George Vegh
Biography
Energy Regulation & Governance Advisor | Former Chair, Canada Energy Regulator
George Vegh advises governments, regulators, boards, and investors on high-stakes energy and infrastructure decisions, particularly where regulatory independence, political pressure, and institutional design intersect.
He is the former Chair of the Canada Energy Regulator, where he led Canada’s national energy regulator during a period of heightened scrutiny driven by the energy transition, Indigenous reconciliation, and expanding regulatory mandates. His responsibilities included institutional governance, adjudicative decision-making, and stewardship of regulatory credibility in contested environments.
George previously served as General Counsel of the Ontario Energy Board and practiced energy regulatory law for more than two decades, including as co-leader of a national energy regulatory practice. His experience spans electricity and natural gas markets, infrastructure development, and regulatory reform.
He is a Senior Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and Program Director of the Masters’ Program in Energy and Infrastructure Law at Osgoode Hall Law School, where he teaches energy policy, regulation, and institutional governance. He is widely published and frequently called upon to provide expert testimony and international advisory support on regulatory reform.
Focus areas
- Regulatory governance and independence
- Energy market design and oversight
- Institutional and mandate reform
- Energy transition and net-zero regulation
Board-level decision-making under political pressure
Updated Feb 2026
Select publications
- Towards the Creation of an Indigenous Energy Regulator, TMX Annual Line Wide Meeting of the Indigenous Advisory Monitoring Committee (2025)
- Is the Era of Independent Economic Energy Regulation Over? (Northwinds Conference, 2025).
- Emerging Frameworks for Energy Regulation (Chautauqua, New York, 2024).
- The Energy Transition: New Approaches to Regulation (Public Policy Forum, Regulators Dialogue, November, 2022).
- Energy Regulation and Net zero (Public Policy Forum, September, 2022).
- Electrification: The Collaborative Future of Energy (June, 2022).
- How to Improve Ontario Energy Forecasting, Ontario 360 (October, 2021).
- Electricity Procurements in Ontario: Time for a New Approach, Ontario 360 (February, 2020).
- The Regulatory Compact, presentation to Canadian Association of Members of Public Utility Tribunals Round Table (May, 2019)
- Innovation in Regulation, presentation to Canadian Electricity Association (May, 2019)
- Expert Testimony to Ontario Legislative Assembly Committee on Energy sector Governance under Bill 87 (April, 2019)
- Report to the Chair of the Ontario Energy Board, Advisory Committee on Innovation (December, 2018)
- Establishing Evidence-Based Analysis of Ontario’s Energy Procurement, Ontario 360, (April, 2018)
- Investigating Energy Market Activity in Ontario, in The Guide to Energy Market Manipulation (Global Competition Review) (February, 2018).
- Energy Governance in Ontario, A Report to the Ontario Energy Association and the Association of Power Producers of Ontario (November, 2017)
- How Ontario can End the Cycle of Meddling in Electricity Markets, April, 2017 (Globe and Mail)
- Setting Limits on Queen’s Park’s Power over Electricity Markets (CD Howe), (March, 2017)
- Cap and Trade and Governance: Ontario energy agency could correct province's past policy mistakes, May, 2016 (Globe and Mail)
- Improving Governance in the Ontario Electricity Sector (February, 2016, CD Howe)
- Expert Testimony to Ontario Legislative Assembly Committee on Procurement and Siting (September, 2013)
- Reconnecting Supply and Demand: How Improving Electricity Pricing Can Help Integrate a Changing Supply Mix, Increase Efficiency, and Empower Customers: Report of the Chair of the Electricity Market Forum (December, 2011)
- “How Energy Institutions Set the Price for Electricity,” in Doug Reeve, Donald Dewees & Bryan Karney, Current Affairs – Perspectives on Electricity Policy for Ontario (University of Toronto Press, 2010)
- The Green Energy and Economy Act: Green Energy Unbounded, University of Toronto Law Faculty Blog (February 25, 2009)
- “A Watch Dog’s Limits” Editorial, Globe & Mail, January 30, 2008;
- Advocacy Centre for Tenants – Ontario v. Ontario Energy Board: Public Utility Rate-Rate-Making: Economic Regulation or Taxation? Case Comment: (2008), 87 Can. Bar Review, 549.
- “Is there a Doctrine of Canadian Public Utility Law?” (2007), 86 Can. Bar Rev. 319;
- Electricity Competition in Ontario (1998), 16 Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law 114
- “The Characterization of Barriers to Interprovincial Trade under the Canadian Constitution,” (1996), 34 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 355;
- Student Companion to Administrative Law (Toronto: Butterworths, 1996).
- Does Quebec have the Right to Secede at International Law? (1995), 74 Canadian Bar Review 225 (co-authored with Neil Finkelstein and Camille Joly).
- The Separation of Quebec and the Constitution of Canada (Toronto: York University Centre for Public Law and Public Policy, 1992) (co-authored with Neil Finkelstein)
- Making the Law: The Courts and the Constitution (Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman, 1991) (co-authored with John T. Saywell).
Awards & recognition
- Consistently ranked as a leading lawyer in his field by Chambers, Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, International Financial Law Review, American Lawyer, Lexpert, and the Legal 500
- Leadership roles on the OEB Chair’s Committee on Innovation, and the IESO Electricity Market Forum
- Expert testimony to committees of the Ontario Legislative Assembly
- Advised on regulatory structural reform in Kenya, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand
- Chair of the Ontario Energy Association, Vice-Chair of the Association of Power Producers of Ontario
- Leading industry task forces on Distribution Rate Regulation; Infrastructure Renewal; Distributed Generation; and Transmission Connection for Renewable Generation