Federal government requires pipeline companies to have $1 billion for damage response

The Canadian government has announced new requirements for companies operating major crude oil pipelines, including a $1 billion capability to respond to spills or other damage.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver also announced Wednesday a requirement for companies to appoint an “accountable senior officer whose duty is to ensure their management system and programs are in compliance” (with environmental laws).

Other measures include:

• New fines that will “soon come into force.” The penalties to companies and individuals for a range of infractions can range from $25,000 to a maximum of $100,000;
• Ensuring companies’ emergency and environmental plans are transparent and easily available to the public; and
• Enshrining in law the “polluter pays” principle explicitly in law. Currently it is only implicit, the government said.

Some pipelines are regulated by the federal government and others by the provinces.

“British Columbia’s government is conducting its own review of pipeline safety, and we are working with them,” Oliver noted in the federal announcement Wednesday.

“These federal measures being announced today are a major contribution to the combined efforts of both levels of government on this issue.”