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Open Access
ABlawg articles
(Canadian Institute of Resources Law, 2010-11) Kwasniak, Arlene; Bankes, Nigel; Fluker, Shaun
ABlawg is the University of Calgary Faculty of Law’s Blog on Developments in Alberta Law. It includes commentary by faculty members, sessional instructors, research associates at the Faculty’s affiliated institutes, and students on court and tribunal decisions and legislative and policy developments in Alberta. ABlawg includes commentary in several areas of interest to readers of Resources: Aboriginal Law, Carbon Capture and Storage, Climate Change, Energy Law, Environmental Law, Natural Resources Law, Oil and Gas Law, and Water Law. Resources articles have sometimes been reprinted on ABlawg (see e.g. Nickie Vlavianos, The Issues and Challenges with Public Participation in Energy and Natural Resources Development in Alberta and David Laidlaw and Monique Passelac Ross, Water Rights and Water Stewardship: What About Aboriginal Peoples?); in this issue of Resources we feature three ABlawg posts concerning (1) judicial interpretation of the Alberta Land Stewardship Act, (2) regulatory approaches to CCS, and (3) standing at the Energy Resources Conservation Board. The posts included here have been edited for length. For full versions of the posts and to become a subscriber to ABlawg, go to http://ablawg.ca/.
Open Access
Aboriginal Peoples and Resource Development in Northern Alberta
(Canadian Institute of Resources Law, 2003) Ross, Monique M.
This paper is the final component of a multifaceted research project on legal and institutional responses to land and resource use conflicts in Northern Alberta. The paper evaluates the situation of forest-based Aboriginal communities faced with intensifying resource development in the northern boreal region of Alberta. It considers the extent to which the rights and interests of Aboriginal Peoples are acknowledged, protected and accommodated in the provincial resource allocation and development process.
Open Access
Access to Forest Lands and Resources: The Case of Aboriginal Peoples in Alberta
(Canadian Institute of Resources Law, 2008) Passelac-Ross, Monique
The development of natural resources is central to the province of Alberta's economic growth and prosperity. Most of these resources - conventional oil and gas, oil sands, forests, coal, water - are owned by the province. They are managed under a highly centralized resource management regime that provides relatively few opportunities for local communities to influence decision-making. This is notably the case with respect to Crown forests, 89% of which are owned by the provincial government and allocated under long-term forest tenures to large integrated forest companies. The paper focuses on the situation of Aboriginal communities located within the commercial forest area of the province. It seeks to assess the extent and scope of their access to Crown forest lands.
Open Access
Acid Rain: Bilateral Environmental Management in Jeopardy
(Canadian Institute of Resources Law, 1984) Saunders, J. Owen
Open Access
Acid Rain: Bilateral Environmental Management in Jeopardy
(Canadian Institute of Resources Law, 1984) Saunders, J. Owen
Open Access
The AEUB: A Short Chapter in Alberta's Long History of Energy & Utilities Regulation
(Canadian Institute of Resources Law, 2009-06) Cecilia A. Low
Public utility and energy resource regulation in Alberta date back to 1915 with the creation of the Alberta Board of Public Utility Commissioners and 1932 with the establishment of the Turner Valley Gas Conservation Board. The Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (AEUB) was created in 1995 when the government of Alberta merged the functions of the successors to those boards. Although the AEUB's tenure was relatively short-lived, it was also eventful. The article sets out a brief history of public utility and energy regulation in Alberta and provides an assessment of the context for the creation of the AEUB and of the AEUB's tenure. The article concludes that the AEUB's legacy of negotiated settlement processes and the adoption of a more collaborative approach to regulation of the electricity sector can only prove beneficial as the provincial government implements its Energy Strategy.
Open Access
Agricultural Land Protection in Quebec: A Victim of its Own Success?
(Canadian Institute of Resources Law, 1992) Giroux, Lorne
Open Access
Alberta First Nations Consultation & Accommodation Handbook
(Canadian Institute of Resources Law, 2014-03) Laidlaw, David; Passelac-Ross, Monique
Alberta has had two attempts to develop a First Nation’s consultation and accommodation process. The first in 2005 was controversial for First Nations and frustrating for resource companies. The First Nation Consultation Policy (2013) was released on August 16, 2013. There were some conceptual improvements such as the centralization of First Nation Consultation and a consultation levy on resource companies. There are notable failures including the process of developing the new policy and the continued misunderstanding of the governing Treaties. Aboriginal consultation in Alberta after the new Policy will still be a frustrating, complicated, and expensive exercise despite government, industry, First Nations’ and public hopes. It need not be so. In this report, this latest attempt is described and critiqued with best practices from other jurisdiction suggested to correct the flaws.
Open Access
The Alberta Land Stewardship Act: Certainty or Uncertainty?
(Canadian Institute of Resources Law, 2009-10) Poschwatta-Yearsley, Jenette; Zelmer, Adam
The Land-use Framework (LUF) outlines an approach to manage public and private lands and natural resources in Alberta. It also provides the policy blueprint from which Bill 36, the Alberta Land Stewardship Act (ALSA), was drafted. This article provides a brief overview of the strategies outlined in the LUF that were selected to achieve integration and coherence for Alberta’s land use with a special emphasis on the role of public participation. The second part of this article discusses how those strategies are incorporated, or not, into the ALSA. Ultimately this article concludes that the ALSA is legislation with enormous potential power. The specific changes that the ALSA will in fact bring about are more difficult to predict than might be expected due to the decidedly discretionary nature of its drafting.
