Playing games with the NEB

The assertion by eco-activist pipeline opponents that Canadians lack confidence in the National Energy Board (NEB) has been accepted unconditionally by the Trudeau government. But is it true?

Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr — the cabinet member responsible for the quasi-independent agency — certainly believes it is. There is even talk of taking energy infrastructure review away from the NEB. He’s said he’s undertaking reforms to environmental assessments that are “designed to restore public confidence in the process,” according to Carr.

Where is the evidence that public confidence in the NEB needs restoring? Frankly, there isn’t much. And the recent approval of Trans Mountain Expansion and Line 3 pipelines demonstrates that, outside of groups adamantly opposed to any new oil and gas projects, the NEB review process still possesses public legitimacy and support.

A March poll from EKOS Research, commissioned by the CBC, asked a single question about confidence in the NEB, on their confidence “in how Canada approves and regulates pipelines to carry oil and gas across the country?”

Only 10 per cent of respondents answered, “a lot of confidence” and 33 per cent told pollsters “some confidence.” A full 50 per cent had

I would bet that not one Canadian in a hundred has an informed opinion of what the NEB does and how well it does that job — including many people who work in the oil and gas industry.

People formed their impressions of the NEB from news coverage of the Northern Gateway and Trans Mountain Expansion protests over the past five or six years.

Eco-activists have systematically demonized the regulator, claiming the NEB is broken, in the pocket of industry, doesn’t include climate change in its assessment, etc.

Take this Nov. 7 press release from a variety of environmental groups that conducted their own poll within Quebec. It found that “89% of Quebecers support a complete reform of the federal environmental assessment before any further evaluation of the Energy East project.”

The poll was taken shortly after it was revealed that NEB board members met with TransCanada lobbyist and former Quebec Premier Jean Charest, a meeting pipeline opponents claimed was evidence the NEB is “captured” by industry. The three-member board quickly resigned to protect the integrity of the agency, but that didn’t slow down the political or media narrative.

“The poll results show that Trudeau’s government little or no confidence. cannot restore public trust in the NEB by appointing a couple of new heads,” said Karel Mayrand, senior director for Quebec of the David Suzuki Foundation.

“Quebecers no longer trust this institution and demand a truly independent process that allows citizen and indigenous communities participation and relies on climate science.”

There you have it, folks, the eco-activist strategy laid bare.

Do everything possible to break the pipeline review process (e.g., have thousands of “interveners” register for public comments, far more than can be handled), criticize the NEB in the shrillest tones possible in media comments, then demand a new review process based upon considerations far more favourable to First Nations and eco-activist concerns than engineering and technical issues.

The strategy is brilliant and it has worked perfectly.

The Liberals have accepted the premise that the NEB is broken and embarked upon a “modernization” that will at the very least deliver part of what the opponents are asking for.

The Trudeau approach is a bad one, according to Gaetan Caron, a former NEB chair and currently an executive fellow with The School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary. He’s also one of the few industry supporters who will publicly defend the national regulator.

“I’m unable to find a flaw, a mistake, an error that the NEB made in dealing with the Northern Gateway and Trans Mountain Expansion projects,” Caron said in an interview.

“Name me a flaw that requires