On August 29, 2017, the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC)
issued a decision on an application by ATCO Pipelines
for approval of its 2017-2018 general rate application. The
decision addressed many issues, including points of dispute with
regard to rate base and operating costs and numerous issues arising
from a depreciation study filed by ATCO Pipelines.
In their arguments, certain parties expressed concerns about the
disclosure of information during the proceeding by ATCO Pipelines.
It was argued that ATCO Pipelines had failed to provide relevant
information and had exploited information asymmetry between it, on
the one hand, and the interveners and the AUC, on the other hand.
Submissions on this issue referred to a previous decision with
respect to an application by ATCO Electric Ltd. in which the AUC
had made comments about information asymmetry. In the earlier
decision, the AUC recognized that information asymmetry presents a
challenge, but said that its process
