The ‘Danielle Knows Best’ Show Rolls On

Alberta moved one step closer to becoming a banana republic last week.

Premier Danielle Smith announced she will use the Sovereignty Act to combat the federal government’s cap on emissions by putting forward a motion that will give her government more control over energy companies.

Smith is proposing sweeping legislation and regulations.

The changes will declare the greenhouse gas emissions data collected in Alberta by an energy company to be “proprietary information and data... owned exclusively by the Government of Alberta.” In other words, Smith’s government will give itself the power to seize the company’s data.

They will also prohibit companies from reporting or disclosing such data to anyone but her government. Smith will then release aggregate emissions data to the public and will report GHG data to the feds on behalf of the companies.

This puts global energy companies in a bind since they must disclose such data in accordance with international filing requirements. And they regularly disclose such data to investors.

All corporate disclosures must be consistent. If there are material misstatements or omissions between what Smith tells the public and the feds and what the companies tell their regulators and investors, the companies are open to litigation. At the very least, the companies should demand the government indemnify them from damages resulting from the government taking control of the disclosure process as it relates to GHG emissions from their facilities located in Alberta.

The changes will also restrict access to the company’s facilities. Only owners, employees, contractors and people specifically authorized by the government (let’s call them “insiders”) will be allowed on site.

I’m curious. What’s Smith going to do if it’s an insider, not an outsider, who, pursuant to federal law, tells the federal government the emissions cap has been breached? Tar and feather them?

And the government promises to ensure no provincial entity helps the feds implement or enforce the emissions cap. But how?

Why is Smith doing this?

Smith insists that the legislation imposing the emissions cap (even as amended to comply with the Supreme Court of Canada’s advice) still violates provincial jurisdiction. She’s taking a reference case to court to see if she’s right. And that’s fine.

The reference case should have been sufficient, but Smith went further. She’s bringing forward this draconian legislation under the Sovereignty Act.

To what purpose? Smith says she’s protecting the energy companies by seizing their GHG emissions data and reporting it on their behalf. These are multibillion-dollar companies; I’m fairly certain they can do this for themselves.

At what cost? How many civil servants will Smith need to add to gather an energy company’s GHG data, to analyze it and aggregate it and to feed it back to the public? To figure out what the disclosure should be before they feed it to the feds? To ensure the disclosure aligns with what the energy company is telling its international regulators and investors? To sign off on the disclosure in time to allow companies to meet their securities filing deadlines? Your guess is as good as mine.

How confident will energy companies and their investors be once Smith and Energy Minister Brian Jean and Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz and Smith aide Rob Anderson and God knows who else start telling them how to run this part of their business?

And how effective will any of this be in stopping the feds from implementing the cap on emissions?

“Companies should look at this and thank us for this, for being willing to protect them from federal government overreach,” Smith said. “We’re anticipating that this should be welcomed by the energy sector.”

Really, Danielle? I wouldn’t bank on it.