Tag Archives: leave to appeal

What does the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms have to do with Oil and Gas Development in Alberta?

Cases Considered: Kelly v. Alberta (Energy and Utilities Board), 2008 ABCA 52

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This is not the first time that section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the Charter) has been raised on an application for leave to appeal a decision of Alberta’s Energy and Utilities Board (EUB). It is, however, the first time that a justice of the Court of Appeal has put the issue squarely before the court. Can the granting of a licence by the EUB (now the ERCB) for a particular oil and gas well violate rights protected by section 7 of the Charter? Is it possible that the environmental risks and hazards of a particular oil and gas operation may be such as to trigger the protection of section 7 of the Charter? Mr. Justice J.A. Berger has said that this is arguable. In doing so, he has placed some difficult issues, with potentially far-reaching consequences, before the Court.

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Leave to Appeal Arbitration Awards and the Addition of the Public Interest

Cases Considered: Lion’s Gate Homes Ltd. v. Shand, 2008 ABQB 15

PDF Version: Leave to Appeal Arbitration Awards and the Addition of the Public Interest

This brief decision by Mr. Justice D.K. Miller provides an opportunity to look at how the courts in Alberta have interpreted subsection 44(2) of the Arbitration Act, R.S.A. 2000, c. A-43. This is the provision that usually governs the ability of the parties to appeal an arbitrator’s award. Although subsection 44(2) does not, on the face of it, require that there be any public interest in the parties’ dispute or the award resolving that dispute or an appeal from the award, judges of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta have fairly consistently read in that extra element.

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Standing Against Public Participation at the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board

Cases Considered: Sawyer v. Alberta (Energy and Utilities Board), 2007 ABCA 297

PDF Version: Standing Against Public Participation at the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board

In September 2007, the Alberta Court of Appeal denied leave to appeal an AEUB (now the Energy Resources Conservation Board) decision that affirmed its longstanding position that participatory rights to contest the merits of an energy project by, for example, presenting evidence and/or cross-examining the project proponent, are not available to recreational users of public lands or urban environmentalists.

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