Diverse panel to review Canada energy regulator

Discussions on how to reform Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) will start next week following controversy over the regulator’s review of the proposed Energy East and Trans Mountain Expansion pipelines.

Canada’s Liberal government has appointed a five-member panel to overhaul the NEB, which has drawn criticism in the past for its lack of transparency over pipeline approvals and maintaining what were seen to be overly close ties to industry. 

The review panel will be co-chaired by Gary Merasty, a former member of parliament, and Hélène Lauzon, president of Quebec’s business council on the environment. The remaining three panellists are Wendy Grant-John, British Columbia First Nations leader and senior aboriginal adviser at Deloitte; David Besner, chairman of the New Brunswick Energy Institute; and Brenda Kenny, former president of Canada’s Energy Pipeline Association. 

“Considering the diversity of our organisation’s members and their various domains of activities, it is a constant balance to work within the three dimensions (environment, economy and social) of sustainable development,” Lauzon told Interfax Natural Gas Daily.

She went on to outline what the panel hopes to accomplish in the next few months. “Our mandate is quite large. First, we wish to implement best practices in the NEB’s governance in order to improve the public’s trust in the evaluation process […] Therefore, we will revise the original mandate and the role of the NEB,” she said.

“Secondly, the NEB has an upstream and downstream responsibility when it comes to project planning, safety and emergency preparedness. We will revise the legislative tools and the lifecycle regulation. Thirdly, we will engage further with indigenous people whose rights and interests could be affected by a specific project.” 

She added the panel also intends to “facilitate dialogue and integrate indigenous traditional knowledge [… and] support greater stakeholder and public participation in NEB activities”.

Lauzon specialises in environmental law and served as co-president of the advisory committee on climate change to Quebec’s environmental minister. She has been president of the Quebec Business Council on the Environment since 2008. 

Speaking to reporters following the panellists’ appointment, Jim Carr, Canadian minister of natural resources, said they would have “maximum independence and liberty to be creative”, adding that “I know they will be, by virtue of who they are and their disparate backgrounds”.

Besner suggested the panel also hopes to improve communication between the NEB and the government. “We are looking at the NEB with a view to making it more effective,” he told Interfax Natural Gas Daily. 

Besner said there have been issues over the NEB’s governance and over the regulator not flagging up concerns to the Ministry of Natural Resources. 

No limits

According to the Canadian government’s website, the NEB modernisation review will focus on governance and structure; mandate and future opportunities; decision-making roles, including for major projects; compliance, enforcement and ongoing monitoring; engagement with indigenous peoples; and public participation. 

Carr has said there are no topics off limits for the panel, and that it is free to issue recommendations on new procedures. A final report and recommendations will be delivered by to the Natural Resources Ministry 31 March, when the report will be made public.

The NEB has not been reviewed since it was created in 1959, and it has acquired the reputation of being too close to the oil and gas industry. Although the regulator has introduced some reforms recently – including updating its website based on public feedback – it has failed to regain people’s trust.

Criticism increased after it was revealed earlier this year that three NEB members on a hearing panel for the TransCanada Energy East Pipeline had met privately with a consultant working on the project. The members were recused in September, and the pipeline hearings were suspended.

The Canadian government launched a review of environmental and regulatory processes in June. The intention was to “build trust and help get resources to market responsibly in future”. This is to be achieved “not only [by] modernising the NEB, but also reviewing federal environmental assessment processes [for Canada’s Environmental Assessment Agency]”. The review also aims to restore “lost protections” and introduce “modern safeguards” to the Fisheries Act and the Navigation Protection Act.

“I’m hopeful that, when we finally introduce these permanent [NEB] reforms, [the people] will see we’ve hit the sweet spot of that balance between indigenous accommodation, economic growth and environmental stewardship,” Carr said.