Articles 2021

This article explores the increase in electric vehicle sales in Canada and considers innovative technologies that could assist in preserving a reliable electric grid.

This article discusses recent climate change litigation cases and the type of actions being brought in respect of climate change.

This article considers the Ontario Court of Appeal's recent decision in Huang v. Fraser Hillary's Limited, 2018 ONCA 277, in which the court denied Ecojustice leave to intervene in an appeal.

Earlier this year, the Government of Ontario released its “Fair Hydro Plan”. While the main focus of the Fair Hydro Plan is the Government’s initiative to reduce electricity prices for residential and other small consumers by 25%, the Plan also expands opportunities for the development of behind-the-fence generation.

The new Section 140.1 of the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) (the “OBCA”) quietly came into force on December 10, 2016. It requires OBCA governed corporations to maintain an updated register of their “ownership interests in land in Ontario”. Interestingly, the phrase “ownership interest in land” is not defined; thus this requirement may extend to both legal and beneficial ownership in real property.

The Ontario Ministry of Energy recently updated its regulatory proposal to revise the Net Metering Regulation. This new proposal included all of the proposed amendments which formed part of the original proposal except for establishing a billing method for single-entity virtual net metering which would allow load customers to benefit from net metering by building a renewable energy generation facility offsite. The Ministry found this element required additional feedback and consideration.

Ontario’s cap and trade program launched in January 2017 and includes a number of rules regarding participation in the carbon market including prohibitions against insider trading, tipping, bid coordination, unlawful disclosures, fraud and market manipulation. Market participants should ensure they are familiar with all rules governing their conduct in the carbon market. Contravention of the market rules is an offence that could result in substantial minimum fines.

Pending reforms to the Ontario air emissions regulatory regime promise to be of interest to energy project developers and, and no doubt to their lawyers as well. Specifically, some projects which now must obtain an ECA Air permit will be able to register the project on the soon to be expanded Environmental Activity and Sector Registry.

It is clear that carbon pricing will be one of the primary tools that Canadian governments will use to incentivize emissions reductions and generate revenue to pay for mitigation and adaptation. A number of key energy supply agreement provisions that should be reviewed in order to assess: who will bear the cost of compliance with carbon pricing regimes? Who will benefit from revenue generated by the sale of off-sets? Could increasing carbon prices result in the termination of the agreement?