Revisions to Canada Energy Regulator Event Reporting Guidelines

File 4689957
5 December 2024

 

To: All Companies under the Canada Energy Regulator Jurisdiction

Revisions to Canada Energy Regulator Event Reporting Guidelines

Event reporting, analysis, and trending provide important sources of intelligence to support operational decision making, organizational learning and continual improvement. Where an organization is strongly in tune with establishing and maintaining a healthy safety culture, it scrutinizes every decision and event occurrence as a normal business function, to ensure that risk is considered and managed appropriately.

The Canada Energy Regulator (CER) Event Reporting Guidelines (Guidelines) provide regulated companies with information and instructions that clarify the CER’s expectations in relation to event reporting. The Guidelines explain what needs to be reported, when and how to notify the CER, and the information that companies are required to submit via the CER's Online Event Reporting System (OERS).

The Guidelines support the CER’s commitment to safety and environmental oversight over the full lifecycle – construction, operation, and abandonment – of energy-related activities. In alignment with our strategic priority of Competitiveness and Regulatory Excellence, the CER has committed to revising the Guidelines from time to time to ensure that event reporting remains timely, thorough, and transparent.

Comments on the Draft 2024 Revised Guidelines

The CER initiated a 90-day comment period from 29 January 2024 to 27 April 2024 to obtain feedback on the Draft 2024 Revised Guidelines. Thank you to the regulated companies and interested parties who provided input. The CER considered all comments received and the majority of feedback resulted in revisions to the Guidelines. All areas of improvement are listed in a table of concordance within Attachment 1 to this letter. Key improvements are summarized below:

  • inclusion of incident reporting under Northwest Territories’ Oil and Gas Operations Act regulations that are administered by the CER;
  • updated definition and examples for Canadian Energy Regulator Onshore Pipeline Regulations incident type “Significant Adverse Effect on the Environment”;
  • clarified expectations regarding Annual Incident Costs Reporting; and
  • improvements to the OERS.

Final 2024 Revised Guidelines

The Final 2024 Revised Guidelines are now available on the CER website and on the CER’s online engagement platform CER Dialogue. Submissions received during the comment period [PDF 5250 KB] are posted on the CER’s website in the language in which they were submitted. The CER directs companies to follow the 2024 Revised Guidelines as of 12 March 2025, at which time the OERS will also be updated accordingly.

The Final 2024 Revised Guidelines reflect current regulatory event reporting requirements. Should regulatory event reporting requirements change as a result of the Onshore Pipeline Regulations and Filing Manuals Review Project, the Guidelines will undergo additional external consultation and revision at that time.

Please direct any inquiries related to the Guidelines to erg-dre@cer-rec.gc.ca. For assistance in using the OERS, contact DLERSSupport@cer-rec.gc.ca.

Best regards,

Signed by


Tracy Sletto
Chief Executive Officer


Attachment - Table of Concordance [PDF 211 KB]

 

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