OUR PEOPLE

Bob has been a member of two provincial commissions: as counsel to the Select Committee of the Ontario Legislature on Taxation, and as commissioner on the Reville Commission, which dealt with schoolteacher/school board relations in Ontario.

Municipal Law and Real Estate Development

Bob acts for a number of municipalities in the Greater Toronto Area as well as a number of major shopping centres and land development companies across Ontario. He also maintains an active practice in the field of environmental assessment, having chaired the Canadian Urban Institute/Province of Ontario “Understanding Brownfields” Conference in September 2000. In November 2000, he was retained by the Province of Ontario to advise on urban economic development tools for the Province to stimulate urban economic redevelopment and infrastructure financing for Ontario municipalities, and in 2005 – 2006, he was retained as counsel to the Province in the development of the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, which plan subsequently won a number of international awards.

Bob is a director and the immediate past chairman of the Canadian Urban Institute. He was a founding director of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (1981-1988), and is a past director (Canadian Division) of the International Council of Shopping Centres, having served on the Canadian Division and as divisional chair for Government Relations for two terms (1973-1984, and 1993-2005). He serves on the Toronto Board of Trade’s Economic Development Committee, and is a member of Urban Land Institute.

International Trade

Since 1989 Bob has been involved in the emergence of the new states and new markets in Eastern Europe, particularly in the former Soviet Union. In October 1989, Bob led a 70-man delegation to Ukraine on a two-week trade mission, which included the Federal, Ontario and Alberta governments and covered 11 sectors of that country's economy. One month later, he attended the Inaugural Meeting of the Canada-USSR Business Council in Moscow as part of Prime Minister Mulroney's delegation, and he served as vice chairman of the Legislative Committee and a member of the Government Relations Committee of the Canada-USSR Business Council for two years.

In September 1991 he was one of three Canadians involved in the planning and execution of President Kravchuk's working state visit to Canada.

Bob has represented the Government of Ukraine in Canada on a number of trade and government matters. He acted for the Government of Ukraine in negotiating the printing of Ukraine's currency in Canada by the Canadian Bank Note Company and the subsequent establishment of printing operations in Kyiv, Ukraine. He and the Firm acted as counsel to the National Bank of Ukraine as well as the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Kyiv, which Chamber represents 1,200 of the major state industries in Ukraine. He was responsible for establishing the Smith Lyons' office in Kyiv. He and the Firm acted for the first major privatization in Ukraine in early 1993 involving the investment by a major British tobacco company in the leading cigarette company in Ukraine.

Bob is a founding director and the past president of the Canada Ukraine Chamber of Commerce, a Canadian organization whose membership includes most of the major Canadian companies doing business in Ukraine.

In 1997, Bob was appointed by President Kuchma to the Chamber of Independent Experts on Foreign Investment in Ukraine, a body that advised the President on foreign investment and foreign investment legislation, as well as act as a dispute resolution entity, where required.

Bob is also the chairman of the Canadian Chapter of the Canada Australia Chamber of Commerce, and acts for a number of Australian real estate and investment companies in Canada. He has led two trade missions to Australia in 2005 and 2007, which resulted in a substantial increase in two-way trade and investment business transactions, including the ING Australia purchase of Summit REIT for $4.2B.

In recognition of his work in Ukraine, President Yushchenko awarded Bob the Presidential Order of Merit of Ukraine in May 2008.