​​​Inaugural AUC Annual Report Card identifies work done in 2019-2020 fiscal year and a commitment to further process improvements​​​

The AUC has issued its first annual report card​​, a detailed report setting out our accomplishments in 2019-2020, making it easier for stakeholders to assess in a simple, straightforward way whether the AUC has met its objectives. The AUC Annual Report Card 2019-2020 can be found here.

For the first time, the AUC has quantified the benefits of its initiatives it has taken and is taking to reduce regulatory burden and improve efficiency. The goal is to, where possible, identify or estimate the monetary benefits resulting from our actions.

The report card is one of three parts of the AUC’s annual planning and assessment framework, complemented by the AUC Strategic Plan 2019-2022 and the 2020-2021 Operational Plan. It replaces our annual review​.

The report card and the AUC’s overall planning framework reflects the outcome of multiple consultations with stakeholders in the industry and elsewhere. The AUC has strived to produce a strategic plan, operational plan and a report card that identifies goals and accomplishments in a clear, concise and focus-driven manner. The strategic and operational plans coalesce around four themes of efficiency and limiting regulatory burden, competition and markets, infrastructure, and people.

Many of this past year’s initiatives were focused on boosting AUC efficiency and reductions in regulatory burden. The AUC will continue its commitment to find efficiencies in its process while maintaining its quality and necessary regulatory work.

Some examples of the work underway in 2019-2020 include:

• Regulatory Burden Reduction Roundtables: On October 4, 2019 the AUC held a roundtable with stakeholders to gather feedback on regulatory burden. We also invited parties to provide us with written submissions. In total we received 16 written submissions and approximately 50 participants attended the roundtable. We asked for comments in three areas: defining regulatory burden, suggested areas for improvement and next steps. We grouped the suggestions into three main areas and took action immediately to address some of the concerns. However, it was clear that the major priority for AUC stakeholders was for the AUC to address its timeliness in determining major rate cases.​

• To reflect the stakeholder priority on streamlining the process for major rates cases, the AUC created an independent three-member committee of outside experts with deep regulatory experience to review stakeholder submissions made to the AUC, to the Alberta government and to invite stakeholder submissions on its own. The committee is expected to deliver a report in July on how changes can be implemented.​

• Project Green Light: Project Green Light is a new grassroots program to transform the way we work by enabling our staff to drive and pace innovation and change at the AUC. The process established to “green light” projects clears the way for all staff to develop and implement innovative ideas and approaches to increase efficiency and improve our processes by challenging the existing ways we do our work. It is a Commission-wide effort to empower staff to deliver on outcomes and seek new ways of executing to ensure decisions are made rapidly. The first of the initiatives was a streamlined process to resolve boundary disputes between a distribution company and rural electrification associations. It reduced historical processing times by 75 per cent.​​

• Another example was the implementation of a pilot “trusted traveler” approach​ to certain low-​risk applications, replacing the lengthy formal application process with a simple one-page checklist.​