Westmoreland v. Canada

In November 2018 the Mining Company Westmoreland Coal Company submitted a notice of arbitration and statement of claim under Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement. In it, the company argued that it was unlawfully excluded from a scheme developed to compensate investors for losses associated with the Alberta government's Climate Leadership Plan, which accelerated the deadline for the phase out of coal power to 2030. The company argued that, as the only US investor in Alberta's coal industry, it was excluded from the compensation scheme while Canadian companies were able to benefit from it. This was a violation of Article 1102 and Article 1105 of NAFTA, which guarantee investors domiciled in member states national treatment and guarantee fair and equitable dealings. The company acknowledged the Government's need to "enact regulations for the public good" but argued that they must also behave fairly to foreign investors. In January 2022 the arbitral tribunal dismissed the claim. Following the initial filing of the claim by the Westmoreland Coal Company, control of the relevant assets had changed hands during bankruptcy proceedings, and the purchaser, Westmoreland Mining Holdings LLC had sought to continue the claim. The arbitrators concluded that the new entity no longer entitled to pursue the claim, with no substantial discussion of the substantive merits in the matter.