National Energy Board looks to modernize
Public consultation with a focus on indigenous perspectives coming to city
Jessica Davey-Quantick
Northern News Services
Friday, March 10, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The National Energy Board (NEB) wants public input on what it can do better.
Brenda Kenny is one of five experts on an independent panel holding public consultations across the country to modernize the National Energy Board. - |
An independent panel of five experts is travelling the country collecting feedback to help shape recommendations to modernize the board, and will be stopping in Yellowknife today.
"The NEB Act was first set down in 1959, and the act itself has largely been unchanged in all that time," said Brenda Kenny, one of the panel members. "It is time to take a step back and ask ourselves what do we need for the future of Canada."
The NEB has a quasi-judicial power with the rights and privileges of a superior court. While board decisions are all enforceable in law, the board doesn't create or debate federal energy policy.
Instead, it provides expert opinions to elected officials that do. It regulates the construction and operation of oil and gas pipelines, international power lines and certain power lines that cross provincial boarders - currently over 73,000 kilometres of pipeline across Canada and approximately 1,400 kilometres of international power lines.
The NEB is also in charge of regulating the export of natural gas, oil and electricity and the import of natural gas.
Natural Resources minister Jim Carr stated in a news release the panel will offer "many opportunities for Canadians to provide input on the modernization of the NEB."
The panel's recommendations will focus on indigenous perspectives.
"We absolutely must move to a place that doesn't cause us to continually revisit this question in court but rather acknowledges and accepts and fully embraces the rights that are held by our First Nations," said Kenny.
The recommendations could also result in changes to the board's mandate. For example, Kenny said the panel has already heard questions about new energy systems and climate change, which is not part of the mandate but could be added.
"We've heard from a lot of Canadians saying that should include carbon emissions," she said, adding this could also include discussion of alternative energy sources across Canada, and for remote communities especially.
Pipelines are also a hot topic.
"The NEB's mandate is currently specific to projects related to moving large quantities of energy, either in pipelines or in wires that cross borders. So strictly speaking, climate change isn't precisely in their mandate," said Kenny.
"But consideration of the impacts of climate change ... are things that certainly a lot of people are asking us about in our panel. And what the role of a transition to lower carbon futures look like for a modern NEB is something we're taking a look at."
The panel will release its recommendations in May, with the report then forwarded to the minister of natural resources.
Kenny estimates changes could be proposed for debate in the House of Commons in the fall.
The meeting is today at the Explorer Hotel until 4:30 p.m. and Kenny encourages those who are unable to attend the meeting to express their concerns on the NEB Modernization website.
