Energized Debates Generated Successful Business Law Symposium

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Professor Paul Paton (middle), Faculty Director and Convenor of the 14th Annual Queenís Business Law Symposium, and student coordinators Kim Newton, Michael McIsaac, James McDonald and David Kramer at the Four Points Sheraton on October 19, 2007.

Debates about "energy and the law" dominated the minds of the lawyers, academics, and policy makers who filled a banquet hall in downtown Kingston on October 19, 2007, for the 14th Annual Business Law Symposium.

Faculty director and convener Professor Paul Paton brought together experts to discuss this growing area of importance for Canada and the world. With issues like global warming, power generation, and the Alberta oil sands on the rise, energy is coming to matter more and more to Canada and Canadians.

Each of the four sessions focused on a research paper exploring specific energy issues - finance and investment, electricity regulation, environmental considerations, and the challenges of renewable energy. The format was simple: the author presented the paper, expert panelists debated the issues raised before the moderator who was also an energy or business expert, and then the session was opened up to all delegates.

Pamela Sidey, a student from Law '10, noted, "The panelists and the speakers came from very diverse backgrounds. It led to really interesting debate and discussion."

"One of the panelists, a leading lawyer with nearly twenty years of experience, told me that she has been to many energy conferences and found the Symposium especially compelling," said Paton. "The ideas were new, fresh and interesting, even for someone with her experience and expertise. It was a great day for students, lawyers, the officials, and for me personally. The debates were topical and exciting, and the experts among the best in Canada."

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Session One: Finance, Investment and the Energy Sector

Moderator Professor Paul Paton, Queen’s University Faculty of Law; panelists Ian Mallory, Pickworth Investments (Calgary), Leanne Sereda, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (Calgary), Amy Koch, Chair, Energy and Natural Resource Practice Group, Patton Boggs LLP (Washington, D.C.); and presenter Lorne Carson, Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt LLP (Calgary).

Canada could be the world's next energy leader

Canada may be the next "go to" country for oil and gas, according to Lorne Carson of Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt LLP, as well as other speakers at the Symposium's first session, titled "Finance, Investment and the Energy Sector."
Citing opportunities in Alberta's Tar Sands region and the Mackenzie Valley, Carson, who presented a paper on behalf of colleague Jack Thrasher, is optimistic for the future. "The price of crude oil is at an all-time high," he said. "This seems to be - on the oil side - a real long-term, sustainable demand price increase."

To accomplish this task, however, the panel members stressed the need for investment from government in order to encourage private sector innovation. "We need to go out there and build great Canadian [energy] companies that can compete internationally," said Ian Mallory of Calgary-based Pickworth Investments LLP.

The panel debated the appropriate level of governmental involvement in the oil and gas industry, on both the federal and provincial levels. The panelists agreed that, with the right balance, Canada could become an energy superpower in the world economy.

Amy Koch, who chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Practice Group at American firm Patton Boggs LLP, reiterated Canada's energy potential. "I don't see why Canadians aren't looking at themselves as the next Saudi Arabia," she said.

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Session Two: Power Regulation – The Electric Challenge

Moderator Laurie Smith, Bennett Jones LLP (Calgary); panelists Mary Anne Aldred, General Counsel, Ontario Energy Board, Leslie Wong, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP (Toronto), Brian Armstrong, Executive Vice-President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Bruce Power; and the paper’s author Richard King, Ogilvy Renault LLP.

Keeping the lights on at reasonable cost

With the recession of the early 1990s as his starting point, Richard King of Ogilvy Renault LLP opened his session, titled "Power Regulation - the Electric Challenge," by recapitulating the challenges faced by successive Ontario governments over the past 15 years.

"How do we transition from the hybrid [electrical] market we now have to a real competitive market?" King asked. "That is the biggest challenge facing Ontario going forward."

Each panelist developed the same theme: despite an ongoing need for conservation, the Ontario government must stress efficiency above all else. "We need to get moving before the rest of the world leaves us behind," urged Brian Armstrong, General Counsel for Bruce Power, a power plant controlling 20 per cent of the province's electric supply.

Moderator Laurie Smith, a partner at Bennett Jones LLP and an expert of around 30 years in the electrical industry, put the challenge directly to the panel: "How do we ensure we have enough power that the lights go on and the cost is reasonable?" he asked.

Mary-Anne Aldred, General Counsel for the Ontario Energy Board, emphasized the need for greater certainty and predictability in the governance of the electrical energy industry. "If you're thinking of taking on another corporate entity, you want to know how long it is before you're back before the regulator," she said. "That's important for the industry to know."

