Author: Nigel Bankes Page 41 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.

Several years ago now, ABlawg published a series of posts that were critical of the failure of the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) and its predecessor the Energy Resources Conservation Board to publish its letter decisions in a systematic way: see here, here and here. Whether in response to that criticism, or for its own good reasons, the AER began posting what it refers to as participatory/procedural decisions (presumably a sub-set of a broader category of letter decisions) in the fall of 2015. When this venture began, the decisions were simply listed with no attached descriptor whatsoever. Now the AER does provide a brief description of the matter at hand but it is still a laborious task to click and retrieve each document and assess its significance.

Having asked the AER to provide this information it accordingly seemed appropriate to try and present it in a more usable and accessible form. Hence this project. The project has three steps. Step one is to provide a digest of each decision. Given the number of these decisions (already over 170) we have not attempted to synthesise or précis these decisions, rather the exercise has been more of a cut-and-paste job hewing closely to the AER’s actual text. We have added key words which are listed below. There is no additional commentary. The result of that exercise has been collated into a PDF document which is available here and is fully searchable. Step two will be to present this information as a set of web-pages. That is a work in progress. Step three will be to write what we anticipate will become a short annual survey of these decisions, assessing trends and perhaps highlighting some of the more important decisions. That too is a work in progress. It goes without saying that while step one is complete until the end of January 2017 we also aim to populate it with new decisions from time to time.

David Rennie (JD 2017) began this work as a summer student in 2016 preparing digests of the first 85 decisions and Amy Matychuk (JD 2018), also a summer student in 2016, continued the work for the latter part of the summer and through the fall. Nigel Bankes provided direction and supervision.

We hope that readers of ABlawg and other researchers will find this tool useful and we welcome your feedback, either by way of a comment on this post or to ndbankes@ucalgary.ca

The Efficiency Plank in Alberta’s Climate Leadership Plan

By Nigel Bankes

On January 30, 2017

In Climate Change, Energy, Utility Regulation

By: Nigel Bankes

PDF Version: The Efficiency Plank in Alberta’s Climate Leadership Plan

Report Commented On: Getting it Right: A More Energy Efficient Alberta, Final Report of the Alberta Energy Efficiency Advisory Panel, released 23 January 2017 and related press release

As reported in previous posts, Alberta’s Climate Leadership Plan (CLP) released in November 2015 following receipt of the Leach Report has four key planks: (1) phasing out emissions from coal-generated electricity and developing more renewable energy, (2) implementing a new carbon price on greenhouse gas emissions, (3) a legislated oil sands emission limit, and (4) employing a new methane emission reduction plan.

The government introduced legislation to implement an economy-wide carbon price in June 2016 (the Climate Leadership Implementation Act) with the results of that in the form of the carbon levy coming into force on January 1 of this year (2017). The fall session of the legislature (2016) saw the introduction and passage of Bill 25, The Oil Sands Emission Limit Act to implement the third objective, a legislated oil sands emission limit (I commented on Bill 25 here) and followed this up with Bill 27, the Renewable Electricity Act to implement the second half of the first plank – developing more renewable energy. I commented on Bill 27 here. Then there were subsequent developments with respect to transforming Alberta’s “energy only” market which I commented on here. This last post also commented on the first half of the first plank of the CLP, i.e. the agreement between the province and the owners on the phase-out of coal generating facilities and the level of compensation payable.

As part of the plan to replace coal generation the province has also been looking at energy efficiency policies and micro or distributed generation. Although energy efficiency measures do not result in more generation they do suppress load and avoid (or at least postpone) the need to build or run new generation. While energy efficiency has a lower public profile than new generation, most commentators suggest that energy efficiency and demand side management policies are usually among the most cost effective measures for meeting load and for reducing greenhouse gas emissions – especially where the current energy mix, as in Alberta, is carbon intensive.

