Condition Compliance and Lifecycle Approach

The CER oversees all aspects of the North Corridor Expansion Project including:

• Compliance with Conditions
• Operation and Maintenance
• Indigenous Monitoring Program
• Post Construction
• Compliance and Enforcement

How Does the CER Ensure a Pipeline is Safe?

While Canadians mostly hear about the CER’s involvement at the beginning of a project, we regulate federal energy infrastructure throughout its entire lifecycle. We do not simply make a decision on a project and walk away. When approved projects are being built and operated, we inspect and audit them. When a pipeline has reached the end of its usefulness, we hold a hearing to ensure it is abandoned in a safe and environmentally responsible manner.

In other words, the CER regulates from “start to finish”, which can span the course of many decades. And we hold pipeline companies responsible for the full lifecycle of the pipelines they operate.

Compliance Verification Activities

The CER uses Compliance Verification Activities to observe and gather information about the state of compliance in a specific area of a company’s operations, or to investigate whether companies are taking the appropriate preventive or corrective actions. Compliance Verification Activities include:

• Inspections of facilities under construction or in operation
• Emergency exercise evaluations
• Emergency procedures manuals reviews
• Formal compliance meetings (to check the progress of programs or corrective actions)
• Management system audits
• Reviews of post-construction monitoring reports

These activities are designed to determine if legislation and expectations are being followed, to assess if enforcement is required and to provide feedback to a company. If our staff see something that is not in compliance with our regulations, they follow-up to make sure that corrective actions have been put in place and apply appropriate enforcement actions if necessary.

Each year the CER conducts more than 250 Compliance Verification Activities of regulated companies. These tools are effective in allowing the CER to proactively detect and correct non-compliances before they become issues.

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