A scandal that has plagued Alberta's energy regulator has become an international incident, with the Montana government wanting to know whether its citizens were spied on by an arms-length agency of the Alberta government.

Ken Toole of Montana's Public Service Commission said Wednesday that while he doesn't have full information on the issue, what he has heard about the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board is troubling.

"It is of great concern to me if any citizen group is being monitored by government agencies because they oppose a power line or a power plant or oil well or —whatever," he said.

"I believe in civil liberties, and I don't think it's appropriate that government agencies monitor citizens who are protesting something they don't like, as long as they're lawful."

Earlier in August, the provincial NDP released documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act that showed the board hired a private investigator to pose as a concerned citizen and infiltrate a group of landowners opposing the construction of a 500-kilovolt power line between Calgary and Edmonton.

Bob Curran, a spokesman with the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, said Wednesday that Montana officials have asked the agency whether their residents were being monitored.

"I assumed that it meant something like an actual ongoing program, something more sophisticated as opposed to one private investigator sitting in on a conference call," Curran said.

"I said we hired private investigators to provide security at our hearing, but not surveillance of citizen groups."

'I think it's an outrage'

James Roof, an environmentalist in Montana who participated in conference calls with Alberta landowners, said he can't believe investigators were keeping tabs on landowners opposed to a power line.

"I think it's an outrage and I think it speaks very poorly for the state of democracy in Alberta," Roof said. "What I think needs to happen is that these government officials that organized this and set up this spying are held accountable."

Landowners in Alberta were in contact with Roof about his opposition to a separate line that would connect Alberta and Montana. The groups believe the two lines are part of a larger plan to export electricity to the United States from Canada.

Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason said the Montana commissioner's interest is further proof that there is something wrong with the board.

"It really strikes me that other jurisdictions take this kind of thing a lot more seriously than [Premier] Ed Stelmach and his Conservative government," Mason said.

"And that is disturbing to me, that they don't seem to understand just how wrong this is."

Three investigations into the case have been launched in Alberta, one by Stelmach.

Residents worry about health effects

Landowners living near the proposed route of the power line are concerned about possible health effects and have complained the board has already decided on approval.

In April, board staff said they were physically threatened in three incidents at a public hearing into the project. Afterward, the board decided to accept only written submissions and close the courtroom in the central Alberta town of Rimbey.

Landowners were moved into a nearby recreation centre to watch the proceedings on television.

Board spokesman Davis Sheremata said in June the energy regulator had hired security officers to keep an eye on the landowners watching the hearings in the recreation centre.

The landowners said the private investigators were actually spies and their lawyer called for the hearings to be restarted.

With files from the Canadian Press