Member Article

On September 30, 2007, on its own motion and without notice, the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (AEUB) issued a decision voiding its approvals of both the Alberta Electric System Operator’s (AESO) need assessment and general routing selection and AltaLink Management Ltd.’s (AltaLink) subsequent facilities application related to the proposed 500kV transmission reinforcement between Edmonton and Calgary. The AEUB concluded that it had lost jurisdiction on the basis that circumstances had accumulated such that a reasonable apprehension of bias existed in the Board’s ability to discharge its duties impartially.

As previously reported in our newsletters, the AEUB public hearing into AltaLink’s facilities application was delayed last spring as a result of incidents in which people at the hearing were physically confronted or threatened with violence. In response to the violent behaviour, the AEUB revised hearing procedures and implemented security measures which included, among other things, hiring plainclothes security personnel to monitor intervenor activity.

While security arrangements overall were considered to be appropriate and prudent given the assessed risk, two separate investigations of the security measures taken by the AUB concluded that certain activities were improper. Arguably the worst allegations are that security personnel listened in on a conference call between intervenors and their legal counsel.

The Alberta Information and Privacy Commissioner concluded that although the AEUB was authorized to collect certain personal information in the circumstances, the information collected was not necessary for the provision of a safe environment for AEUB staff and hearing participants, and therefore was unauthorized. In response to the AEUB’s voiding of the decisions, AESO advises that it will start the public consultation process on the northsouth 500kV reinforcement over again as soon as possible. AESO continues to advocate the critical need for the project to address reliability of the Alberta system.