Submission of the Environmental Law Centre to the Alberta Utlities Commission
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Submission of the Environmental Law Centre to the Alberta Utlities Commission Re: Regulatory Process for Hydroelectic Power Generation Development Application No. 1606021 Proceeding ID. 561 July 14, 2010 Environmental Law Centre #800, 10025-106 Street Edmonton, Alberta T5J 1G4 Tel: (780) 424-5099 Cindy Chiasson, Executive Director Adam Driedzic, Staff Counsel Laura Bowman, Staff Counsel Jason Unger, Staff Counsel ii Table of Contents Executive Summary............................................................................v Introduction ......................................................................................1 Part I: The public interest in hydroelectric power projects .......................1 A. Statutory consideration of the public interest.........................................................1 B. Criteria for determining environmental aspects of the public interest ....................4 Previous consideration of the public interest in hydroelectric projects ...................................... 5 Legislative directions or limitations and the public interest ....................................................... 6 The impact of policy documents on determining the public interest.......................................... 7 Environmental criteria to be applied to the public interest determination.................................. 8 C. Process recommendations ..................................................................................10 Part II: Public participation and standing in regulatory processes............10 A. The relevance of public participation to the public interest ..................................11 Informed and inclusive decisions ............................................................................................. 13 Group participation................................................................................................................... 14 Participation and its importance to the AUC............................................................................ 14 Public participation needs to evolve......................................................................................... 15 B. Current approaches to standing ..........................................................................16 Alberta regulatory agencies’ approaches to standing ............................................................... 16 Lessons learned from other tribunals........................................................................................ 17 The “genuine interest” approach to standing............................................................................ 18 Beyond “genuine interest”, the federal environmental assessment approach........................... 19 C. Reasons for an enhanced approach to standing................................................21 Effective public interest decisions are fully informed .............................................................. 21 Alberta Court of Appeal standing consideration ...................................................................... 23 D. Alberta’s standing approach must reflect the public interest ...............................25 Reducing conflicts to increase regulatory efficiency................................................................ 26 Positive steps towards improving public participation ............................................................. 27 E. Standing determinations need clarity in process ..................................................28 F. Process recommendations ..................................................................................29 Part III: Jurisdictional issues in hydroelectricity power generation development in Alberta .....................................................................31 A. Introduction ..........................................................................................................31 iii B. Constitutional jurisdiction and hydroelectricity: regulatory purpose not projects..32 C. Provincial jurisdiction over hydroelectricity ..........................................................32 Provincial jurisdiction applied.................................................................................................. 36 D. Federal jurisdiction over hydroelectricity development........................................37 Federal jurisdiction applied ...................................................................................................... 43 E. Difficulties arising from inter-provincial waterways ..............................................45 Provincial legislation with extraprovincial impacts.................................................................. 47 F. Remedies for extraprovincial harm ......................................................................50 G. Existing intergovernmental agreements ..............................................................54 H. Case studies........................................................................................................56 Oldman River Dam .................................................................................................................. 56 Bennett Dam............................................................................................................................. 57 Slave River Hydro Dam ...........................................................................................................61 The Dunvegan Hydroelectric Project ....................................................................................... 63 I. Opportunities for improvement..............................................................................64 J. Process recommendations...................................................................................66 Conclusion ................................................................................................................66 iv Executive Summary The importance of having a robust regulatory process to determine the appropriate development of hydroelectric power generation within the province cannot be understated. A robust and effective regulatory process is one that mandates incorporation of relevant information from a broad spectrum of stakeholders and facilitates an evaluation of if and how projects are in the public interest. The regulatory process must also recognize the complexity of hydroelectricity development that result in interjurisdictional impacts and the relevance of federal constitutional powers in determining whether projects may proceed. The determination of whether a specific hydroelecticity develompent is in the public interest is squarely within the mandate of the Alberta Utilities Commission. A review of legal precidents, other tribunal decisions, and related policy documents do little to inform the determination of whether a project will be in the public interest. In this regard, directives or standards of procedure should be pursued to dictate criteria to be considered in public interest decisions. Enviromental criteria for discerning the public interest in hydroelectic projects are proposed. The public interest is also directly informed by participation in the formal processes of the AUC. Regulatory processes must ensure that regulators are making decisions with appropriate information and this in turn requires appropriate regulatory tests to determine which parties have formal legal standing before the Commission. Narrow approaches to standing pursued by other regulatory agencies have given rise to increased litigation and an inability to truly meet their mandates to determine whether projects are in the public interest. A “genuine interest” test for standing in hydroelectric power generation proceedings is proposed. The nature of water flows and the ecosystem they foster lead to an increased relevance of interjurisdictional issues and federal government oversight of hydroelectic power developments. Therefore, regulatory processes for hydroelecticity development must be cognizant of extraprovincial impacts and related constitutional issues, as failure to do so may lead, in certain instances, to litigation and related interprovincial conflicts. In this regard, extraprovincial harms must be considered in regulatory processes and this in turn entails a need to ensure the concerns of stakeholders in other v provinces are heard, considered in the public interest determination, and that their concerns are thereby avoided or mitigated. Similarly, regulatory processes must recognize the constitutional reality of hydroelectric project development. This includes the highly relevant federal government role in regulating inland fisheries, fish habitat, and navigable water ways. vi Introduction (1) The Environmental Law Centre (ELC) was established in 1982 to provide Albertans with an objective source of information about environmental and natural resources law and policy. Its vision is a clean, healthy and diverse environment protected through informed citizen participation and sound law and policy, effectively applied. (2) The Centre's mission is to ensure that laws, policies and legal processes protect the environment. In pursuit of this mission, the Centre seeks the following ends: enactment and effective enforcement of sound environmental laws and policies; and informed public participation in environmental regulatory, law- making and decision-making processes. (3) The Alberta Utilities Commission reasoning for holding the inquiry dovetails with the ELC’s mission,