Legal news and trends for Canadian in-house counsel and c-suite executives
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/1315099
www.canadianlawyermag.com/inhouse 7 BUSINESS NEWS Solutions said it had filed an application with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, arguing that provincial transit agency Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario weren't addressing the pandemic-related problems with the Eglington Crosstown project. CTS said COVID-19 had created unexpected issues such as absenteeism, supply-chain problems and subcontractors exceeding their budgets as they try to keep their workers safe. WSIB conducts pension plan conversion Ontario's Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and the Ontario Compensation Employees Union converted WSIB's $3.5-billion defined benefit, single-employer pension plan to a jointly sponsored pension plan that is now administered by an independent board of trustees. This SEPP to JSPP conversion is the first of its kind in Canada. The WSIB plan is now listed as a JSPP under the Pension Benefits Act, consistent with Ontario's largest pension funds, such as the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, the College of Applied Arts and Technology Pension Plan. Honda, General Motors sign deal to work on vehicles General Motors and Honda are moving toward an alliance in North America to share vehicle development and technology costs as the industry moves toward electric and autonomous vehicles. The nonbinding memorandum of understanding includes a plan to share vehicle underpinnings as well as engines and transmissions. It is another sign of increasing consolidation in the automotive business as companies face huge capital outlays to develop current products as well as battery-powered and self-driving vehicles. Canopy and Acreage implement amended arrangement Canopy Growth Corporation and Acreage Holdings, Inc. have implemented the previously announced amended arrangement under s. 288 of the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) involving Acreage and Canopy Growth. Pursuant to the amended arrangement, Acreage's articles were amended to create two new classes of shares, the "fixed shares" and "floating shares." Each existing Acreage share was exchanged for 0.7 of a fixed share and 0.3 of a floating share, with proportionate adjustments for Acreage's existing proportionate voting shares. Holders of Acreage shares and certain convertible securities also received approximately US$0.30 per share. Brookfield completes substantial issuer bid Brookfield Property Partners L.P. (BPY) announced on Sept. 2 the final results of its substantial issuer bid to purchase up to 74,166,670 of its limited-partnership units for a fixed cash price of US$12 per unit, which expired on Aug. 28. Under the offer, BPY took up and purchased for cancellation 35,499,518 units for an aggregate cost of approximately US$426 million. Brookfield Asset Management Inc. provided an equity commitment to BPY in order to provide funding for BPY to complete one or more repurchases of units for an aggregate amount up to US$1 billion. Consortium building Eglinton Crosstown takes government to court The consortium building a light-rail transit line across Toronto is taking the provincial government to court over alleged delays and cost overruns related to COVID-19. Crosslinx Transit CIBC welcomes Kikelomo Lawal CIBC has appointed Kikelomo Lawal as executive vice president and chief legal officer. Lawal has more than 20 total years of experience as a leader, as a trial lawyer and as a transactional lawyer. She previously held the title of chief legal officer, ombudsman and corporate secretary at Interac Corporation, where she worked for 12 years and led numerous workstreams to establish the organization as a fully integrated share capital corporation during its restructuring in 2018. In her new role, Lawal is a global leader for CIBC's legal, corporate secretary, ombudsman and privacy office functions and related policies and programs. KPMG appoints Rebecca Burrows as GC KPMG in Canada has appointed Rebecca Burrows as general counsel. Burrows brings more than 20 years of experience to this position. She has served as KPMG in Canada's assistant general counsel, litigation, since 2016. In her new role, she will lead the office of general counsel and have oversight of the firm's litigation, regulatory, contracting, governance and operations legal matters. She will also become a member of KPMG's global general counsel steering group and a member of the management committee for KPMG Law LLP. Prior to joining KPMG, Burrows was a litigation partner at Goodmans LLP.