Northback Coal employees at the former coal mine on Grassy Mountain north of Blairmore, Alta, June 27, 2024.Gavin John/The Globe and Mail
Internal e-mails between hearing commissioners at Alberta’s energy watchdog detail concerns that the conduct of chief executive Rob Morgan on two separate occasions could “undermine the authority and autonomy” of their work.
A series of e-mails between Mr. Morgan, a coal-mining company and the Alberta Energy Minister’s office about a mine application had earlier raised questions about the independence of the Alberta Energy Regulator. And the latest documents show worries within the agency itself.
The e-mails were uncovered by a freedom of information request by the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation and shared with The Globe and Mail.
Sheldon Sunshine, Chief of Sturgeon Lake, said reading them was “frustrating.” He believes they undermine the independence of AER’s processes and said he would like to see an overhaul of the agency.
The e-mails concern two separate incidents.
The first was a meeting between Mr. Morgan, AER board chair Duncan Au and representatives of coal mining company Northback Holdings Corp., a subsidiary of Australian mining giant Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd.
Northback had controversial exploration, drilling and water-diversion applications in front of the regulator at the time, and the meeting occurred less than a month before commissioners rendered a decision on May 15, 2025, that allowed the work to go ahead.
“Why on earth did they think it was appropriate to meet with Northback before the decision was issued?” commissioner Meg Barker wrote to her colleagues Alex Bolton, Parand Meysami, Shona Mackenzie and chief commissioner Andrew MacPherson.
“Messrs. Morgan and Au agreeing to meet with NB before the decision was issued was an egregious error in judgement and entirely inappropriate,” she wrote.
Ms. Barker wrote to her colleagues the day after a May, 2025, article was published in The Tyee about the April meeting between Mr. Morgan, Mr. Au and Northback representatives, including a senior executive.
Mr. Bolton replied that he agreed the optics were “not good,” adding that such events “may undermine the integrity” of the hearings process.
However, companies regulated by the AER “will always look for opportunities to discuss and seek redress for matters of importance to them,” he said, and “it may be politically difficult for the CEO or Chair to refuse to meet” with them.
Mr. Bolton added that he “would hope/expect that the CEO and Chair understand which topics can and cannot be discussed” with a company that has an application before the hearing commissioners.
“This situation reinforces why the current structure is the way it is, with the hearing commissioners conducting their work independently and without influence from the AER’s executive leadership or chair of the AER,” he wrote.
Ms. Meysami replied that she was “very disappointed.”
“It is critical to preserve the trust of public, and maintain the legitimacy of the decision-making process by respecting these rules that the panel is completely independent and separate from day to day operation of the regulator,” she wrote.
Premier Danielle Smith rescinded Ms. Meysami’s appointment as a commissioner on Jan. 21. The office of the Energy Minister told The Globe this week it was an “HR/personnel” decision.
The AER did not make Mr. Morgan available this week for an interview, but the media department said in a statement that “the regulator acknowledges concerns raised by the Hearing Commissioners about the timing of the meeting” with Northback.
“The meeting was part of normal engagement with a regulated party and there was no discussion of any applications before the AER,” it said.
The second issue raised in the e-mails was Mr. Morgan’s decision to cancel an application hearing for a new coal mine – the first time in the agency’s history that any CEO had made such a move.
Summit Coal Inc., a subsidiary of Valory Resources Inc., wants to build an underground mine for steelmaking coal near Grande Cache, about 430 kilometres west of Edmonton.
AER commissioners judged a hearing was necessary and set the quasi-judicial proceeding for Oct. 21, 2025. But Mr. Morgan quashed the panel’s ruling – a move that he acknowledged in his Aug. 21, 2025, letter to Summit and environmental groups was “without precedent.”
In an Aug. 23, 2025, email to Mr. MacPherson, commissioner Tracey Stock called Mr. Morgan’s decision “gravely concerning,” saying it “undermines the authority and autonomy of the HCO and appears likely inconsistent with law.”
Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation has applied to become an intervenor in an Alberta Court of Appeal case challenging the cancellation of the Summit hearing.
“The CEO making decisions on behalf of the AER, that’s not an impartial decision,” Mr. Sunshine said. “Having those hearing commissioners concerned about the partiality of those decisions, it just undermines the whole system.”
He plans to raise the issue during a meeting with Premier Smith next week, he said.
AER’s media department said the Summit decision e-mails demonstrate that the hearing commissioners “operate independently, with a clear focus on safeguarding impartiality of the adjudicative function.”