The Altius coal royalty referred to below refers to the thermal (electrical) coal produced from the Genesee Mine located in Alberta, Canada.
In 2015 the Government of Alberta introduced its Climate Leadership Plan, which in particular changed its policies regarding coal-fired electrical power generation. At the time it publicly acknowledged that the objective of the Plan, to completely phase out coal-based electrical generation capacity by 2030, would have a negative economic impact on stakeholders that had made investments in its integrated coal electricity sector under previous policy regimes. Alberta elected to provide transition payments to impacted electrical generation stations as a means of compensation for resulting stranded investments and to ensure continuing investor confidence in the province. After attempting unsuccessfully to seek positive engagement with the Alberta government respecting payments to the Corporation as a result of its stranded investments, in November 2018 Altius commenced action against Alberta and against Canada, which had similarly taken action to phase out coal-fired electrical generation across Canada, by filing a Statement of Claim in the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta. The suit claimed $190,000,000 in damages while describing actions that Altius believes were tantamount to expropriation of its royalty interest in the integrated Genesee Mine and power plant in Alberta. The suit also claimed an unlawful taking of its property and undue interference with its economic interests. Proceedings continued as set forth in the documents set forth below, and on January 4, 2021, by a Decision of a Master of the Court of Queen’s Bench, the applications of Alberta and Canada to dismiss the Altius Statement of Claim on a summary basis and without a trial was granted. Altius believed that this decision was in error and incorrectly applied the law on taking and constructive expropriation and appealed the decision of the Master to the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta, which on April 8, 2022 dismissed the Appeal. Altius has further appealed this decision to the Court of Appeal of Alberta, which appeal was temporarily held in abeyance pending the outcome of a Supreme Court of Canada case on an unrelated constructive taking matter, which was subsequently announced on October 21, 2022. The press release of Altius on the implications of that case dated October 24, 2022 is included below. The parties (Altius, Alberta and Canada) have since submitted their factums on the appeal and a hearing date before the Court of Appeal of November 9, 2023 has now been set. The decision was published April 4, 2024, and Altius issued a press release April 5, 2024 reporting that the Court of Appeal upheld the earlier decision to summarily dismiss Altius's claim on the grounds that it did not believe that the legal test for constructive taking or de facto expropriation was met.
New documents relating to this matter will be posted to the website as they become available.
