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What the Future Holds

The past several years have seen the Canada Energy Regulator and its predecessor agency at the convergence of a number of new developments and external forces. As the CER moves forward, the Canadian Energy Regulator Act will continue to shape the future of the Commission.

The CER Act, along with the Impact Assessment Act,⁶ introduced new rules to regulate resource development and energy transmission project proposals in Canada. Its new ‘one project, one review’ approach allows integrated review panels for major projects that involve several federal regulators, making it possible to have just one assessment for each major project.

This new approach will clearly impact the future work of the Commission. The CER has already begun working with the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada on one of those new projects - the Gazoduq pipeline - a proposed natural gas pipeline that would flow from Ontario to Québec. It is possible that within the next reporting year, the Gazoduq proposed pipeline may become the first formal joint project application reviewed by the CER and the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada.

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Another area of future work for the Commission relates to the establishment of the CER as the regulator of offshore renewable energy projects. Towards that end, the CER and the Commission will be building their capacity to regulate those facilities in the coming reporting year.

In the next year, the work of the Commission will be informed by the external environment in which it operates. Some of the issues that the Commission is alive to and will continue to monitor include: the volatility in current energy markets and its impact on the financial circumstances of CER regulated industries; the economic aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic; the continued progress towards reconciliation by Canada and Indigenous Peoples; and developments regarding Canada’s greenhouse gas commitments and obligations – to name only a few.

While external forces impacting the Commission and the CER will continue to shift, the Commission’s mandate moving forward will fundamentally remain the same - working for Canadians to keep energy moving safely and efficiently through our country’s pipelines and powerlines, both now and into the future.