CLDP together with its institutional partner Extractive Resources Governance Program (ERGP) at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, co-hosted a workshop of 13 officials from Pakistan on Establishing an Effective and Independent Regulator in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  The 13 officials represented the Pakistani government entities that would be most involved in the restructuring of the upstream regulator. Over the four days, the workshop provided Pakistan with best practices of upstream regulators in federalist systems. 

Pakistan has sought to emulate Alberta as a key model for its reforms. Accordingly, a central feature of this workshop was a full overview of how the Province of Alberta regulates upstream and midstream oil and gas, the role and responsibilities of the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), and Alberta-Canada relations.  On the third day, the delegation had an extensive visit with the AER.

In addition to a comprehensive overview of the Alberta model and AER, the participants received tailored roundtable workshop sessions with top experts on what makes an effective regulator; ensuring independence in a regulator; fiscal policy and policy choices; stakeholder engagement; and the challenges of federalism.  The end of the workshop was an interactive exercise in which the participants had come to a consensus on a high-level regulatory roadmap showing the respective roles and responsibilities of the new PPEPRA and DGEP.