Emergency Management
Through its Emergency Management Program, the NEB holds its regulated companies responsible for anticipating, preventing, managing and mitigating conditions during an emergency and for cleaning up and remediating contamination to NEB requirements and expectations. This also includes requirements for companies to have financial resources to pay for spill costs and damages. The NEB promotes the effectiveness of the broader emergency response through mutual agreements and information sharing with all levels of government, including municipalities, first responders, city planners and Indigenous groups.
While the prevention of incidents is our top priority, the NEB also believes that being prepared for any situation is a critical part of energy safety. NEB regulated companies must have robust emergency management programs that will anticipate and prevent incidents and manage conditions during an emergency.
Expected Emergency Management Program Outcomes…
- NEB-regulated companies are prepared for emergencies.
- Spills are cleaned up and contamination remediation is conducted in an efficient and effective manner.
- First responders and municipalities have the information they need to respond to emergencies
… to support the prevention of harm to people or the environment throughout the lifecycle of energy-related activities.
The percentage of companies’ emergency procedures manuals in compliance with NEB regulatory requirements on emergency management, to ensure that these manuals are up to our standards.
- Target 100%
- Results
2016-17 86% - Results
2017-18 99%
Number of incidents where the NEB takes over the company emergency response.
- Target 0
- Results
2016-17 0 - Results
2017-18 0
The percentage of regulated companies that are in compliance with the form and amount of financial responsibility set out in the NEB Act and regulations, or orders of the Board as required by the polluter pays principle, to ensure companies have appropriate funds set aside to respond to and remediate incidents.
- Target 100%
- Results
2016-17 100% - Results
2017-18 100%
Percentage of companies that have emergency procedures manuals publicly available, to ensure accessibility of the content of companies’ Emergency Procedures Manuals to the public and, in particular, to communities and municipalities where the facilities are located.
- Target 100%
- Results
2016-17 No Results - Results
2017-18 100%
Percentage of companies that have Emergency Management Program information publicly available, to ensure accessibility of Emergency Management Program information to the public and, in particular, to communities and municipalities where the facilities are located.
- Target 100%
- Results
2016-17 No Results - Results
2017-18 100%
Feedback drives improvements in Emergency Management
An increased focus and dedication of resources to address potential harm in the pipeline system has resulted in tangible outcomes in the NEB’s Emergency Management Program. In 2015, public feedback and NEB engagement activities highlighted concerns from municipalities, first-responder organizations and individual Canadians regarding a lack of available information on company emergency response plans and emergency response programs. This lack of publicly available information was seen as a weakness in the collective ability of a company, communities and related emergency services to effectively control and minimize the harms of a potential pipeline incident.
Since that time, the NEB invested significant efforts in understanding how to mitigate that risk, facilitating information sharing and collaboration among stakeholders, amending our filing manual to enhance the emergency management requirements in applications submitted to the Board and to increase transparency, and directing companies to make their Emergency Procedures Manuals (commonly referred to as Emergency Response Plans) as well as Emergency Management Program information available on their public websites. As of the end of March 2018, 100% of NEB-regulated companies have complied with this direction.
The NEB has designed a new compliance activity called an Emergency Management Inspection that includes meeting with and receiving input directly from emergency management stakeholders to ensure that they are receiving the information they require from NEB-regulated companies in order to be prepared to respond to a potential pipeline emergency. This will enhance the accountability of both the NEB and industry.
The percentage of spills where remediation is proceeding in accordance with the NEB Remediation Process Guide, to ensure the environment is protected and spills are cleaned up in an efficient, effective and timely manner.
- Target 100%
- Results
2016-17 100% - Results
2017-18 100%
Percentage of spills where monetary impacts are tracked by the NEB, to ensure transparency of spill costs to the public and to provide a source of information on reviewing and publishing financial liability requirements for spills that impact lands that are not owned by the company.
- Target 100%
- Results
2016-17 No Results - Results
2017-18 100%
Percentage of companies with effective liaison activities and continuing education programs (ss.34 and 35 Onshore Pipeline Regulations), to drive improvement in the information provided to first responders and municipalities through effective company liaison and continuing education programs.
- Target 100%
- Results
2016-17 No results - Results
2017-18 75%
In general, the Remediation Process Guide is triggered when contamination has impacted property not owned by the company, when an environmental site assessment shows that contamination is likely to proceed off company property or when the company chooses to execute remediation on its own property. There were 8 liquid releases in 2017, one of which impacted property not owned by the company.
Remediation of this release is proceeding in accordance with the Remediation Process Guide, and the company reports that the release has been entirely cleaned up. A total of $512,236 was spent in cleaning up this spill; that cost included $64,176 in environmental consulting fees, and $448,061 in environmental cleanup and disposal efforts. The NEB is awaiting the Remediation Closure Report.
Preparing to Respond – Together
When the NEB opened a Montreal Regional Office in 2015, we quickly learned that the main issue raised by Quebec stakeholders was regarding what could be expected in the case of a pipeline incident, and who would coordinate the emergency operations. NEB Engagement and Emergency Response Specialists began to engage with response organizations, pipeline companies, municipal responders, officials from the Sécurité civile du Québec and provincial and federal operational partners to address these concerns.
The results of these sustained efforts have been very positive. The NEB’s emergency management framework and expertise is well understood and integrated by our emergency management partners into pipeline emergency response planning. A new multi-jurisdictional pipeline response framework, Cadre de reference Intervention Pipeline (CRIP) has been developed to address coordination between companies, and municipal, provincial and federal responders.
Key NEB Emergency Response engagement activities in Quebec
- Giving presentations on multi-jurisdictional response to municipal Emergency Management representatives from Montreal, Quebec, Laval, Longueuil, Terrebonne, Sherbrooke, and Trois-Rivières
- Attending major Quebec emergency management symposia
- Developing active relationships with La Sécurité civile du Québec (SCQ)
- Testifying on emergency management practices in front of the Bureau d’audiences publiques en environnement (BAPE)
- Improving the Quebec system integration into the emergency procedures manuals of every company operating in Quebec
- Participating, for the first time, in the Federal Coordination Working Group – Quebec Region (FCWG), composed of federal emergency management coordinators from Public Safety Canada, Transport Canada and Health Canada, and the Federal Coordination Group
- Coordinating a NEB multi-jurisdictional pipeline exercise with more than 30 organizations from all levels of government