Canadian Lawyer

w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m O C T O B E R 2 0 1 5 11 Lemieux says during the good times the 25-35 age demographic of mainly male workers, many with a lot of money in their pock- ets and a taste to spend it, resulted in consider- able and highly lucrative work for Fort McMurray's (and Edmonton's) crimi- nal bar. There was talk, he recalls, of some criminal lawyers pulling in $40,000 a month in retainers. But with the oil crash, most of those well-paid workers vanished. For those who remained, there is no overtime and there is a lot less cash around. "The city has gone quiet," Lemieux says. "The lineups at Tim Hortons are shorter, there are no traffic jams on the highway." Things have also gone quiet in the criminal law business. Lemieux estimates files at his firm are down about 40 per cent. "People just don't have the money to make a retainer payment." If criminal law is hurting, so is cor- porate commercial and especially real estate law. Brosseau and Associates is an Edmonton-based firm with a Fort McMurray office and a long history of providing legal services to the communi- ty. Dorothy Brosseau practises with her father, Georges. She says he first started coming to Fort McMurray around 45 years ago "when the airport terminal was a mobile home." While Dorothy Brosseau says there is still a lot of matrimonial and wills-and- estates work, "real estate is slow, the mar- ket is soft." Her firm's real estate files are down more than 30 per cent. However, the economic downturn "has created a lot of [marriage] problems." As a result, matrimonial files are up sharply. Don Scott is an unabashed booster of Fort McMurray. The former regional councillor, former MLA, and one-time Alberta Conservative cabinet minister tells Canadian Lawyer right off the top of his interview: "You're not going to find a bigger believer than me in this region. There's a spirit here, people are resilient." After being defeated in this spring's elec- tion, Scott returned to his law practice. He is a well-known figure around town, with deep connections. The legal ser- vices offered by Don Scott Law Office include real estate, family, and corporate work. He also has a colleague in his office who does immigration. According to Scott, family and immi- gration matters are still busy. Real estate, however, is down, but it is not dead. He says people are consolidating and re- financing their mortgages so there is some work. He acknowledges, though, that times are tough, but adds, "if I was a young lawyer, I would be in Fort McMurray. This is still the best place for opportunities." Dango Gogo is the lawyer who han- dles a lot of the immigration matters in Scott's office. She says immigration is as strong as ever, "maybe even stronger." That is because many of her clients are in Canada on work permits that restrict them to working for one employer. If they are laid off, they have only 90 days to restore their status by obtaining an open work permit or beginning the process of applying for permanent residency. That means a lot of people, regard- less of their financial situa- tions, really need a lawyer. "When your choice is stay or go home, you find the money some- how," says Gogo. If the oil price collapse is hurting the whole Canadian economy, the epi- centre of the crunch is in Fort Murray. For those struggling law firms, Dorothy Brosseau, who over the last 35 years has seen it all before, has some advice. "When the market is like this, people get discouraged," she says, "but work hard, give good service, and you will do well. What goes up must come down, but what's down will once again go up." — GEOFF ELLWAND writerlaw@gmail.com C hanges to the British Columbia Workers Compensation Amendment Act, Bill 9, have come into effect this year with one more to follow in early 2016. They provide WorkSafeBC with broader powers, including the ability to remove individuals found using unsafe work practices from an industry. "The changes are quite extensive," says Vancouver occupational health and safety lawyer Lorna Pawluk. "But, we will probably not know the full impact of them until next summer." Pawluk, like others in the OH&S field, are taking a watch-and-wait position on how the WSBC board will exercise its new powers. The changes come with some industry concerns from lawyers who represent employers. Some have had an immediate impact. Employers must now file two acci- dent reports, she says. The company must investigate the incident, effect preventive measures, and file a report within 48 hours, withWSBC able to demand the report if requested. A more comprehensive review of the incident and remedial action must be carried out over the next 30 days with a report submitted to WSBC. "That's a substan- tial change," says Pawluk, as employers are now generating more reports. The types of incidents that require reports have not changed, however. WORKSAFEBC HEALTH AND SAFETY AMENDMENTS NOW IN EFFECT Continued on page 13 Dango Gogo Don Scott \ AT L A N T I C \ C E N T R A L \ W E S T REGIONAL WRAP-UP

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