Ira Kagan
J.D., B.Sc., ICD.D | Founding Partner | Kagan Shastri LLP

Ira T. Kagan, Founding Partner of KAGAN SHASTRI LLP, is one of the leading municipal law lawyers in Ontario, having argued hundreds of cases at the Ontario Municipal Board and in all levels of courts in Ontario. He is often called upon to deal with the leading cases in Ontario.

Included in the 2018 Lexpert®/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada. Practice focuses on municipal law, land use planning law, development charges and expropriations. Represents a wide range of both private and public sector clients which have helped build numerous complete communities throughout Ontario.

Regular speaker at continuing legal education seminars. Published several articles including “But I do not want to be legal”, a leading article on legal non-conforming uses, which has been referred to in judicial decisions at all levels of court in Canada.

The Honourable Caroline Mulroney, Attorney General for Ontario

 

Denise Baker

Partner | WeirFoulds LLP

 

Denise Baker is a partner at WeirFoulds with a practice that focuses on municipal and land use planning issues and related litigation.

She has acted on behalf of municipalities, private landowners and resident groups. She advises landowners and municipalities with respect to land use planning and development matters including municipal finance matters, Planning Act applications and appeals and Heritage Act matters. Her practice also includes municipal licensing, Building Code Act and Provincial Offences Act matters.

Denise appears regularly before municipal councils, Committees of Adjustment, the Conservation Review Board, the Ontario Municipal Board as well as appearing before the Ontario Court of Justice and the Divisional Court. She is actively involved in using mediation and negotiation to effectively resolve disputes between parties.

Denise is the past Chair of the Municipal Law Section of the Ontario Bar Association and speaks at Law Society and Ontario Bar Association seminars.

Tom Hilditch

President, Savanta Inc., A GEI Company

 

Tom is an environmental professional with 38 years of experience in Environmental Assessment, Species at Risk and Natural Heritage Planning.

He has led a variety of environmental approvals projects in the Americas and Asia. Tom has worked on development approvals projects on thousands of hectares of urbanizing lands in the Greater Golden Horseshoe. He is well known in the GTA for his natural heritage approvals work with members of BILD.

Tom was recently reappointed (December 2018) by Order in Council to a second term as the Chair of the Committee on the Status of Species at Risk in Ontario (COSSARO). He served on the Species at Risk Program Advisory Committee (SARPAC) from 2008 to 2014, and on COSSARO since 2015.

 

Tom has extensive experience as a Technical Expert and Peer Reviewer and he has appeared as an Expert Witness on behalf of public and private sector clients in over 40 proceedings. He has spoken before national and international audiences, including: Wetlands International, INTECOL, International Association for Impact Assessment, Society of Wetland Scientists and the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects.

Mark R. Flowers

Partner | Davies Howe LLP

Mark is a partner of Davies Howe LLP and a member of the firm’s municipal, planning and land development law group. His practice involves all aspects of land use planning and development law.

Mark has assisted clients on a number of complex planning and development law files and has acted as lead counsel in a number of high-profile Ontario Municipal Board / Local Planning Appeal Tribunal hearings.

Mark regularly appears before the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal, the Toronto Local Appeal Body, and municipal councils and committees to advocate on behalf of the firm’s clients.

Mark has also appeared on numerous occasions before the Ontario Courts on a variety of municipal and planning law disputes, including the Ontario Court of Appeal, Divisional Court, the Superior Court of Justice, and the Ontario Court of Justice.

Mark articled with the City of Toronto Legal Department and was a solicitor with the Department’s Planning and Development Law section prior to joining Davies Howe in 2002.

Mark graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1999, where he was awarded the Robert W. Macaulay Scholarship in Land Use Planning Law, and was called to the Bar of Ontario in 2001. Before law school, Mark obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Urban Geography and a Master’s Degree in Urban Planning and Development, both from the University of Toronto.

Mark is a frequent speaker and contributor to continuing legal educations programs offered by the Law Society of Ontario and the Ontario Bar Association on a variety of municipal and planning law topics.

Mark has repeatedly been identified as a Leading Practitioner in Property Development Law in the Canadian Legal LEXPERT® Directory, as has been qualified by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice as an expert in municipal and planning law.

Mark is a former Chair of the Ontario Bar Association – Municipal Law Section.  He is also a member of the Urban Land Institute – Toronto, the Building Industry and Land Development Association, Lambda Alpha – Simcoe Chapter, and the Ontario Expropriation Association.

Matthew James Cory, MCIP, RPP, PLE, PMP

Principal, Planner, Land Economist, Project Manager | Malone Given Parsons

Matthew Cory is a Professional Planner, Land Economist, and Project Manager with Malone Given Parsons Limited. He works on all things land use planning-related and has specialized in implementing the Provincial Growth Plan over the past 14 years. Matthew and MGP have maintain GIS based mapping of land supply and produce analyses to track growth and the consumption of land in the GTHA.

Matthew frequently speaks at industry related events and guest lectures at various Universities on the long-term implications of the Growth Plan, and on the day-to-day implementation challenges in this fast growing region.

Matthew is responsible for guiding planning initiatives through municipal and regional approval processes. His work includes master planning and project management for landowner groups, growth management and policy creation for municipal clients, and the preparation and management of development applications for individual landowners. Matthew is familiar with best practices of sustainability in the planning process, smart growth and growth management techniques. His current research initiatives include the formulation of best practices and approaches to sustainability in the land use planning process.

 

Roslyn Houser

Partner | Goodmans LLP

Moderated by Ira Kagan, Kagan Shastri LLP

with:

Denise Baker, Tom Hilditch,Mark Flowers,  Matthew Cory and  Roslyn Houser