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ALBERTA REGULATION 247/2007
Mines and Minerals Act
OIL SANDS DISPUTE RESOLUTION REGULATION
Table of Contents
1 Definitions
Part 1
Terms and Conditions of Objections
2 Objections
3 Contents of objection
4 Additional information
5 Resolution of objection
Part 2
Establishment of an Oil Sands Dispute Review Committee
6 Request for establishment
7 Contents of request
8 Establishment of committee
9 Powers and duties of a committee
10 Committee recommendations
11 Costs
12 Expiry
Definitions
1(1) In this Regulation,
(a) “Act” means the Mines and Minerals Act;
(b) “applicant” means a lessee, Project owner or Project operator, or an agent of any of them;
(c) “committee” means a committee established under Part 2;
(d) “Department” means the Department of Energy;
(e) “Department official” means a person delegated by the Minister to act under section 38(2) of the Act and the Royalty Regulation;
(f) “Director” means the Director of Dispute Resolution for the Department;
(g) “lessee” means a lessee as defined in the Act;
(h) “Minister” means the Minister of Energy;
(i) “objection” means, subject to section 2, an objection referred to in section 39 of the Act;
(j) “Project” means a Project as defined in the Royalty Regulation;
(k) “Project operator” means an operator as defined in the Royalty Regulation;
(l) “Project owner” means a Project owner as defined in the Royalty Regulation;
(m) “Royalty Regulation” means the Oil Sands Royalty Regulation, 1997 (AR 185/97);
(n) “Statement of No Resolution” means a Statement of No Resolution issued by the Director pursuant to section 5(5).
(2) Terms and expressions defined in the Royalty Regulation apply to those terms and expressions when used in this Regulation.
Part 1
Terms and Conditions of Objections
Objections
2(1) Subject to section 38(4) and (5) of the Act, an applicant may make an objection related to the Royalty Regulation only in accordance with the terms and conditions set out in this Regulation.
(2) Only one application may be made in respect of the same objection.
(3) Before an objection may be made, the Project operator must pay all royalty amounts that are payable under the Act that relate to the objection.
(4) An objection must be made in writing to the Director only after the applicant has contacted the Department for the purpose of resolving the matter in dispute.
(5) The objection must be received by the Director within 90 days from the end of the month in which the Department official sent to the Project operator the notice advising of the calculation or recalculation.
(6) The Minister may, in exceptional circumstances, extend the period referred to in subsection (5).
Contents of objection
3(1) An objection must contain the following information:
(a) a copy of the notice advising of the calculation or recalculation;
(b) a summary of the basis for the objection;
(c) evidence showing that section 2(3) has been complied with.
(2) If the information required under subsection (1) has been provided to the satisfaction of the Director and section 2 has been complied with, the Director must give a notice in writing to the applicant that the objection will be reviewed by the Director.
Additional information
4(1) For the purpose of conducting a review of the objection, the Director may request from the Department official or the applicant
(a) additional information, including, but not limited to, any relevant evidence, legislation and guidelines, and
(b) the Department official’s and applicant’s analysis and position with respect to the objection.
(2) The applicant and the Department official must provide the information to the Director by the date specified by the Director.
Resolution of objection
5(1) The Director, after considering the merits of the objection, must propose a resolution to the objection not later than 180 days after the date the Director gave the notice under section 3(2) by sending a copy of the Director’s proposed resolution to the applicant and the Department official.
(2) The Director may, if both the Department official and the applicant agree, extend the period referred to in subsection (1).
(3) The applicant and the Department official must, not later than 60 days after receiving a copy of the proposed resolution, respond to the Director on the proposed resolution referred to in subsection (1).
(4) The Director may, in exceptional circumstances, extend the period referred to in subsection (3).
(5) If the Department official or the applicant does not accept the resolution proposed by the Director, the Director must issue a Statement of No Resolution to the Department official and the applicant indicating the matters that remain in dispute.
(6) If neither the applicant nor the Department official responds within the period referred to in subsection (3) or (4), the resolution proposed by the Director is deemed to have been accepted by both the applicant and the Department official.
Part 2
Establishment of an Oil Sands Dispute Review Committee
Request for establishment
6(1) Where a Statement of No Resolution has been issued under section 5(5) with respect to one or more matters in dispute and the terms and conditions of this Part are complied with, an applicant may request the establishment of an oil sands dispute review committee to provide recommendations to the Minister regarding a resolution to the matters that are in dispute.
(2) The request must be made in writing to the Director by the applicant and received by the Director not later than 90 days after the date the Statement of No Resolution was issued by the Director.
(3) The Minister may, in exceptional circumstances, extend the period referred to in subsection (2).
