This paper explores selected contracting issues under energy supply agreements in the context of the Alberta marketplace. For purposes of this paper, the term ‘energy supply agreement’ will be used when referring to either an energy supply agreement between a consumer and a retailer or a direct sales agreement between a buyer and a direct seller.
The corporate opportunity doctrine is a prophylactic and, some might say, restrictive rule which prohibits fiduciaries from taking for themselves or diverting to an associate or affiliate a maturing business opportunity which their beneficiary is actively pursuing, or which their beneficiary can be said to have some connection to or expectancy of, and which the beneficiary might have had an interest in pursuing had the fiduciary disclosed its existence to him or her.
This paper will focus particularly on the western Canadian venture capital market and provide an outline of a typical venture capital investment in a Canadian company including the provisions that a venture capital will ask for in a term sheet and subsequent definitive documentation.
A brief discussion of different approaches to “ethical investment” and the current status of such investment in Canada, together with a legal analysis and the obstacles to overcome if considering adoption of an ethical investment policy.