Canada has enacted the Bill C-29, which replaces the national energy regulator National Energy Board (NEB) with a new Canadian Energy Regulator (CER), and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEEAA) with the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC). The bill separates CER’s administrative and adjudicative functions: strategic administrative and policy considerations will be managed by a Board of Directors and a CEO, whereas adjudicative functions will fall into the purview of a group of independent commissioners (the Commission).
The new bill also modifies how major infrastructure projects are reviewed and approved in Canada and alters federal assessments process to include a broad range of impacts to be reviewed by the new Impact Assessment Agency, including indigenous interests. Pipelines in national parks and protected areas, interprovincial or international pipelines requiring more than 75 km of new right of way, and some offshore pipelines projects must now undergo integrated impact assessments and reviews conducted by a review panel. In addition, new thermal power generation projects over 200 MW, new in situ oil sands mines with bitumen production capacities of 2,000 m3/d and not subject to provincial legislation over greenhouse gas emissions, the expansion of certain existing mines, and some refining, processing and storage projects will have to undergo impact assessments administered by the IA Agency.
Interested in Global Energy Research?
Enerdata's premium online information service provides up-to-date market reports on 110+ countries. The reports include valuable market data and analysis as well as a daily newsfeed, curated by our energy analysts, on the oil, gas, coal and power markets.
This user-friendly tool gives you the essentials about the domestic markets of your concern, including market structure, organisation, actors, projects and business perspectives.