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Keynote Speaker

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David Keith, Canada Research Chair in Energy and the Environment and Director, ISEEE and Environmental Systems Group, University of Calgary.

Uncertainty in action against global warming

Business leaders and policy makers will soon need to make decisions regarding global warming, though the consequences of the climate problem range from cataclysmic to mild, said lunch speaker Professor David Keith of the University of Calgary.

"[The consequences will be] probably somewhere in between," said Keith.

Keith, the Canada Research Chair for Energy and the Environment, is one of the world's foremost energy experts.

"David Keith was simply phenomenal," said Paton. "I'd invited him as he was recommended to me as the leading energy 'thinker' in Canada. After his presentation, everyone agreed: it was a tour de force."

Keith said lawyers and business people are used to making decisions in the face of uncertainty and the problem of global warming will be no different. The difficulty, said Keith, is "if we spend a ton of money on this problem, which I think we should, we will see no benefit. Our grandkids will."

Keith added controversy, highlighting the fact that "there will be winners and losers to this problem. Some farmers would benefit from one to two degrees of warmer weather."

Regardless, Keith said, climate change was a global problem with generally negative consequences and business and world leaders need to start developing solutions now. "We went from no one caring about the problem to a crisis situation - ‘end of the world.' We missed the part in the middle where we talk about what we're going to do."

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Session Three: Energy and the Environment

Moderator Jim Papamanolis, Law ’06, Ontario Power Generation; panelists Scott Stoll, Aird & Berlis LLP (Toronto), Professor Al Lucas, Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Calgary, James Flagal, Counsel, Ministry of the Environment (Ontario), Sarah Powell, Law ‘91, Davies, Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP (Toronto); and the paper’s author Professor Bruce Pardy, Queen’s University Faculty of Law.

Canada's climate change charade

Queen's Law Professor Bruce Pardy stirred up the conference, delivering a paper titled "Climate Change Charades," which dealt with Canada and the world's progress on dealing with global warming.

"My case is this," said Pardy, "everything we've done so far in the name of climate change . . . is pretending."

"Who is the environmental bad guy? It's not us," said Pardy, noting Canada's huge land mass and comparatively small population. He challenged Canada to get the world's biggest contributors to global warming to take action.

James Flagal, counsel to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and one of the panelists responding to Pardy's paper, said Canada must set an example at home and then get others to sign on. "People live [in the suburbs] one hour from their work because it's cheaper. The market demands it."

"So stop subsidizing the cost of living in the suburbs," Pardy replied. "Let it go up. Make people pay the true cost for things."

Always one for controversy, Pardy closed with a call for realistic progress. "Kyoto is dead. Leave it alone."

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Session Four: The New Energy Economy

Moderator Michael Smith, Law ’90, Patton Boggs LLP (New York); panelists James Sbrolla, Environmental Business Consultants (Toronto), Tania Persad, Senior Regulatory Counsel and Privacy Officer, Enbridge Gas Distribution (Toronto), Mathew Machielse, Director, Bio-Energy, Alberta Energy, Lisa DeMarco, Macleod Dixon LLP (Toronto); and the paper’s author Patrick Maguire, Bennett Jones LLP (Calgary).

Renewable energy moves forward

Renewable sources of energy are growing in Canada but need more support, said Patrick Maguire of Bennett Jones LLP in Calgary. He highlighted the fact that renewable sources of energy are still expensive, with solar power costing 18 to 20 cents per kilowatt hour while fossil fuels cost only about 3 cents.

"Government research and development funding has really [been] reduced in the last few years," said Maguire, pointing out that the creation of a solid carbon trading system would reveal the true environmental cost of fossil fuel generated energy, and would help renewable sources grow.

Lisa DeMarco of Macleod Dixon LLP in Toronto, noted emissions trading already exists in the U.S. "It's a $30 billion market. It's time we get involved." But, she cautioned, "The energy industry is characterized by pendulum swings and changes. Renewable energy is not a single fix."

Michael Smith, Law '90, an attorney for Patton Boggs LLP in New York, argued that trying to benchmark the cost of renewable energy against already existing fossil fuels is futile. "You're comparing apples and cinnamon buns," he said. "We don't really know what [effective] renewable power costs. We already have a nuclear plant, we know how much that costs."

In bringing these experts together, the Symposium addressed ideas and issues across the entire spectrum of energy concerns. "There was controversy and debate about regulating production and development of traditional sources of oil and gas, the future of electricity in Ontario, environmental concerns, and the ‘new energy economy,'" said Paton. "It was a look back at the most important recent developments, and a fascinating window into the future."

The 14th Annual Business Law Symposium was sponsored by Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP and Bennett Jones LLP. The luncheon was sponsored by Patton Boggs LLP.