Quote:
Originally Posted by Zarley
The idiocy of this move is beyond belief, even for the NDP. I imagine this will be thrown out in court, but the damage to investor confidence in the regulatory environment in this province will be done. At least there's only 2 years and 10 months until the next election.
As an aside, it's interesting that the province's lawyer on this file is a Vancouver based civil liberties and constitutional law specialist for what is essentially a commercial contract matter. Obviously this is the NDP rewarding one of their own, but I would have expected an Alberta based corporate litigator.
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Here's a post from UofC Faculty of Law blog about the issue.
http://ablawg.ca/2016/07/26/ag-argue...ment-unlawful/
I see a lot of parallels with this case and the Northern Gateway decision where the failure to follow procedure even with cabinet approval ends up overturning the AEUB amendment.
Also a couple points to make
1) Electrical plants won't be covered by the Carbon Levy but rather the SGER which the NDP government made more stringent at least until the end of PPA(they will all expire by the end of 2020).
2) Coal trouble really stem from the rapid decline in electrical prices (the average pool price was around $49/MWhr in 2014, $33/MWhr in 2015, $16/MWhr YTD)