissed.

    During arguments on the application, Behn conceded that he lacks private interest standing to
    bring the application, and therefore, relies on his alternative prayer to be granted public interest
    standing to challenge the resolution.

    Questions

    1) Which court, in your opinion, did Behn approach for judicial review?

    2) Does Behn meet the requirements for public interest standing?

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