On April 23, 2018, the British Columbia government introduced Bill 21, proposing a variety of amendments to the Class Proceeding Act, British Columbia's class action legislation.
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The primary focus of the proposed amendments is to change how non-residents of British Columbia are included in B.C. class proceedings and to introduce rules for handling multi-jurisdictional proceedings. The government based many of the proposed changes on the Uniform Law Conference of Canada's model Uniform Class Proceedings Act amendments of 2006. British Columbia now joins Alberta and Saskatchewan in following this model legislation.
On April 26, the Bill passed third reading without amendment. It will come into force on royal assent.
For a full discussion of these changes see our client alert available here: http://blg.com/en/News-And-Publications/Publication_5274