Sonya Savage

Expert Overview

Sonya Savage is Senior Counsel at Borden Ladner Gervais (BLG). She also sits on the Board of Directors for E3 Lithium Ltd and Reconciliation Energy Transition Inc, as well as Navigator’s Expert Panel on the Purpose of the Corporation.  Prior to returning to the legal profession, she served as a Senior Minister in the Alberta Government, as Minister of Energy, Minister of Environment and Protected Areas and Minister of Justice and Solicitor General.

Prior to being elected, Savage was a leading advocate in the energy industry. A lifelong Albertan, Savage started her career practising law before working for 13 years in the pipeline industry, at Enbridge and the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association.  She earned a Master of Laws in Environment and Energy in 2015 with a published thesis on the evolving role of the National Energy Board.

As Minister of Energy, she led the Ministry during the global pandemic and price collapse, representing the province at OPEC meetings and across North America and Europe.  She implemented a liability management framework to help accelerate reclamation of oil and gas wells, overhauled the Alberta Energy Regulator, and modernized Alberta’s legal, policy and fiscal frameworks in new and emerging growth areas, including strategies to accelerate energy transition investments in critical minerals, hydrogen, geothermal, energy storage, and Small Modular Reactors.  In 2022 she developed the province’s framework to advance Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) through CCUS hubs, allocating pore space to 25 projects across the province in 2022.

As Minister of Environment and Protected Areas she developed Alberta’s net-zero climate strategy – the Emissions Reduction and Energy Development Plan in 2023.  She retired from politics in 2023 and returned to private practice where she continues to provide strategic advice on energy transition opportunities across Canada.