On October 24, 2012 the Government of Alberta (the Government)
introduced Bill 2, the Responsible Energy Development Act.
It will create a single provincial regulator for upstream energy
resource activities. The proposed Alberta Energy Regulator (AER)
will assume the functions of the Energy Resources Conservation
Board (ERCB) and Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource
Development for oil, gas, oil sands and coal developments. The AER
will be governed by a board of directors and is expected to be in
operation by June 2013.
The Government also recently released a discussion paper with
proposed changes to enhance the role of the province in
consultation with First Nations.
These policy and legislative developments represent significant
changes to Alberta's regulatory and aboriginal affairs regime
for energy resource projects. The Government of Alberta has
signalled the establishment of new offices to deal with
over-arching public policy issues (such as
