ABLawg

By: David V. Wright

Matter Commented On: Proposed federal just transition legislation

PDF Version: Just Transition Friction Needs Interest-Based Negotiation

For three weeks every January, I teach the University of Calgary Faculty of Law intensive block course on negotiations. This is a mandatory course for all second-year law students, and it’s a key part of the Calgary Curriculum. Each year I look for contemporary topics and events to use as examples that bring to life the approaches and concepts that we cover in the course. Like any good negotiations course, a core part of the curriculum is focused on interest-based negotiations, the approach long advocated by dispute resolution and negotiation experts around the world. This feeds one of the course’s key learning points: begin negotiations with an interest-based approach and then shift to more competitive, distributive stances later in the process if necessary. An obvious example for this year is the current friction between the federal government and the Alberta government with respect to a proposed federal just transition initiative. This short post examines what is painfully obvious and disconcerting in the present context: both levels of government contributing to this current tension are flouting even the most basic best practises in negotiations. They are adopting positional bargaining instead of an interest-based, problem-solving approach. While Alberta has been particularly aggressive, showing signs that it is more interested in short-term political gains than constructive resolution, no one is doing it right.

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