Calgary (Platts)--23Nov2012/809 am EST/1309 GMT

The legislative assembly in Canada's Alberta province passed legislation Thursday to set up a single regulator by June 2013 to monitor oil, natural gas, oil sands and coal development and also reduce red tape and long delays in project approvals.

Under the law called the Responsible Energy Development Act, or Bill 2, a new agency -- the Alberta Energy Regulator -- will take over the responsibilities of the three provincial regulators -- the Energy Resources Conservation Board, Alberta Environment and Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, the provincial government said.

"The act achieves the right balance, as it improves participation rights of landowners, provides regulatory certainty for energy companies and upholds our long-standing commitment to the environment. The single regulatory approach is something this province needs and this is the right time," Alberta's Energy Minister Ken Hughes said in a statement.

The new regulator will be governed by a board of directors, with a chief executive officer. Also, a transparent and accountable appeals process will be established and hearings will be conducted by independent hearing commissioners, Hughes said.

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The setting up of a unified regulator comes nearly two years after the ruling Progressive Conservative party set up a regulatory enhancement taskforce to streamline the working of Alberta's energy regulators.

Ram Varadarajan, a vice-president with Canadian oil sands startup Black Pearl Resources said it takes about 5-7 years to receive regulatory approvals in Alberta, resulting in cost escalation and cancellation of projects.

"International and Canadian oil companies are expected to invest nearly C$60 billion [$60.2 billion] in 2013 in Alberta's oil sands. A single-window clearance system will now facilitate approvals and the process will become more predictable," he said.

On October 18, his company submitted an application to the ERCB seeking approval to build a 80,000 b/d in-situ oil sands facility in northern Alberta.

Meanwhile, the act has drawn criticism from the opposition Wildrose Party in Alberta, with its leader Danielle Smith alleging Thursday that Bill 2 has been criticized by landowners, industry experts, academics, lawyers and other key stakeholders as a "colossal gaffe by the Alberta government," and "sloppy legal drafting and bad policy as it strips the most affected by energy projects of their legal right."

"We had a chance to make this law work for Albertans and have productive solutions to get it done through additional amendments, but this government has failed to listen to the concerns of landowners and industry groups in Alberta," she said, in a statement.

Hughes said certain amendments were made to the bill including making it mandatory for the new regulatory agency to issue a public notice for all project applications it receives and allowing a stakeholder to file a complaint.

"We know there is more work to do and in the new year we will be consulting stakeholders on the issue of landowners rights. Albertans will always retain access to courts if their issues are not addressed by the new regulator," Hughes said.

--Ashok Dutta, newsdesk@platts.com
--Edited by Elston Soares, elston_soares@platts.com

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