ARCHIVED – National Energy Board – 2017–18 Departmental Results Report – Results at a glance

For more information on the National Energy Board’s plans, priorities and results achieved, see the “Results: what we achieved” section of this report.

An integrating theme running through all NEB activities in 2017–18 was Engagement. We measure the results of this Core Responsibility in terms of whether Indigenous Peoples and our stakeholders feel that the engagement we undertake with them is meaningful. The NEB’s sustained focus on Engagement is changing the way we work as a regulator. It has enabled us to see clearly where we can continue to drive positive outcomes for the public that we serve – from incorporating Traditional Knowledge into our assessment of applications, to reaching beyond transactional regulatory compliance and enforcement, to influencing industry management systems and driving a culture of safety at the systemic level.

The NEB is committed to delivering adjudication processes that are fair, timely, transparent and accessible. In 2017–18, pipeline hearing activity remained high, with a lot of public interest and participation in projects such as the Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMEP). In order to achieve these important outcomes, we broadened our use of enhanced engagement activities, such as Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), enabling NEB staff to facilitate solution-focused discussions with stakeholders and Indigenous Peoples along proposed and existing pipeline corridors. In addition, we made significant process adjustments that allowed for more timely administration of Participant Funding, and piloted new approaches, like moving Oral Traditional Evidence (OTE) sessions out of our more formal settings and into communities, meeting the direction of the Minister’s Mandate letter to better reflect the views and concerns of Indigenous Peoples in our processes.

Enhanced engagement played a critical role in Safety and Environmental Oversight in 2017–18 as well. Working in collaboration with regional stakeholders and municipalities on community-focused concerns like Emergency Management and damage prevention has paid off, making available key information and improving coordination between communities and companies that will result in faster, better response and proactive damage prevention strategies. The NEB led the development of Municipal Round Tables in Quebec and Vancouver to discuss regional infrastructure safety. We also participated, with the Government of Canada and Indigenous Peoples, in the co-development of Indigenous Advisory and Monitoring Committees (IAMCs), which will facilitate the integration of Indigenous stewardship and participation with regulatory oversight for stronger protection against harm to people and the environment throughout the entire lifecycle of energy infrastructure.

The NEB plays a vital role in conveying objective and neutral energy information to Canadians for knowledge, research and decision-making, as well as providing them with community- and region-specific infrastructure information. We released a variety of new products and data visualizations, including online Pipeline Profiles, provincial energy profiles, Energy Futures 2017, Renewable Power Landscape and others. All of our energy products reflect not only staff expertise and research, but also engagement and collaboration with a broad variety of public, not-for-profit and academic organizations. We measure whether Canadians find that information useful, from both the number of interactions with the information on our web pages, and through surveys targeted at our information users. In 2017–18 the results for both of these metrics were very strong, with close to one million unique page views, and with 84% of our users agreeing that the NEB’s energy information is useful for their purposes.

The delivery of results in 2017–18 were supported in part through the NEB’s exploration and testing of new approaches in program design and delivery, in alignment with the government’s commitment to Experimentation and Innovation^{Footnote 1}. For example, the NEB conducted a safety culture indicator pilot in compliance verification activities, to test whether defined safety culture signals can be captured in traditional compliance verification activities (e.g., inspections) to improve safety and environmental protection. The pilot validated that the NEB can collect valuable information on safety culture indicators, and that we can apply this approach in other compliance verification activities. The safety culture indicator pilot will continue in 2018–19.

The NEB also made significant advances in our capacity to share data with Canadians, by exploring new approaches in technology and social media. We have increased the amount of energy information available through user-friendly interactive visualizations, to enable evidence-based decision making and remove barriers to understanding Canada’s energy and pipeline systems. Using a similarly interactive online tool, the NEB piloted a condition tracking system^{Footnote 2} to enhance public access to the construction compliance and enforcement oversight of the Trans Mountain Expansion project. The results of these innovations have been positive, and the NEB will continue to explore opportunities, encourage collaboration and drive innovation both within the organization and with external groups.