Arbitration Outcomes Not Binding On Subsequent Arbitration Panels, Court Rules

A recent Alberta Court of Queen's Bench decision in ENMAX Energy Corporation v. TransAlta Generation Partnership addresses long-standing legal principles such as stare decisis and res judicata in the context of arbitration proceedings. In doing so, the court highlights some of the differences between arbitration and court proceedings. The decision is of particular interest to those parties seeking assistance from the court with respect to questions of law during an extant arbitration in circumstances where the contract allows a party to do so.

BACKGROUND

In the late 1990s, the Alberta government made amendments to the Electric Utilities Act in order to fully deregulate the Alberta electricity generation market. As part of that deregulation, power purchase arrangements (PPAs) were enacted as an Alberta regulation and drafted as if they were contracts entered into freely between the owner of the applicable generating units and the buyer of the PPA. TransAlta