Contents of request
7(1) A request under section 6 must contain the following information:
(a) a copy of the Statement of No Resolution;
(b) a brief summary of the applicant’s position with respect to the matters that are in dispute.
(2) After the Director determines that a request contains all of the information required under subsection (1), the Director must
(a) provide written notice to the applicant indicating that the request meets those requirements, and
(b) forward the request to the Minister to decide whether to establish a committee.
Establishment of committee
8(1) Not later than 30 days after the Director has provided the applicant with written notice pursuant to section 7(2)(a), unless the Minister determines that additional time is required, the Minister must advise the Director whether a committee will be established.
(2) The Minister must agree to establish a committee unless, in the opinion of the Minister,
(a) the request
(i) is frivolous,
(ii) is vexatious, or
(iii) is without merit,
or
(b) the subject‑matter of the dispute has been dealt with by a previous committee.
(3) If the Minister agrees to establish a committee, the Department official and the applicant must, not later than 30 days after being requested by the Director, unless the Director extends that period, each nominate 3 individuals who have consented to participate as members of a committee.
(4) An individual shall not be nominated if the individual is an employee of the Department or the applicant or of an affiliated company of the applicant.
(5) The Director must provide the names of the persons nominated under subsection (3) to the Minister, and may make recommendations to the Minister as to the membership of the committee, including the chair.
(6) The Minister may request that additional nominations be submitted by the Department official or the applicant or both.
(7) Not later than 90 days after the date the Director has provided the names under subsection (5), unless the Minister determines that additional time is required, the Minister must establish a committee in accordance with section 7 of the Government Organization Act consisting of 3 members as follows:
(a) a chair;
(b) a nominee of the Department;
(c) a nominee of the applicant.
Powers and duties of a committee
9(1) A committee must
(a) conduct a fair, expeditious and impartial hearing of the matters in dispute, and
(b) subject to this section, establish rules and procedures for dealing with matters before it.
(2) Two members of the committee constitute a quorum.
(3) The committee may determine the admissibility, relevance and weight of evidence given and may require any person giving evidence before it to do so under oath.
(4) All oral evidence received must be taken down in writing or recorded by electronic means.
(5) The committee is not bound to hold an oral hearing but may instead make its decision based on written submissions.
(6) The committee may consider new information relevant to a dispute that was not available to the Director when considering the objection and issuing the Statement of No Resolution.
(7) All hearings must be held in private.
(8) In establishing procedures for hearing a dispute, the committee must, unless the Department official and the applicant otherwise agree,
(a) provide the Department official and the applicant with at least 28 days to prepare written submissions to be filed with the committee by a date specified by the committee, but that date must not be later than 21 days before the date the matters in dispute are to be reviewed by the committee,
(b) provide the Department official and the applicant with at least 14 days to prepare a response to the written submissions referred to in clause (a) to be filed with the committee by a date specified by the committee, but that date must not be later than 7 days before the date the matters in dispute are to be reviewed by the committee, and
(c) require the Department official and the applicant to provide a copy of the written submissions and response filed pursuant to clauses (a) and (b) to each other at the same time as those submissions are filed with the committee.
(9) Written submissions must include the following:
(a) a summary of the facts, evidence and arguments supporting the position of the party filing the submission;
(b) in a case where an oral hearing is to be held, a list of witnesses to be called by the party filing the submission and a summary of each witness’s evidence;
(c) the name and contact information of the lawyer or other agent acting on behalf of the party to the dispute.
Committee recommendations
10(1) The committee must provide the Director and the Department official
(a) with written recommendations, and reasons for its recommendations, not later than 30 days after the completion of the hearing, unless the Minister extends that period of time, and
(b) any supporting documentation on request of the Minister.
(2) The Minister, after having reviewed the recommendations and reasons, must make a decision to accept, reject or vary the recommendations of the committee and must deliver a copy of his or her decision to the Director.
(3) A decision under subsection (2) must be made within 30 days of the date the committee issued its written recommendations and reasons, unless the Minister determines that additional time is required.
(4) The Director must, not later than 7 days after receiving a decision of the Minister,
(a) provide a copy of the recommendations and reasons of the committee and the decision of the Minister to the Department official and the applicant, and
(b) publish or otherwise make available the documents referred to in clause (a), or a summary of them, in a manner the Director considers appropriate.
Costs
11(1) A committee must obtain the prior approval of the Minister before incurring any costs in the performance of its duties.
(2) The Department and the applicant must share equally in any costs incurred by the committee in the performance of its duties, including the remuneration and expenses of committee members.
Expiry
12 For the purpose of ensuring that this Regulation is reviewed for ongoing relevancy and necessity, with the option that it may be repassed in its present or an amended form following a review, this Regulation expires on September 1, 2017.
