2025–26 Annual Report of the Canada Energy Regulator –
The CER’s Achievements in 2025–26

To achieve its mandate, the CER has four Core Responsibilities: Safety and Environment Oversight, Energy Adjudication, Energy Information, and Engagement. These are the foundation of the CER’s work and describe how it regulates pipelines, energy development and trade in the Canadian public interest. The CER’s 2024-27 Strategic Plan shapes the regulator’s delivery of work within each core responsibility to achieve positive results.

Service standards are established so that applicants and participants know what to expect and the CER’s performance can be measured and reported. They identify specific delivery targets or timelines for key services.

Safety and Environment Oversight

The CER works to ensure energy moves safely and efficiently through federally regulated pipelines and power lines. As a lifecycle regulator, the CER’s oversight spans all stages of energy infrastructure — from construction and operation to abandonment.

The CER enforces strict safety and environmental protection requirements, and its oversight extends beyond compliance. The regulator works to identify and mitigate potential risks, and it expects companies to regularly assess and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their management systems to prevent harm.

The CER also expects companies to maintain meaningful engagement with people who live or work near pipelines, including Indigenous Peoples, the public, contractors, landowners, and provincial and municipal partners. Through this engagement, companies help promote safe work practices and raise awareness about actions that can prevent damage to pipelines.

The CER’s Commitment

• Harm to people and the environment, through the lifecycle of energy-related infrastructure, is prevented.

Performance Results Summary 2025-26 – Safety and Environment Oversight

Indigenous Monitoring

In 2025-26, the CER’s Indigenous Monitoring Program continued to strengthen safety and environmental oversight to holistically prevent and mitigate harm, advance protection of Indigenous rights and interests, and build relationships with Indigenous nations. Indigenous Monitors (IM) took part in a total of 27 CVAs in 2025-26 (21 inspections, 2 compliance meetings, 4 Emergency Management Exercises). There were 16 activities with IMs for the Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMX), 3 for the Enbridge Corridor (previously the Line 3 Replacement Project), 5 for the Nova Gas Transmission Ltd. (NGTL) System, and 3 for the NorthRiver Midstream Northeast British Columbia (NEBC) Connector Project.

Safety Culture

The CER works to advance safety culture across the pipeline industry. In 2025-26, the CER continued to carry out its 2023-26 Safety Culture Work Plan, focused on two goals: system-wide influence and company performance.

CER staff continued to lead and participate in industry workshops, outreach with other regulators, regulatory instrument reviews (i.e., Onshore Pipeline Regulations and Frontier and Offshore Regulatory Renewal Initiative), and engage in academic research projects. The CER also redesigned its Learning Portal – highlighting Human and Organizational Factors content alongside safety culture materials to support industry-wide advancement.

Security

CER-regulated companies are required to have detailed security risk management programs to protect assets and operations. This includes mitigating both physical security threats (such as criminal acts targeting pipeline assets) and cybersecurity threats (such as criminals and nation-states compromising information technology networks and operations technology controls). In 2025-26, the CER implemented the requirements of the amended CSA Z246.1 Standard (Security management for petroleum and natural gas industry systems), which introduced expanded cybersecurity requirements for regulated companies.

Security staff on the CER’s Emergency Management & Security Team conducted 25 CVAs in 2025-26, including 10 security exercises, 9 physical security inspections, and 6 cybersecurity compliance activities that focused on regulated companies’ operational technology. The CER continued to enhance its capacity to complete physical and cybersecurity regulatory oversight through cybersecurity training for Inspection Officers, continuing to evolve its approach to physical security CVAs, and further relationship building with regulatory and security agencies in Canada and the United States of America.

Emergency Management

The CER requires regulated companies to be fully prepared to respond to emergencies as part of their broader obligation to keep infrastructure safe. In an emergency, the CER makes sure that companies respond to protect people, property, and the environment. In 2025-26, the Emergency Management Program supported 3 audits and conducted 52 CVAs, including 31 exercise evaluations, 7 inspections, 8 compliance meetings, and 6 emergency procedures manual reviews.

Also in 2025-26, the CER hosted an integrated emergency management and cybersecurity exercise and workshop, bringing together government agencies, regulated companies, other regulators, and a member of the TMX Indigenous Advisory and Monitoring Committee. This event provided a ‘no-fail’ environment allowing for relationship building, collaboration and learning.

Through its incident line, and supported by the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), the CER maintained 24-hour emergency response capacity. During the year, the CER initiated several Level 1 precautionary EOC activations to monitor incidents and weather events such as wildfires that could affect regulated infrastructure and potentially require deployment of CER staff.

Remediation Oversight

When contamination that could harm the environment or human health is identified, the CER ensures that the site is properly remediated. Based on the size and scope of the contamination and clean-up required, remediation oversight can span long time scales. In 2025-26, the CER oversaw 490 active contaminated sites of varying complexity; primarily residual contamination on industrial land undergoing annual monitoring to larger and more complex sites in sensitive ecosystems. Staff conducted 15 CVAs, reviewed 488 contaminated sites Annual Updates, completed reviews of 21 Remedial Action Plans and Risk Management Plans, and closed 23 contaminated site files.

The CER improved its remediation process by implementing new annual update questions to better align with a risk-based, management-system-focused approach to oversight and developing an updated draft 2026 Remediation Process Guide that will be issued for public comment in 2026-27.

