ARCHIVED – Land Matters Group Steering Committee – Meeting Summary – 6 October 2014

Monday, 06 October 2014
8:15 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
NEB Hearing Room

Item 4: General Easement Agreements

NEB staff gave a brief presentation outlining the NEB’s role in the acquisition of land rights. At present the NEB does not have any authority, process or mechanism to examine signed agreements between landowners and companies. The NEB suggested options to improve the acquisition of land rights (for example, the NEB’s appropriate dispute resolution service, templates, regulations or guidance, education program, the NRCan process).

It was noted that NRCan is where disputes about compensation are handled currently and it was requested that they come in to give a presentation on their process. The discussion also pointed out that the NRCAN process for dispute resolution can be time consuming. There was an initiative to improve the process with a view to expediting claims but it is unclear whether that initiative was completed or whether it had effected change within the NRCan process.

The group expressed concern that more onus is being placed on landowners to monitor the safety of pipelines and that the NEB should look at changing the regulations so that pipeline companies carry more of this burden. The NEB Act currently sets out the minimum provisions that must be included in an easement agreement and it was suggested that there are other elements that should be included.

The group then discussed ways in which the NEB could change its handling of easement agreements. It was decided that the Workplan be changed to reflect a Part B of the currently existing easement agreement item that would examine potential changes to the NEB’s authority, process or mechanisms related to easement agreements, in order to better protect the rights and interests of landowners.

Item 5: Damage Prevention Regulations

An outline was presented of the changes to the Damage Prevention Regulations as part of the public consultation process.

A large proportion of the discussion dealt with the conditions set to operate a vehicle or mobile equipment when crossing a pipeline to perform agricultural activity and the depth of acceptable surface disturbance, which is currently reflected as 30cm. The group pointed out that provincial legislation addressing this issue varied from the current NEB regulatory approach and suggested that the regulations should be changed to harmonize with provincial legislation.

Other points discussed included:

• Communication of the changes to the regulations is key so that all parties have a clear understanding
• Regulation should be kept flexible so that agreements can be reached on conditions specific to a particular pipeline.
• Increased monitoring of work happening within the pipeline ROW is being required of the landowners. This represents significant burdens both in financial terms and in the level of responsibility being placed on the landowners.
• The proposed changes will lead to better communication between pipeline companies and landowners.

The project managers outlined that the changes were now out for public comment and that the Steering Committee was welcome to provide additional feedback though the regular comment procedure as noted on the NEB website. In addition, comments received from the discussion at the meeting would be taken into consideration.

Item 6: Transparency of Emergency Management Information

An overview of the current state of emergency management information that is publically available was given. The question of what information would be important to stakeholders was then posed. One of the goals of the project is to determine how much emergency management information is currently considered confidential and realistically how much information could be made public going forward.

The group identified several areas where information should be required of pipeline companies such as; composition of petroleum being transported, who should be contacted in the case of an emergency and the exact location of pipelines.

The Steering Committee indicated that information pertaining to the specific chemicals being transported in a particular pipeline was required by landowners to test the groundwater for contamination. The group asserted that public safety and water protection should take precedent regarding any proprietary claims over the description of pipeline contents.

CEPA indicated that emergency management information was a topic currently being discussed by its member companies and that the companies are currently self-assessing what information they have publically available. A key initiative of this work at CEPA is to ensure that all companies will pool resources in an emergency scenario.

The project managers indicated that they would develop a questionnaire with input from Steering Committee members which could then be used to get feedback from the larger LMG. It was hoped that the project could be complete in Q1 2015. The group then discussed how best to present this information to the public. The Steering Committee expressed support for having the info available on the NEB website and also noted that integrating the information with similar information available through provincial regulators would be useful.

Date modified:

2023-03-03