Research and analysis on aspects of administrative law that bear on Canada’s and particularly Ontario’s energy future.
The following guest post is authored by Toronto-based energy law expert Jay Shepherd. In it, Jay addresses trends in energy regulation in Ontario. Jay is a major figure in energy law in Ontario, having practiced before the Ontario Energy Board since 1985. Over the course of his career, he has represented a wide range of …
Since the Ontario Liberals came to power under Premier McGuinty in 2003, garlanded with promises to green the province’s energy system, among the big winners in the ensuing race to grab cash from the citizens of Ontario have been some of Ontario’s energy bureaucracies.
Last night at the close of business, the Ontario Energy Board publicly announced a reorganization of the Board’s administrative functions. The public announcement includes this statement — “the Chief Operating Officer to become Executive Advisor to the Chair & CEO”. This brief comment hints at a simultaneous, but undisclosed, reorganization of the Board’s decision making …
Manitoba Hydro, which provides natural gas distribution service in that province, is reporting that approximately 4,000 customers in a cluster of rural municipalities south of Winnipeg toward the border with Minnesota are without gas supply. The outage is the result of a dramatic explosion early yesterday of a very large natural gas pipeline linking TransCanada’s …
Here is my appearance on BNN with host Howard Green last night.
It is a rare pleasure to report on something happening in the field of public utility regulation in Canada that stands out as a high point of public service.
The Ontario Liberal official talking points about the 2003 blackout, which they reference as frequently as possible, are that former Conservative Premier Mike Harris caused it and that Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals fixed it by building wind mills. This New York Times review is a fact-based antidote to this careless politicking.
Steven Harper’s government, hellbent on developing Canada as an energy superpower, also harbours a conviction that energy regulation is nothing but counterproductive red tape to be shuffled off to the side. As we saw with his treatment of Linda Keen, head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, in 2007, Harper is blind to promoting solid …
In a return to the historic practice of appointing OEB members without any transparent review process, the McGuinty government has appointed two new part-time Board Members, effective February 1, 2013, each for a two-year term. Public notice of these appointments was after their effective date. The new appointees, with their official bios are:
OEB Chair’s Rosemarie Leclair’s most recent major public address provides a clear view of her regulatory priorities and philosophy.