Author: Nigel Bankes Page 35 of 89

Nigel Bankes is emeritus professor of law at the University of Calgary. Prior to his retirement in June 2021 Nigel held the chair in natural resources law in the Faculty of Law.

Court Confirms that Good Faith Fulfilment of Modern Treaties is Essential to the Project of Reconciliation

By Nigel Bankes

On December 14, 2017

In Aboriginal

By: Nigel Bankes

PDF Version: Court Confirms that Good Faith Fulfilment of Modern Treaties is Essential to the Project of Reconciliation

Case Commented On: First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun v Yukon, 2017 SCC 58 (CanLII)

In this unanimous decision authored by Justice Karakatsanis, the Supreme Court of Canada confirmed what seems like an obvious proposition, namely that good faith fulfilment of modern treaties is a necessary condition for the project of reconciliation. The Court concluded that the land use planning process established by the Yukon Final Agreements permitted Yukon to modify a Recommended Final Plan (in this case the Peel Watershed Regional Land Use Plan), but that the power to modify did not include the power to change a Plan “so significantly as to effectively reject it” (at para 39). More specifically, Yukon’s power to modify was confined by the scope of the issues that it had raised during the planning process; it could not raise significant new issues although it could respond to changing circumstances. As a result, Yukon’s purported approval of the Plan was invalid (at para 35).

The False Security of Commingled Trust Accounts

By Nigel Bankes

On December 8, 2017

In Bankruptcy and Insolvency, Oil & Gas

By: Nigel Bankes

PDF Version: The False Security of Commingled Trust Accounts

Case Commented On: Alberta Treasury Branches v Exall Energy Corporation, 2017 ABQB 602 (CanLII)

Working interest owners in the western sedimentary basin have long sought to have the best of both worlds: the convenience of allowing an operator to commingle joint account monies from multiple properties in a single general account, while offering (through the provisions of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Landmen (CAPL) operating procedures) the contractual assurance to non-operators that their funds were impressed with a trust while in that commingled account. The weakness of such an assurance is that its underlying premise is that the operator will always have a balance in that commingled general account equal to or greater than the amounts represented by the “monies of the joint operator”, whether those monies are monies contributed by a joint operator to fund joint operations or whether they represent monies received by the operator on account of the sale of a joint operator’s share of production. If that premise turns out not to be the case then a joint operator’s proprietary claim evaporates. The premise of course is most likely to be false when the operator is in financial difficulty – the precise point in time when a joint operator would like to have access to a proprietary remedy.

PPA Terminations and the AESO Tariff

By Nigel Bankes

On November 30, 2017

In Utility Regulation

By: Nigel Bankes

PDF Version: PPA Terminations and the AESO Tariff

Matter Commented On: Application from the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) to the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) requesting legal determinations by the AUC under Section 8 of the Alberta Utilities Commission Act with respect to system access service for generation from the Keephills facilities, November 24, 2017

The complicated issues surrounding the termination of Power Purchase Arrangements (PPAs) are about to get a lot more complicated. Justice Horner’s decision mandating the Balancing Pool to complete its assessment and verification of ENMAX’s notice of termination (delivered May 5, 2016) of its Keephills PPA (see ENMAX PPA Management Inc v Balancing Pool, 2017 ABQB 718 (CanLII) and my post on that decision here) has triggered an application by the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) to the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) to have the AUC decide certain questions of law so as to assist the AESO in ensuring the continuation of an appropriate legal framework within which the Keephills facilities will continue to supply power to the Alberta Interconnected System (AIES).

Balancing Pool Must Fulfil its Statutory Obligations

By Nigel Bankes

On November 24, 2017

In Oil & Gas

By: Nigel Bankes

PDF Version: Balancing Pool Must Fulfil its Statutory Obligations

Case Commented On: ENMAX PPA Management Inc v Balancing Pool, 2017 ABQB 718 (CanLII)

In this decision Justice Karen Horner has directed the Balancing Pool (BP) to fulfil its statutory obligations and reach a decision as to whether ENMAX had validly terminated its Keephills Power Purchase Arrangement (PPA) on the basis of the change of law clause in the PPA.