Sylvain Bélair

Sylvain Bélair is a Partner in the Montréal office, practicing in the firm's Administrative Law practice. He has been practising municipal planning and public administrative law for over 35 years, advising and representing owners, developers, promoters, and builders on all aspects of urban planning, including zoning by-laws, subdivision regulations, and building by-laws.

In matters of expropriation, he represents private owners facing property expropriation for projects of public interest, having handled hundreds of expropriation cases and appeared before the Tribunal administratif du Québec and the Superior Court. In municipal taxation, he challenges property assessments for office, commercial, and industrial buildings, generating substantial tax savings for clients. He also participates in the negotiation of development protocols and contests infrastructure taxes and tax basins.

Sylvain holds an LL.L. from the University of Montréal (1986). He participated in the drafting of the brief submitted by the Québec Bar as part of the reform of the Expropriation Act and made representations to the Parliamentary Commission leading to the adoption of Bill 22 in December 2023. Since 2018, he has been recognized by Chambers in zoning and land use planning, and since 2019, he has been listed in The Best Lawyers in Canada in Expropriation and Municipal Law.