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Skeeter Wright and John Landry

Man loses challenge of LNG project decision

A Whitehorse man has lost his challenge of a recommendation by the Yukon Utilities Board approving Yukon Energy’s new backup generating plant powered by natural gas.

By Chuck Tobin on July 30, 2014

A Whitehorse man has lost his challenge of a recommendation by the Yukon Utilities Board approving Yukon Energy’s new backup generating plant powered by natural gas.

In the decision handed down Monday by Yukon Supreme Court Justice Ron Veale, Skeeter Wright was also ordered to pay a portion of Yukon Energy’s costs for legal fees paid out to oppose Wright’s challenge.

Wright was seeking a judicial review of the board’s recommendation. He had argued the board had failed to consider key evidence during the four-day public hearing on the project proposal held this past spring.

In a preliminary motion brought forward soon after Wright filed his petition last month, Yukon Energy asked the court to dismiss his action even before it was heard because he was not a party to the initial public hearing, and didn’t even apply to be one.

The Crown corporation also argued the matter should be tossed because the proper process for challenging the recommendation by the utilities board was not through the Yukon Supreme Court.

Following a hearing last Thursday on Yukon Energy’s motion, Veale agreed with the corporation on both counts, and has dismissed Wright’s request for a judicial review.

Yukon Energy spokeswoman Janet Patterson said officials are not commenting on Veale’s decision.

“We are just really trying to get on with the project, so we do not have anything to say,” she said.

Patterson said she spoke with Yukon Energy’s lawyer regarding the award of costs. He explained Wright will be required to pay a modest amount, well below the corporation’s actual cost of legal fees related to the case.

“It is unfortunate that the petition to the court was blocked by the Yukon Energy Corporation,” Wright said Tuesday.

“So now we have the energy corporation preventing the Yukon Utilities Board from seeing some natural gas cost information and the energy corporation has successfully blocked the courts from considering some of the natural gas cost information....

“I just find it kind of odd the public corporation will do what it can to prevent some of the price information being brought before the regulator.”

Construction of the new generating plant began earlier this month, two days after the Yukon government issued its approval of the project based on the positive recommendation from the utilities board.

During the four-day public hearing beginning last March 31, the lawyer representing the Yukon Conservation Society and John Maissan of Leading Edge Projects attempted to introduce graphs forecasting future prices for natural gas versus diesel fuel.

The graphs, which were said to be the product of the U.S. Energy Information Administration, were sent to John Landry, Yukon Energy’s lawyer, two days before the hearings began.

At that time, Landry informed the other lawyer he would object to the graphs becoming part of the record, as they were arriving at the last minute with no evidence to support who produced them and why.

The board, he argued in his objection during the hearing, had laid out the ground rules regarding the use of material for the purpose of cross-examining Yukon Energy officials about their proposal.

Landry said it would be unfair to ask his client questions about graphs they had not seen before, and knew nothing about.

The board agreed, and disallowed the material as aids for cross-examination, though the board did allow the conservation society’s lawyer to ask questions about future price forecasts for the two fuels.

Wright filed his petition for a judicial review based on the board’s decision to disallow the graphs.

Yukon Energy followed up with its request to have the petition thrown out before it saw the light of day.

Landry told Justice Veale last Thursday Wright did not have a private interest in the case as defined by the court, because he didn’t participate in the hearing and didn’t even apply to be an intervener.

The conservation society and Lead Edge didn’t appeal the board’s decision to deny their pricing graphs, he pointed out.

Landry said under Yukon legislation, a challenge of a decision by the board must first go back to the board with a request to review and vary the decision.

If the party is still not happy, he or she must go to the Yukon Court of Appeal, a step above the Yukon Supreme Court, he said.

Furthermore, Landry emphasized, the courts have ruled when a case has no chance of success, it should be dismissed immediately to save everybody time and money.

Wright argued he couldn’t participate in the four days of public hearings because he had to work.

He did, however, participate in the public meeting held on the night of the first day to gather input from the general public, and therefore should be viewed as a party to public hearing, he argued.

Veale agreed with Yukon Energy’s lawyer on all fronts.

“I conclude that the petition has no reasonable prospect of success,” the judge writes in his 10-page decision.

“... This does not suggest that his viewpoint on the general issue of the pricing of natural gas and diesel fuel has no merit but rather it says that the denial of the use of the graphs as an aid in cross-examination does not amount to a denial of natural justice for a non-party who chose not to participate as a party in the production and testing of evidence.”

Veale also ruled Wright’s attempt to seek a judicial review by the Yukon Supreme Court was the wrong legal path to follow, and amounted to an abuse of process.

As the challenge had no reasonable chance of success, Yukon Energy is entitled to recover some of its costs, the judge ruled.

But he also noted that awarding the Crown corporation all or most of its cost would amount to punishing Wright, and would be a deterrent for others in the future who feel they have valid claims to pursue.

During the hearing last Thursday, Wright suggested to Veale Yukon Energy was seeking costs to send out the message that if anybody dare challenge the publicly-owned utility, they’ll pay.

Comments (3)

Up 0 Down 7

DHardly on Aug 1, 2014 at 8:57 am

... and the troglobites emerge

Up 15 Down 1

bill williams on Jul 31, 2014 at 12:08 pm

Mr. Wright lost all credibility with me when his so called squatters rights gave him a lot at McLean lake..He is opposed to development yet still uses an outhouse allowing fecal coliforms to go into the lake. He was allowed on the water board but his politics were never part of his decision (sarc intended). Mr. Wright would have never been here if the development of this great country we call Yukon would have never happened.

Up 16 Down 1

South Park Bartender on Jul 31, 2014 at 8:56 am

Now now Skeeter, LNG ain't hurtin' anybody

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