Board Cannot Ignore Injurious Affection Losses

By Nigel Bankes

On January 9, 2017

In Administrative Law, Energy, Property, Utility Regulation

By: Nigel Bankes

PDF Version: Board Cannot Ignore Injurious Affection Losses

Case Commented On: Koch v Altalink Management Ltd, 2016 ABQB 678 (CanLII)

This case involves WATL (the Western Alberta Transmission Line) and parcels of land owned by the Kochs that will be bisected by the line. The principal point of law involved relates to the injurious affection suffered by the lands retained by the Kochs (i.e. these are Koch lands which lie outside the area of the right of way acquired by Altalink). It is a standard principle of compensation law that such losses should be recoverable. However, in this case, Altalink, in an argument accepted by the majority of the Surface Rights Board panel hearing the case, took the position that the Kochs had bought the lands at a price that was already discounted from its original market value by the prospect of WATL being constructed. Accordingly, the Kochs had suffered no injurious affection losses and were therefore not entitled to any compensation under this head of damages. On this theory the party that had suffered the loss was the vendor to the Kochs and to compensate the Kochs for injurious affection would to award them a windfall. The minority would have awarded injurious affection damages of $125,780. The Kochs appealed.

The Freedom to Contract Your Terms of Business (aka Spread Costs, Consequential Damages, Knock for Knock and Contract Interpretation Principles)

By Nigel Bankes

On December 27, 2016

In Contracts, Oil & Gas

By: Nigel Bankes and Heather Lilles

PDF Version: The Freedom to Contract Your Terms of Business (aka Spread Costs, Consequential Damages, Knock for Knock and Contract Interpretation Principles)

Case Commented On: Transocean Drilling UK Ltd v Providence Resources Plc [2016] EWCA Civ 372, [2016] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 51, 165 Con LR 1, [2016] BLR 360

This decision of the English Court of Appeal (Civil Division) which came out earlier this year (April 2016) is well worth reading both for its treatment of the exclusion of liability for consequential damages and also for its modern approach to the interpretation of commercial contracts. As recognized by the Court, the case “raises some interesting questions about the freedom of two commercial parties to determine the terms on which they wish to do business” (para 1).

Transocean Drilling UK Ltd (Transocean), the owner of a semi-submersible drilling rig, entered into a contract with Providence Resources Plc (Providence) to drill an offshore appraisal well for Providence. On 18 December 2011, Transocean suspended drilling operations due to a misalignment of part of the blow-out preventer. Transocean resumed operations on 2 February 2012. The trial judge determined that the delay was caused by Transocean’s breach of contract. There was no appeal on that point, but Transocean did appeal that part of the judge’s decision in which he allowed Providence to recover the ‘spread costs’ that it had incurred as a result of the delay. The ‘spread costs’ were described (at para 10) as “the costs of personnel, equipment and services contracted [by Providence] from third parties which were wasted as a result of the delay. Examples given by the judge are well logging, well testing and cementing, mud engineers and mud logging services, geological services, diving and ROV (remotely operated vehicle) services, weather services, directional drilling services, and running casings.”

The Duty to Consult and the Legislative Process: But What About Reconciliation?

By Nigel Bankes

On December 21, 2016

In Aboriginal, Constitutional

By: Nigel Bankes

PDF Version: The Duty to Consult and the Legislative Process: But What About Reconciliation?

Case Commented On: Canada v Courtoreille, 2016 FCA 311 (Can LII)

In Rio Tinto Alcan Inc. v. Carrier Sekani Tribal Council (2010 SCC 43 (CanLII) at para 44), the Supreme Court declined to answer the question of whether legislative action might trigger the duty to consult and, where appropriate, accommodate Aboriginal groups. This question was front and centre in Canada v Courtoreille, 2016 FCA 311 (Can LII), which involved the omnibus budget bills of the Harper administration (2012). The majority (Justices de Montigny and Webb) answered (at para 3) that “legislative action is not a proper subject for an application for judicial review … and that importing the duty to consult to the legislative process offends the separation of powers doctrine and the principle of parliamentary privilege.” Justice Pelletier offered concurring reasons which are somewhat more nuanced as to the possibility of intervention in the legislative process. He would give effect to the duty to consult in a particular, and narrow set of cases, but still concludes that, in most cases, the duty to consult has no place in the legislative process.

Author: Nigel Bankes Page 41 of 89

Announcing a New Resource for the Letter Decisions of the Alberta Energy Regulator

The Efficiency Plank in Alberta’s Climate Leadership Plan

Board Cannot Ignore Injurious Affection Losses

The Freedom to Contract Your Terms of Business (aka Spread Costs, Consequential Damages, Knock for Knock and Contract Interpretation Principles)

The Duty to Consult and the Legislative Process: But What About Reconciliation?