Keely Cameron News Today

In late May, the Supreme Court of Canada the SCC denied an application for leave to appeal a decision of the Court of Appeal of Alberta the ABCA, which, in turn, had denied leave to appeal of the decision of the Court of Kings Bench of Alberta the ABKB in Re Mantle Materials Group, Ltd, 2023 ABKB 488 Mantle KB. The decision in Mantle KB held that the interests of secured creditors are subordinate to environmental obligations pursuant to the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act EPEA, thus...

A recent decision out of the Alberta Court of Appeal1 found that as soon as a company handed over their investigative reports to regulators in connection with a pipeline incident, privilege over the reports was lost.

Discover the implications of the Alberta Court of Appeals decision in the Qualex-Landmark case, which limits the application of the Redwater ruling on environmental priority. Explore how this ruling affects environmental remediation claims, secured creditors, and private litigation in Alberta.

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal has confirmed that the Supreme Court of Canadas decision in Orphan Well Association v. Grant Thornton Ltd, 2019 SCC 5 [Redwater], applies in Saskatchewan. The Court of Appeal also affirmed that orders made in failed proceedings in Alberta under the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act did not have effect in subsequent receivership proceedings in Saskatchewan. The Court held that the CCAA proceedings did not impose payment obligations on Bow River outside of the s...

The Alberta Minister of Energy released Ministerial Order 043/2023 on March 16, 2023. The Order requires the Alberta Energy Regulator AER to take reasonable steps to confirm that a well licence applicant, transferee or transferor does not have outstanding municipal tax arrears exceeding a specific threshold amount.

In December 2022, the Alberta legislature passed a bill allowing for an increase to the limit on civil claims in the Alberta Court of Justice formerly, the Provincial Court of Alberta and sometimes referred to as small claims court from the existing maximum of $50,000 to up to $200,000. On April 5, 2023, following a survey of the courts and legal community, the government announced that the civil claim limit will raise to $100,000, effective August 1, 2023.

The Court of Kings Bench for Saskatchewan has rejected another attempt by a rural municipality to gain priority in an oil and gas receivership. This follows the recent Alberta Decision in Orphan Well Association v Trident Exploration Corp, 2022 ABKB 839, where the Alberta Court of Kings Bench confirmed that the abandonment and reclamation obligations owed to the Orphan Well Association and the Alberta Energy Regulator rank in priority to claims of municipalities for unpaid property taxes in inso...

Two recent insolvencies have resulted in the number of orphaned wells and facilities in Saskatchewan ballooning to over 4000. To reduce the burden on the Saskatchewan orphan fund, the Oil and Gas Tenure Registry Regulations have recently been amended to authorize the Administrator of Oil and Gas Tenure in the Lands and Mineral Tenure Branch of the Ministry the Administrator to assign or convey a lease that is currently held by a holder that is insolvent, bankrupt, defunct or cannot be located.