Open Access
The Alberta Surface Rights Act, 1983
(Canadian Institute of Resources Law, 1983) Roulston, Barbara
Open Access
Alberta's 2008 Approach to Climate Change: A Step Forward?
(Canadian Institute of Resources Law, 2008) Poschwatta, Jenette
Climate change is upon us and it poses considerable challenges. In January 2008, Alberta released its new action plan (Alberta's 2008 Climate Change Strategy) to address the problem of climate change. The focus of the paper is an analysis of the Alberta approach and asks whether the approach is adequate to the challenge. The paper identifies several key deficiencies including ambivalent targets, undeveloped actions and a lack of integration with existing climate legislation. Finally, the paper cautions that the Alberta approach to the problem of climate change may lead to unintended consequences.
Open Access
Alberta's CO2 Reduction Strategy - Assessing the Environmental Integrity of Emissions Trading Schemes
(Canadian Institute of Resources Law, 2014-03) Radu, Ana Maria
National and regional emission trading schemes (ETSs) for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions represent an essential policy response to climate change around the world. Witnessing a proliferation of carbon pricing schemes in different jurisdictions, the possibility of further reducing compliance costs by allowing allowances to be traded, not just within, the systems become reality. This is commonly referred as linking the systems. This process is not risk-free; as a matter of fact ill-considered links may be counter-productive, to the point that they might undercut the efforts to reduce GHG emissions. This paper signals the need to identify such ill links and points out the danger zones when linking ETSs. The paper proposes a criteria-based analysis in order to determine the degree of environmental integrity.
Open Access
Alberta's New Competitive Electricity System
(Canadian Institute of Resources Law, 1996) Hancher, Leigh
Open Access
Alberta's Oil and Gas Boom Fuels Land-Use Conflicts – But Should the EUB be Taking the Heat?
(Canadian Institute of Resources Law, 2005) Kennett, Steven A.; Wenig, Michael M.
The Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) is at the centre of a growing 'storm' of land-use conflicts arising from oil and gas activities. The public typically looks to the EUB to resolve those conflicts, because of the EUB's role as the province's primary regulator of oil and gas operations. However, the EUB is poorly suited to handling this role because: (1) there is a lack of adequate, high level policy and planning to guide the EUB's decisions; (2) the EUB's 'public interest' determinations are skewed by Alberta Energy's issuance of mineral rights; and (3) the EUB lacks authority to manage the cumulative effects of all activities on all types of land bases. For these reasons, the public should look to Cabinet and the Legislature, as well as the EUB, for resolution of land use conflicts.
Open Access
Albertans' Concerns About Health Impacts and Oil and Gas Development: A Summary
(Canadian Institute of Resources Law, 2006-02) Vlavianos, Nickie
This paper is the third publication to come from the Human Rights and Resource Development Project, the purpose of which is to explore the relationship between two important areas of law: human rights, as they are protected by law in Alberta, and the legal regime pursuant to which natural resources, such as oil and gas, are developed in the Province.
Open Access
Alberta’s Water for Life and Recent Trends in International Law
(Canadian Institute of Resources Law, 2010-11) J. Owen Saunders; Nickie Vlavianos
In 2003, after a period of extended public consultation, the Government of Alberta introduced its Water for Life strategy. The strategy was subsequently updated and refined in 2008 and 2009, and has been the subject of extensive comment elsewhere. While the strategy has received significant attention, this paper addresses one aspect of Water for Life that has not been the subject of comment to date — the intersection of Water for Life with recent trends in international law.
Open Access
And Now for the Hard Part – Lessons for the NRCB from the Three Sisters Wildlife Corridor Saga
(Canadian Institute of Resources Law, 2005) Kennett, Steven A.
The requirement that wildlife movement corridors be maintained across the Three Sisters property has been a major source of controversy since the Natural Resources Conservation Board (NRCB) issued its project approval in 1992. This article describes the origins and evolution of this controversy and presents recommendations for strengthening the implementation process for NRCB decisions.
Open Access
Application of the Environmental Assessment Review Process by the National Energy Board
(Canadian Institute of Resources Law, 1990) Samuel, Murray J.
Open Access
Assessing Where Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Stand in Alberta Policy and Government Organization
(Canadian Institute of Resources Law, 2011-12) Wenig, Michael M.
Alberta has committed to “set a table” for renewable energy and to “encourage” energy efficiency and conservation. This commitment begs the questions of how fast or much these two sectors are expected to progress and what specific roles the province will play in promoting that progress. This paper addresses these questions by considering the evolution of provincial policy-making with respect to these two sectors and what governmental institutions have been created to specifically address the sectors.
Open Access
The Atlantic Accord: A Model of Cooperative Federalism: A Response to D. Paul Edmond
(Canadian Institute of Resources Law, 1986) Penney, Ronald G.