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Regulatory resets and administrative justice interventions

Stalled Permits & Appeals

For files that have been open too long, and refusals you have 30 days to answer.

Tell us where the file is at

We reply within one business day, sooner if you’ve been refused.

Project reviews and layout drawings are compiled using the best physical evidence available on-site and from official registry baselines. Formal legal boundary staking remains subject to a certified Real Property Report (RPR) executed by a licensed Saskatchewan Land Surveyor.

  • Licensed Professional Engineer (P.Eng.)
  • Years of Development Appeals Board experience
  • Based in Saskatoon, serving Saskatchewan and Alberta
  • Fixed scope, no retainer

Sound familiar?

  • Application open for months, no decision.

    Not refused, not approved, and nobody can say what’s outstanding. We rebuild the record so the file can move again.

  • Told to meet a standard nobody can point to.

    A requirement gets cited that isn’t written anywhere. We confirm what the rules actually say, in writing, with the authority that has jurisdiction.

  • Review paused over someone else’s concern.

    A third party with no authority over the file raises an objection and technical review stops. We settle the technical questions so the file can be decided on its merits.

Refusal letter in hand. Under Section 219 of The Planning and Development Act, 2007, you have 30 days to appeal. Send us the letter today and we’ll respond the same business day.

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No decision is still a cost

A refusal you can respond to. You get a reason, and the reason points at something you can fix or appeal. An open file with no decision gives you neither. Carrying costs run. Financing windows close. The contractor you booked for spring takes other work.

What makes it harder is that the requirements often keep moving. A standard gets cited that isn’t written anywhere. A third party with no authority over the file raises a concern, and technical review pauses for it. In administrative law, an unreasonable delay on a complete application is called a constructive refusal, and it’s a real thing you can act on.

Most of the time the file just needs both.

File been open for months, or just refused?

Let’s find out where it actually stands.

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How we can help

Some applications don’t get refused. They just stay open. Review gets paused over a concern raised by someone outside the process. A deadline arrives without anyone saying what would satisfy it. Correspondence piles up until nobody, on either side, can say what the current position is.

Others do get refused, and a refusal starts a clock. Under Section 219 of The Planning and Development Act, 2007, you have 30 days to appeal.

In both cases we start with the record. We go through the correspondence and rebuild the timeline, so everyone is working from the same account of what happened. Then we deal with the technical objections. Whatever deficiency has been raised, we resolve it and seal the result, so the physical facts of the project are settled as certified engineering rather than something to keep debating.

The aim is a decision, not a fight. Once the technical questions are closed and on the record, what’s left is a clear question the municipality can answer: approve it, or set out in writing which requirement it doesn’t meet. If it goes to the Development Appeals Board or the Saskatchewan Municipal Board, we prepare the appeal brief and represent the technical case.

How we help

Getting to a decision

Three things usually unstick a file: a legible record, a sealed technical position, and a clearly stated question.

  • Make the process visible again

    Timeline reconstruction

    We work through the correspondence and rebuild the factual sequence into a chronological record, so the file can be discussed without anyone reconstructing it from memory.

  • Settle what’s actually true

    Sealed technical baseline

    Alleged deficiencies resolved and certified. Sealed Issued for Construction drawings and control documents fix the project’s physical constraints as fact.

  • When a refusal needs answering

    Appeal brief

    A technically complete package and a plain-language summary, prepared for the Development Appeals Board or the Saskatchewan Municipal Board within the 30-day window.

The process

How it goes, step by step

Five steps, in the order they happen. If you’ve been refused, step one starts the same business day.

  1. The timeline, in order

    Rebuild the record

    Daily correspondence filtered into a chronological administrative record, so the process is legible again to everyone involved.

  2. Confirm with the right authority

    Verify locally

    Objective confirmation from the local authorities having jurisdiction, such as the environmental protection officer or fire inspector, so the file rests on stated requirements.

  3. Centralize the file

    One version

    A single controlled record, which removes the contradictions that build up when a file lives across several inboxes.

  4. Certify the facts

    Seal the baseline

    Issued for Construction drawings, site layout plans and control documents sealed by a P.Eng., fixing the physical constraints as certified engineering.

  5. Ask the clear question

    The decision

    A complete, technically settled application that leaves one decision to be made and written down, or an appeal brief if the file has already been refused.

What to send us

  • Every letter and email between you and the municipality, in whatever order you have them
  • The refusal notice (Form B), if you’ve received one
  • Your current drawings and anything already submitted
  • Any letters from third parties that were raised during review

Don’t sort it first. Rebuilding the timeline is step one, and it’s ours.

Request an Inspection

We reply within one business day, sooner if you’ve been refused.

What comes back

A settled file and a clear question, in writing.

  • Chronological administrative record: the whole history of the file in one sequence, so it can be discussed without anyone reconstructing it from memory

  • Sealed technical baseline: Issued for Construction drawings and control documents with a P.Eng. seal, fixing the physical facts

  • Completed submission or appeal brief: with a plain-language executive summary, ready for the municipality or the appeal board

If a lawyer is needed later, they start from an organized record instead of billing hours to work out the engineering.

Sample layout

Fixed scope, no retainer

One reset. One clear question. Then a decision.

The scope is set before we start and the engagement ends when the completed package or the appeal brief is in your hands. There’s no retainer and no monthly billing. If the file goes to a hearing, representing the technical case is a defined piece of work, priced before it starts.

FAQ

Questions we get about this

evan.reekie@rdc.bdes.io

When technical review gets paused to accommodate a concern from someone outside the process, when you’re given a firm deadline without being told what would satisfy it, or the day a refusal notice arrives. That last one starts a 30-day appeal window, so sooner is better.

No. We act as professional engineering counsel. Our job is to establish the technical reality of the site and close out every engineering question, so that anything still holding the file up is clearly administrative rather than technical. If you do need a lawyer, for a judicial review for example, they receive an organized evidentiary record and can start immediately instead of billing hours to work out the engineering.

In administrative law, an unreasonable delay in deciding a complete application counts as a refusal. We build a certified submission history, including sealed drawings and local clearances, that shows the application is complete and every requirement has been met.

That isn’t how we work it. The process is restorative rather than adversarial. We’re after a clear decision and a fair procedure, and most of the time a clean record and a settled technical position get there without conflict.

A technically complete submission package or a formal appeal brief, plus a plain-language executive summary. Together they form a certified record of the file and a defined path to a final decision.

Next step

Start with where it actually stands

Get the file moving

Send us the correspondence, the drawings, and the refusal letter if there is one. We’ll tell you what’s outstanding and what it takes to close it.

Request an Inspection

We reply within one business day, sooner if you’ve been refused.

Same-day reply on refusals.

Request an Inspection