Adventure Tours Inc. v. St. John’s Port Authority

In Miscellaneous Maritime Law Topics on (Updated )

The applicant wrote to the St. John’s Port Authority advising he wished to resume providing a tour boat service and inquiring whether a licence was required. The Authority wrote back advising that they had agreements in place with tour boat operators and were not accepting any further applications. The applicant brought an application for judicial review arguing that the Authority had no right to require him to obtain a licence. The Authority brought this motion to strike the application.

Decision: The motion to strike was allowed.

Held: The letter from the Authority did not attract rights of judicial review.

Comment: A second issue in the case was whether the Authority was a federal body exercising a public function and therefore subject to judicial review. Although the Court did not need to address this issue, it held that the Authority was a federal body exercising a public function.

Note: an Appeal from this decision was reportedly dismissed at 2013 FC 55 but we have not been able to locate the decision on the Federal Courts website or CanLii. The appeal decision is referenced in the related case, Adventure Tours Inc. v. St. John’s Port Authority, 2014 FC 420.