Casual Legal: Inspecting the Scope of Section 530 of the MGA

By Breanne Schwanak
Reynolds Mirth Richards Farmer LLP
Alberta Municipalities Casual Legal Service Provider 

A recent case of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench considered the scope of the statutory immunity provided by section 530 of the Municipal Government Act (“MGA”). The issue arose when an individual attending a festival at a municipally operated park stepped on an in-ground sprinkler head and was injured.

The park in question hosted numerous events from May to September every year. A crew of municipal employees was tasked with checking and raising sprinkler heads. The crew did not check each individual sprinkler head regularly. Instead, the crew observed them generally in the regular course of their duties. Despite the high volume of foot traffic at  the festival, the municipality took no additional precautions.

At trial, the municipality denied it was negligent, and also argued the injured individual willingly accepted the risk of injury, or was otherwise contributorily negligent. The municipality further argued it was protected from liability for damages caused by its system of inspection and maintenance by the operation of section 530 of the MGA.

The trial judge determined the municipality had a positive duty under the Occupiers’ Liability Act (“OLA”) to address potential dangers on the premises, and had failed to take additional steps to ensure that the premises were reasonably safe. The trial judge did not agree that the injured individual willingly accepted the risk or was contributorily negligent. However, notwithstanding the finding that the municipality was negligent under the OLA, the trial judge held section 530 of the MGA gave the municipality immunity as the issue related to the matter of inspection and maintenance.

The injured individual appealed, arguing that section 527.2 of the MGA provides an alternate, independent source of liability that operates notwithstanding section 530. Section 527.2 states:

527.2 Subject to this and any other enactment, a municipality is not liable for damage caused by any thing done or not done by the municipality in accordance with the authority of this or any other enactment unless the cause of action is negligence or any other tort.

On appeal, the Court held that section 527.2 of the MGA simply states that, in order to bring a claim against a municipality acting in its authority, the claimant must be able to bring the action by way of negligence or another tort. However, when defending a claim in negligence, section 530 of the MGA can operate as a complete defence if the negligence stems from systems of maintenance or inspection. As the negligence arose as a result of the municipality failing to increase the rate of inspection in advance of the festival, section 530 of the MGA exempted the municipality from liability.

To access Alberta Municipalities Casual Legal Helpline, Alberta Municipalities members can call toll-free to 1-800-661-7673 or send an casuallegal [at] abmunis.ca (email) to reach the municipal legal experts at Reynolds Mirth Richards and Farmer LLP. For more information on the Casual Legal Service, please call 310-MUNI (6864) or send an riskcontrol [at] abmunis.ca (email) to speak to Alberta Municipalities Risk Management staff. Any Regular or Associate member of Alberta Municipalities can access the Casual Legal Service.

DISCLAIMER: This article is meant to provide information only and is not intended to provide legal advice. You should seek the advice of legal counsel to address your specific set of circumstances. Although every effort has been made to provide current and accurate information, changes to the law may cause the information in this article to be outdated.