Author Archives: Drew Yewchuk

About Drew Yewchuk

B.A. (UAlberta) J.D. (UCalgary) LLM (U.B.C.) Drew was a full-time staff lawyer with the University of Calgary's Public Interest Law Clinic from 2018-2022. He is now an PhD student at the Peter A. Allard School of Law. His research focuses on administrative secrecy, access to information law, species at risk, resource law, and environmental liabilities.

Right to Know Day: You Have the Right to Know That Access to Information in Alberta is Terrible

By: Drew Yewchuk

PDF Version: Right to Know Day: You Have the Right to Know That Access to Information in Alberta is Terrible

Statement Commented On: Right to Know Day: Minister Glubish, September 28, 2020 

Last Monday was apparently the beginning of ‘Right to Know Week’, “which aims to advance and celebrate the public’s right to access information from governments.” This is also the 25th anniversary of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, RSA 2000, c F-25 (FOIP). I have complained about the serious problems with FOIP before (here, here, here, and here). The timelines for record delivery are routinely ignored, absurdly high fees are charged for spurious reasons, the administrative review body is about a year behind, and the redactions are so vague and broadly worded that government bodies can hide almost whatever they want. In short, if the government wants to lie or cover something up, FOIP is an ineffective tool to stop them.

This post takes a lighter tone and discusses some of the hilarious abuses of FOIP I’ve seen from my work with the FOIP requests.

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The 2020/2021 Orphan Fund Levy and the Missing Consultation on Environmental Liability Management Reform

By: Drew Yewchuk

PDF Version: The 2020/2021 Orphan Fund Levy and the Missing Consultation on Environmental Liability Management Reform

Document Commented On: 2020/2021 Orphan Fund Levy Bulletin, Alberta Energy Regulator, September 10 2020

The Orphan Fund Levy is a levy imposed by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) on all holders of licensees or approvals issued by the AER. The levy is authorized by sections 72 to 75 of the Oil and Gas Conservation Act, RSA 2000, c O-6. The levy funds the work of the Orphan Well Association cleaning up oil and gas assets that have no solvent owners and no financial security set aside for their clean-up . The AER released a bulletin setting the 2020/2021 Orphan Fund Levy on September 10, 2020. The prescribed levy is $65 million for 2020/2021, up from $60 million in 2019/2020, $45 million in 2018/2019, and $30 million in 2017/2018 (when it was still collected in two parts).

The good news is that the Orphan Fund Levy is going up, which should help cover the substantial costs of cleaning up Alberta’s growing orphaned well inventory. The bad news is that in $3.4 million of the levy was not received in 2019 due to the insolvency of some operators (Orphan Well Association Annual Report, 2019). The ugly news is that, despite Alberta’s commitment to implement new regulations to significantly reduce the prospect of a growing inventory of orphan wells (see the announcement of April 17, 2020), and the provincial government’s press release of July 30, 2020 about of the new framework to manage oil and gas liabilities, there have yet to be any public details or public consultation on the design of the new liability management system. Alberta is drifting along with the old system despite acknowledging its massive problems.

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Offers to Settle and The Public Interest in Charter Litigation: Stewart v Toronto (Police Services Board), 2020 ONCA 460

By: Drew Yewchuk & Sarah Shibley

PDF Version: Offers To Settle and the Public Interest in Charter Litigation: Stewart v Toronto (Police Services Board), 2020 ONCA 460

Case Commented On:  Stewart v Toronto (Police Services Board), 2020 ONCA 460 (CanLII)

Stewart v Toronto (Police Services Board), 2020 ONCA 460 (CanLII) is a costs decision that concludes a ten-year legal battle about the power of police to stop and search protestors. Mr. Stewart was successful in obtaining a court decision that the Toronto Police Service (TPS) had violated the Charter by searching him without lawful justification and interfering with his freedom of speech. Despite his success, because of the Toronto Police Service’s $10,000 settlement offer to Mr. Stewart in 2017 and Ontario’s rules for litigation costs and offers to settle, it ultimately cost Mr. Stewart more than $60,000 to successfully enforce his constitutional rights. This post argues that the normal cost rules relating to offers to settle are ill suited to public interest litigation against government bodies.

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When Are the COVID-19 Related Changes and Suspensions to Albertan Law Scheduled to End?

By: Drew Yewchuk

PDF Version: When Are the COVID-19 Related Changes and Suspensions to Albertan Law Scheduled to End?

Decision Commented On: COVID-19 orders and legislation

A recurring theme of recent ABlawg posts is the difficulty in determining what legal authority is being used to make emergency-based changes to Alberta law due to COVID-19, and precisely what the changes are. This post is a variation on that theme, setting out the end dates set for a selection of COVID-19 related legal changes, and discussing how the end dates should be re-thought soon. Continue reading →

Governance and Accountability: Preconditions for Committing Public Funds to Orphan Wells and Facilities and Inactive Wells

By: Nigel Bankes, Shaun Fluker, Martin Olszynski and Drew Yewchuk

PDF Version: Governance and Accountability: Preconditions for Committing Public Funds to Orphan Wells and Facilities and Inactive Wells

Announcement commented on: Department of Finance Canada, Canada’s COVID-19 Economic Response Plan: New Support to Protect Canadian Jobs, April 17, 2020

As any resident of this province knows, the Alberta oil and gas sector’s problem of underfunded environmental liabilities has been growing for decades. On April 17, 2020, in response to the impact of both the COVID-19 pandemic and the Saudi/Russian price war, the federal government announced an injection of $1.7 billion of public funds to support the ‘clean up’ of inactive and orphan wells in Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. With respect to Alberta, $200 million will go to the Orphan Well Association as a loan to deal with orphan wells (i.e. wells that have no owner) while $1 billion will go to the Government of Alberta to deal with inactive wells (i.e. wells that are not producing but have not been properly closed and remediated).

The first part of this post examines the background to the Orphan Well Association and how it has moved from being an industry funded organization to the recipient of significant public funds. We suggest that this change in the source of funding is likely permanent and thus demands a complete rewrite of the governance structure for orphan wells in the interests of transparency and accountability. The second part of this post offers comments on the proposed program for inactive wells. This part of the post is shorter and more speculative because the announcement is remarkably vague and lacking in important details on this part of the program. Continue reading →