And over on Cambie Street...

Some of the businesses hit hard by Canada Line construction are today, one would assume, breathing a sigh of relief thanks to Susan Heyes' court victory.

There was a modest line of business owners queued up behind her, waiting to see how her court battle against the Canada Line crew played out, as I write in my story below.

"It's fair to say," said lawyer Joseph Arvay, who wants to bring a class action suit before the same court that awarded Heyes $600,000, "we are delighted with the decision."

It's hard to say exactly what the B.C. Supreme Court decision will have on future major public projects. Even a bit of road work, after all, has some impact on the surrounding community. Can TransLink lay tracks for the Evergreen Line without pissing at least one person off?

The worst-case scenario, those prone to such projections have suggested, would be that city residents and businesses will sue everytime the city digs up a sewer.

But clearly the court decision doesn't go nearly that far. Justice Ian Pitfield, after all, dismissed claims against the City of Vancouver, technical owners of Cambie Street.

"The city did not know, and could not reasonably be expected to have known, that its property would be used ... in a manner that would cause a nuisance," Pitfield wrote.

"Likewise, there is no evidence that, once the project was underway and the fact that it would cause a nuisance was known, the city had the capacity to terminate the access agreement in order to stop construction."

Pitfield clearly zeroed in on the controversial "cut-and-cover" construction method used to build the section of the Canada Line along Cambie Village. The builders had other options, after all, the judge notes.

In any case, clearly the decision has told government that the occasional public announcements and the "shop the line" ad campaign were inadequate as mitigation methods for local businesses. Heyes and other businesses wanted to see monetary help - cash grants, relocation funds, no-interest loans - that weren't forthcoming in 2005. I'm thinking planners might be looking a bit harder at their mitigation budgets for future projects before any ground on Broadway, to pick a main thoroughfare, gets dug up.

Anywho, here's Justice Pitfield's decision for your viewing pleasure. And, my story:

A former Cambie Street merchant’s successful lawsuit over Canada Line construction could bore a tunnel straight to the courts for other businesses hit hard by fallout from the massive rapid transit project.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge awarded Susan Heyes $600,000 in damages due to business losses from construction of the Canada Line in a decision released Wednesday. Lawyer Joseph Arvay thinks the result will only benefit his clients, who are proposing a class action lawsuit on behalf of all Cambie Street merchants.

"[The decision] affects it profoundly," said Arvay, who estimated he could be representing several hundred businesses. “If [Heyes] was successful, then all my clients will likely be successful.”

The lawsuit has already been filed, but it has yet to be certified as a class action, where multiple plaintiffs with similar claims are represented in the same case.

"We’re in the process of deciding what we’re going to do," Arvay said. "But it’s fair to say we are delighted with the decision."

Heyes, who moved her Hazel & Co. store to Main Street earlier this year, was no less thrilled with her victory.

"This is a long time coming," Heyes said of her four-year "nightmare," which, she says, saw her lose $900,000 in revenue due to the construction.

In his decision, Justice Ian Pitfield ruled that the controversial "cut-and-cover" method used to build parts of the project was "the sole cause" of Heyes’ losses. The original plan had been to build the section through Cambie Village using a less disruptive tunnel boring method.

"The indisputable fact which I find on the evidence in this case is that the use of cut-and-cover construction was endorsed because it was cheaper and … reduced cost by more than $400 million," Pitfield wrote.

"The reduction in cost was achieved by imposing an unacceptable burden on Hazel & Co. A loss of more than $500,000 over four years resulting from the decline in sales and the reduction of approximately 50 per cent in gross profit caused solely by cut and cover construction, cannot be regarded as a tolerable or acceptable burden which should be absorbed by Hazel & Co. as its contribution to the realization of a project of general public utility."

The trial, staged earlier this spring, featured testimony from former B.C. Liberal MLA Carole Taylor, who told the court she was surprised at how "disruptive" construction of the mega-project turned out to be for local merchants.

But she said she felt the province had been powerless to intervene. The former cabinet minister said she felt further handcuffed by a public-private partnership agreement that placed control in the hands of TransLink and the building consortium, Canada Line Rapid Transit Co.

It appeared Pitfield agreed.

While heaving blame for the construction “nuisance” on TransLink, its subsidiary Canada Line Rapid Transit Inc. (CLCO) and the private consortium set up to build and operate the line, InTransitBC, Pitfield ruled the government of Canada and the Attorney General of B.C. weren’t liable since they weren’t technically "partners" in the project despite having funded it.

In other words, the public-private partnership was a partnership in name only.

"Neither was entitled to interest on their contribution, nor to a share of revenue or profit from the operation of the line. Neither is obliged to contribute to any operating loss that might be incurred in the future. In sum, neither was a partner in the legal sense of the word."

And the City of Vancouver, as property owner, was spared as well, with Pitfield ruling the city couldn’t have known its property would be used "in a manner that would cause a nuisance."

It's not yet clear whether the decision will be appealed. In a statement, lawyers for CLCO said they were still reviewing the decision.

"It will take some time to review the judgment in detail," CLCO lawyer George Macintosh said in a prepared statement.

"Once we have done that we will consider the options available to us."

For her part, Heyes said the entire ordeal could have been avoided had the government and the consortium in charge of building the Canada Line helped offset business losses in the very beginning.

"They had so many opportunities to do the right thing and they didn’t," Heyes said.

"It’s really gratifying to know that you can take a stand like this and be rewarded for standing up for yourself and standing up for your community."

Carole Taylor: Not a fan of Canada Line P3

Former B.C. Finance Minister Carole Taylor says she was surprised by how “disruptive” construction of the Canada Line rapid transit project was to local merchants, but felt the provincial government was powerless to intervene.

It’s part of testimony Wednesday from Taylor, the B.C. Liberal MLA for Vancouver-Langara during the peak of construction along Cambie Street, at a small business owner’s lawsuit against the proponents of the rapid transit project.

Taylor said construction outside her former constituency office at 41st Ave and Cambie lasted longer than two years.

"It was far more disruptive than anyone had anticipated," Taylor said.

The former MLA insisted she tried to broker communication between struggling business owners, TransLink and the private consortium building the Canada Line, but her efforts weren’t “very successful."

Taylor said the province never sought to compensate the business owners, insisting TransLink had control of the project. And the minister was further handcuffed by a public-private partnership, or P3, agreement that, she said, placed control in the hands of TransLink and the Canada Line Rapid Transit Co.

"This particular model of P3 really concerned me," Taylor said, adding that the model saw the province holding the purse strings but none of the say on the project.

"The government gets all the blame," she said.

"I would say that this particular P3 model is not one that makes me feel very comfortable."

Taylor was the first witness called in a trial brought forth by small business owner Susan Heyes, who claims her former Cambie-based business, Hazel & Co., lost $900,000 in gross profit as a result of the Canada Line’s controversial cut-and-cover construction method.

"This case," her lawyer Cameron Ward told the court, "is about a small business that was crushed and financially devastated by the irresponsible and the wrongful actions of big business and big government."

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, who formerly advocated for Cambie merchants as an NDP MLA but now leads the city named as a defendant in the lawsuit, is expected to testify on Monday.