Second report chides energy board for spying

Alberta's energy and utilities regulator has been accused for the second time in two weeks of overstepping its authority, hiring private detectives to spy on citizens involved in public hearings into a new power corridor between Edmonton and Calgary.

The detectives hired by the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board should not have joined a conference call organized by landowners opposed to the utility corridor, former justice Del Perras said in a government-commissioned report released Monday.

The private investigators also attended a public hearing in Rimbey in central Alberta.

Perras also recommended board members get better training on how to handle unruly crowds at public hearings, and that the government revisit legislation that governs transmission facilities in Alberta.

Last week, Alberta's privacy commissioner released a report that found the board's use of undercover detectives had breached privacy rules.

Other documents also revealed that the regulator hired plainclothes security to monitor a public hearing into an upgrader project in Redwater, near Edmonton.

Energy Minister Mel Knight called the use of plainclothes security "wrong and unnecessary" and said it damaged the reputation of the energy regulator.

The government accepts the report's recommendations and a security policy is being developed for energy regulatory hearings, he said.

"When needed, all security personnel will be easily identifiable at hearings," Knight said in a release.

The opposition parties say the spying has destroyed the energy board's credibility with Albertans, so the board should be replaced.

But a spokesman in Premier Ed Stelmach's office said no such disciplinary action is planned.

Knight also announced William Tilleman, a Calgary lawyer and former chairman of the Environmental Appeals Board, as the energy board's new chairman, replacing Neil McCrank, who's retiring.