It more than sucks when you need to renew your registration over valuable rights but can't because of technical difficulties with the government's online registry. That is what happened to Ruth Carter in Valterra Resource Corp v British Columbia (Chief Gold Commissioner), 2013 BCSC 1172, when she tried to renew her mineral claims. In days of yore, mineral claims were established by being the first person to plant wooden stakes in the ground containing (one hoped) deposits of ore. Nowadays, BC has an online registry of mineral titles, which allows claims to be staked -- and renewed -- electronically. When the system works, that is. At the time Carter needed to renew her claims, the system was down and her registrations expired through no fault of her own. During their lapse, Valterra Resource and two individuals staked online claims over the tenures that had been Carter's. Carter requested the Chief Gold Commissioner (CGC) to reinstate her claims, which he eventually did. Valterra and the two individuals sought judicial review of that decision, arguing that the CGC exceed his jurisdiction or acted unreasonably.

Fitzpatrick J dismissed the petition. The CGC had the statutory jurisdiction to delete claims, not only for having been made in error (which was not the problem here) but also as part of his power to relieve a party against forfeiture of a claim (which was); his discretion to delete an intervening claim is wide and uncircumscribed. The CGC acted reasonably and in accordance with the purposes of the Mineral Tenure Act. Carter was not to be blamed for having waited until the eve of the renewal deadline, especially as she had paid 'substantial sums' to maintain her claims in the past -- not an irrelevant consideration, as the petitioners maintained. The CGC's reasons for decision were 'justifiable, transparent and intelligible'.

http://canlii.ca/en/bc/bcsc/doc/2013/2013bcsc1172/2013bcsc1172.html

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