National Energy Board marks 50 years as industry watchdog
Group oversees cases ranging from pipeline toll technicalities to megaproject approvals that change livelihoods, the environment and society
Job two for Caron is “to improve the way we engage Canadians. They continually want to be more engaged in public decision-making processes. We see that in virtually every one of our proceedings.” He reports that public demand for a say on energy matters is also on the rise in supervision of developments after they are approved, at every stage including construction, operations and eventual abandonment. There are questions about whether project sponsors fulfil conditions of approvals from safety and environmental practices to compliance with technical and financial requirements.
After finishing tightly focused consultations on improving relations between private landowners and builders of energy facilities, the NEB is embarking on a similar but potentially wider effort to foster constructive participation by environmental non-government organizations in the regulatory process. Talks with green groups include exploring methods, known as “sustainability assessment,” of integrating economic, environmental and social issues into energy decisions in ways that improve rather than halt projects, Caron says.
Job three for the NEB is to implement a regulatory counterpart to a mammoth corporate merger. As of April 29, the national agency took over supervising one of North America’s biggest energy installations, TransCanada Corp.’s Nova natural gas pipeline grid, from the ERCB and the Alberta Public Utilities Board.
The acquisition makes the NEB responsible for about 25,000 kilometers of pipelines, ranging from small feeders to jumbo mains, reaching into every corner of Alberta. The federal agency also becomes watchdog over industry relations with thousands of landowners along the lines.
Unlike national and international routes that have been the NEB’s main pipeline interest to date, the Alberta gas grid constantly changes as new production is developed, old wells are discarded and markets such as thermal oil sands projects and power generation evolve. The web will also expand. The Alberta government agreed to the jurisdictional transfer as a growth move. The switch lets TransCanada extend Nova to new gas fields in British Columbia by building boundary crossings that need federal approval.
Caron aims to make the regulatory takeover with Calgary-style efficiency. He vows to hold the NEB down close to its current 350 employees, or about 25 per cent fewer than the personnel record of 475 set in 1984.
The agency’s size peaked when the bygone National Energy Program required supervision of oil and gas transactions in intimate detail. Bureaucratic growth is not on Caron’s agenda. He admires previous chairman Ken Vollman for implementing “goal-oriented” regulation that sets standards in areas such as safety and reliability but lets companies determine how to satisfy them.
“The regulator cannot be a police officer that checks everything,” Caron says. “You want industry to own their own successes and be accountable.”
Regulation NEB-style is not just tedious official control and nagging. Caron is far from bored after 30 years with the board that began as soon as he finished his degree in rural engineering. “I’ve felt every day’s been like starting a new job,” he says. “I ask myself, what did we do well yesterday and what can we do better today?”
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