NAFTA - Chapter 11 - Investment

Cases filed against the Government of Canada

J.M. Longyear v. Government of Canada

Claimant

J.M. Longyear, LLC is a United States corporation. It owns and controls J.M. Longyear Canada, ULC (“Longyear”), a company incorporated in Alberta, Canada. In 2011, Longyear acquired ownership in approximately 63,000 acres of forestry land in Ontario from another Canadian corporation, Domtar Inc. The lumber produced from the land is sold locally in Canada as well as in the US.

Articles

  • 1102 (National Treatment)
  • 1103 (Most Favoured Nation Treatment)

Damages claimed

$12 million CAD

Status

Withdrawn

Arbitration rules

UNCITRAL

Summary

Procedural history

J.M. Longyear filed a Notice of Intent to Submit a Claim to Arbitration on February 14, 2014, and a Notice of Arbitration on May 20, 2014.On June 26, 2015 the claimant withdrew its claim.

Factual overview and nature of the claim

The claim is related to the Ontario Managed Forest Tax Incentive Program (the “MFTIP”), a voluntary program administered by the Government of Ontario and designed to encourage landowner participation in natural resource stewardship on private forestlands in Ontario. Landowners who apply and qualify for the MFTIP have the eligible portion of their property classified and assessed as a Managed Forest under Ontario Regulation 282/98. Eligible land is taxed at 25 percent of the municipal tax rate set for residential properties, which represents a 75 percent tax reduction. However, to qualify for the MFTIP, the property must be owned by a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, or a corporation with more than 50 percent of its voting shares owned by Canadian citizens or permanent residents.

The Claimant alleged that the Government of Ontario’s unwillingness to accord the same property tax treatment under the MFTIP to Longyear was inconsistent with NAFTA Articles 1102 (National Treatment) and 1103 (Most Favoured Nation Treatment).

Legal documents (all documents are in pdf)

The documents have been posted in the language in which they were received by the government. The Government of Canada has not modified or changed them in any way. As such they have not been translated from the original. They are provided in Acrobat (pdf) files. To view or download pdf files you need Adobe® Acrobat® Reader™ a free software that you can download from the web.

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