Kristyn Annis is a partner in our Business Law Group in Toronto. Her practice is in the area of energy (regulatory and general corporate) and Aboriginal law. Ms. Annis advises a wide range of clients across the energy sector in both gas and electricity and has experience advising clients with respect to First Nations and Métis issues. She also has experience advising clients on climate change issues.
Ms. Annis' experience includes:
· providing advocacy and advisory services to private and public sector clients on electricity and gas regulatory matters before the Ontario Energy Board;
· advising electrical utilities with respect to restructuring and acquisitions;
· providing strategic policy advice to clients on regulatory developments before the Ontario Energy Board including the development of enabler transmission expansion, distribution expansion, Aboriginal consultation and the development of Ontario's Integrated Power System Plan ;
· advising investors, vendors and purchasers on the financing, sale or acquisition (asset and share purchase) of renewable energy generation projects;
· advising developers on all aspects of large-scale wind and solar power projects, including the negotiation of financing agreements, wind turbine and solar panel supply agreements, EPC and interconnection agreements, due diligence matters and permitting;
· advising investors on all aspects of the financing and development of renewable energy generation projects;
· advising developers on all aspects of the financing and development of roof top solar photovoltaic generation projects;
· advising on the Ontario Power Authority's Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) and microFIT programs and contracts including, domestic content requirements, Aboriginal and community price-adders and electricity regulatory requirements;
· advising Crown corporations and industry on First Nations and Métis issues, in particular with respect to Aboriginal and treaty rights, consultation and development on reserve lands under the Indian Act and the First Nations Land Management Act;
· drafting partnership and benefit agreements between First Nations and non-Aboriginal commercial entities;
· advising mining clients with respect to securities laws issues, including NI 43-101 compliance issues, and acting on behalf of mining clients on private placement offerings and initial public offerings;
· providing clients with advice on climate change issues, including carbon credits, offsets, renewable portfolio standards and other environmental products.
Ms. Annis has a strong interest in policy issues affecting the energy sector, sustainability and Aboriginal peoples. Prior to joining McCarthy Tétrault, she served as senior policy advisor to two successive Ministers of Energy of Ontario: the Honourable Dwight Duncan and the Honourable Gerry Phillips.
She is the co-author of Treaty Rights in the Historic Treaties of Canada (University of Saskatchewan, 2010), the third in a series of contemporary themes in Aboriginal Law.
Ms. Annis has a degree in Civil Engineering from McGill University (2000) and a French Common Law Degree (LLB) from the Université d'Ottawa (2004), as well as the CSC from the Canadian Securities Institute (2006). She is fluent in English, French and Spanish.
Ms. Annis was called to the Ontario bar in 2005, and is a member of the Canadian Bar Association, the Law Society of Ontario and l'Association des juristes d'expression française de l'Ontario.