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From the Man Who Stood in the Trench
Ian Goudy is a landowner from Ontario. He addresses landowners across Canada in the following blog. Ian has 6 large diameter pipelines on his property. He has participated in the regulatory process. He speaks from experience and wants landowners to know that the risks, costs, and liabilities that are being transferred onto landowners are very real.
I have recently been on conference calls with landowners from across the country and have been told that there are landowners who think that a pipeline easement does not have any negative impact on them. I would question these people on which regulatory body, and what pipeline company, they are dealing with. It sounds much different to the ones our family has worked with. Continue
Great Thoughts by Great Men and Women
"If history could teach us anything, it would be that private property is inextricably linked with civilization." - Ludwig von Mises
One of the most notable economists and social philosophers of the 20th century, Ludwig von Mises developed an integrated science of economics based on the idea that individual human beings act deliberately in order to achieve desired goals. His explanation of economics as a science is an eloquent and articulate voice of reason. His early book, called, Socialism, explained that if socialists wanted to make all property communal, in essence, controlled by the government, this would lead to no competition for goods and services, no market prices, and no profit and loss system. And that would result in massive economic waste, bad investments, production bottlenecks, surpluses of some things and shortages of others. He argued that without property rights and private ownership there could be no rational allocation of economic resources within an economy.
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The Process of Change
Craig Docksteader, the former Chief Operating Officer of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation - who also worked on Capitol Hill in Ottawa - discusses the process of change and how change within a society is facilitated by groups such as CAEPLA. Listen to the discussion below:
Dave Core tells it like it is in new Vancouver Observer article:
Landowners on Enbridge pipeline route say risks "imposed" upon them
by Alexis Stoymenoff | Posted May 16, 2012
Landowners along the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline route are being treated like the Aboriginals were treated 100 years ago and being discouraged from organizing, says a landowner association director who is trying to mobilize more people to speak up for their interests.
In the war being waged over Enbridge’s disputed pipeline, the stakeholders making headlines are often filed into two distinct categories: environmental “radicals” and pro-oil industry supporters.
Often missing from this discussion is one group that’s more directly affected than many others—landowners whose properties will be crossed by the proposed route.
Click here to read the rest of the article
House of Commons Energy Committee
During the last week of November, CAEPLA Policy Advisor, John Goudy, and I, made our way to Ottawa to speak to the House of Commons Energy Committee. The remarks we presented focused on the role of Ottawa’s National Energy Board (NEB). Continue
Rural Municipalities and Landowners
Left on the Hook for Abandoned Pipelines
The National Energy Board (NEB) says one of its fundamental principles in its Land Matters Consultation Initiative (LMCI) is that: “Landowners will not be liable for costs of pipeline abandonment.” Continue
Property Issues - NEB Regulations
Decommissioning Regulation Amendments...
If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it’s a duck... Continue
The NEB and the Pipeline Companies Intend to Finalize the Transfer of Abandoned Pipelines to Rural Property Owners
Get involved before our properties become the same as abandoned gas stations.
Prior to 1985, property owners were protected by law with regard to abandoned pipelines. Regulations called for the removal of pipe after a company was done with it. Landowners did not even need to consider dealing with the issue of abandonment in their easement agreements, because it was addressed in the legislation. Continue
CAEPLA Letter to CEAA Process Advisory Team - Re: Northern Gateway Joint Review Regulatory Process
Dear Ms. Spagnuolo,
In our conversation the other day, we talked about landowner issues and the compromise of their legitimate issues and stewardship responsibilities in the Northern Gateway Joint Review regulatory process.
Ottawa's National Energy Board and the Need for It's Reform
Ottawa’s National Energy Board (NEB) has been in continuous operation for more than fifty years. Established during the administration of John Diefenbaker, it was created not long after the goings-on of Parliament had been dominated by what was known as “the Great Pipeline Debate.” This debate had centered on the construction of Canada’s first national pipeline, control of the pipeline, and the route it would take to move natural gas from western Canada to the markets of eastern Canada. Some wanted an all Canadian route. Others preferred a less difficult and less expensive US route.
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A Revolution Underground: The History, Economics & Environmental Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing...
CAEPLA (Canadian Association of Energy and Pipeline Landowner Associations), an organization that believes in the importance of environmental stewardship and private property rights while at the same time being pro-development, decided in 2010 that it was uniquely positioned to investigate the issue of hydraulic fracturing. With the anecdotes of frustrated landowners on one hand and the industry’s blanket denials on the other, an open and honest debate on the issue has been lacking. Such a debate is sorely needed.
In well-developed areas such as the Barnett Shale of Texas, drilling and fracing are happening in proximity to airports, community colleges, and elementary schools. With tens of thousands of unconventional gas wells projected to be drilled and fraced in areas such as the Horn River Basin of British Columbia and the Marcellus Shale of Pennsylvania, New York, and other states, the potential consequences are too great for landowners and government regulators to accept such development without a thorough investigation of hydraulic fracturing.
Read the Executive Summary>>
CAEPLA Landowner Journal
Fall/Winter 2011
90,000 copies of the new Caepla Landowner Journal were mailed to landowners, government and opposition MPs, Senators, energy regulators, and many others. The new publication features three distinct special feature sections:
1) Ottawa's National Energy Board and its disposition towards landowners;
2) The Alberta Land Bills and the impact they will have on property rights, not just in Alberta, but even elsewhere in Canada (see what the CAEPLA SmartPig has to say about that in the letters section), and;
3) What to do when the landman comes calling.
Click here to read the most recent CAEPLA Landowner Journal.
CAEPLA Requests a Clear Explanation from the National Energy Board (NEB)
Being that the NEB does not require pipeline companies to inform individual landowners about the implications of policy changes upon them and their holdings—such as occurred during the jurisdictional changes on the Alberta NOVA system—and being that the NEB itself has a policy of deliberately not keeping landowners informed when it has had policies amended that imposed liability and risk upon landowners (as was the case when Section 112 of the National Energy Board Act was implemented), we are writing to enquire about the NEB’s objective via this recently announced telephone solicitation of landowners. Read More >>