Regulatory Framework

The Regulatory Framework is the structure around which all CER regulatory activities take place, including the system of laws, regulatory documents and guidance that directs this work. The CER is dedicated to implementing a Regulatory Framework that is robust, clear, transparent, coherent, and consistent. To achieve this goal, the CER works with Indigenous Peoples and stakeholders to continually improve regulatory tools - ensuring regulations that are in force remain appropriate and that regulatory documents, policies, and guidance products achieve their intended purpose. Information about the CER’s annual planned initiatives to improve the Regulatory Framework is available on the CER’s website.

In 2025-26, the CER made several improvements, including the issuance of a new Streamlining and Decommissioning Exemption Order by the Commission and updates to the Filing Manual (FM), Guide R: Transfer of ownership, Lease or Amalgamation. Additionally, the CER concluded early engagement on potential amendments to the Rules of Practice and Procedure and advanced work on clarifying company expectations for contractor oversight.

The CER also conducted assessments on regulations pursuant to section 5 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (UN Declaration Act), which requires the Government of Canada to, in consultation and cooperation with Indigenous Peoples, take all measures necessary to ensure that federal laws are consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN Declaration). Informed by implementation measures under the Act, the federal Action Plan that outlines steps to advance alignment with the UN Declaration, and meaningful consultation with Indigenous Peoples throughout the process, these assessments supported the development and amendment of regulatory instruments to reflect Indigenous rights, interests, and perspectives.

Rules of Practice and Procedure

The Rules of Practice and Procedure (Rules) are made by the Commission under section 35 of the CER Act. They set out the mechanisms for the conduct of hearings and determine how applications are assessed. The Rules help parties understand how to participate effectively and what to expect during hearings. The Commission, supported by CER staff, is undertaking a comprehensive review of the Rules.

In November 2025, the CER completed Phase II of the Rules review and offered funding for Indigenous Peoples to participate and provide feedback. In total, 39 Indigenous communities received funding through the CER grants and contributions program. The CER received 56 submissions from Indigenous nations, communities and organizations, companies, and other interested parties. A Summary Report can be found on the CER website.

Phase III began in January 2026. The CER is working with the Department of Justice to draft regulations. These are anticipated to be pre-published in Canada Gazette, Part I in fall 2026 for a 30-day comment period. Phase IV, the publication of the Rules regulations in Canada Gazette, Part II, is anticipated between late 2026 and the first half of 2027.

Safety Advisories

In 2025-26, the CER issued two Safety Advisories to communicate emerging risks and reinforce regulatory expectations aimed at preventing incidents and strengthening lifecycle oversight of regulated pipelines. One advisory (SA 2025-02) focused on damage prevention risks associated with large‑scale municipal, industrial, and commercial projects occurring near CER‑regulated pipelines. A second advisory (SA 2025-01) addressed pipeline integrity risks related to the evaluation of dents in pipe, identifying non‑conservative fatigue life screening methodologies and inconsistencies between dent acceptance criteria applied during construction and operation. Collectively, these advisories supported proactive risk management, continuous improvement of safety practices, and the CER’s mandate to protect people, property, and the environment through clear communication of regulatory expectations.

Onshore Pipeline Regulations Review

The Onshore Pipeline Regulations (OPR) are the main regulations the CER uses to oversee pipelines in Canada. The CER is undertaking a comprehensive review of the OPR, with

Phase II of the review completed in March 2025. Submissions received from Indigenous-led organizations, industry, and interested stakeholders were published in July 2025 on the CER website.

The drafting of proposed changes to the OPR will consider feedback received. In the third phase, the CER will begin engagement on the proposed changes. Funding will be available to support the participation of Indigenous Peoples in the review of the Regulatory Proposal.

Red Tape Review Report

In July 2025, the Government of Canada launched an initiative to reduce regulatory red tape, including eliminating complicated or outdated processes, unnecessary, duplicative or overly burdensome rules, or inefficient or unpredictable regulatory administration or service delivery. As part of its ongoing mandate, the CER regularly reviews its regulations and related practices to continuously modernize the regulatory system while maintaining safety and the protection of people and the environment.

In fall 2025, the CER published the Red Tape Review Report outlining recent actions taken and future plans to streamline the CER’s regulatory framework and decision-making processes. The CER’s report identified nine initiatives aimed at reducing regulatory red tape, falling under three modernization themes.

Review and Clarification of Compliance Framework

In 2025-26, the CER completed the second year of its three-year project to review and clarify the tools and interventions it uses to promote, verify, and enforce compliance with regulatory requirements. The CER realigned its Safety and Environment Oversight programs and made progress to create updated program measures. It also continued to develop planning initiatives and associated governance and principles that will inform an updated internal compliance and enforcement framework and policy.

Orphan Pipelines

The CER manages orphan pipelines which are federally regulated pipelines that no longer have a company authorized to operate the facilities. Although CER regulations require companies to set aside adequate funds for abandonment, orphan pipelines may result if a company becomes insolvent, cannot be located, or is unable to meet its regulatory obligations to maintain a safe and secure pipeline. Building on processes established in prior years, the CER designated two additional facilities as orphan pipelines, bringing the total number of designated orphan pipelines to five. Work completed this year included appointing two Designated Officers, completing risk-informed assessments for all designated orphan pipelines, and conducting four field visits, including updating signage. The CER also continued to refine internal processes, align operations with legislative authorities, and develop proactive strategies to identify and monitor pipelines at risk of future orphan designation.

Audits and Enforcement

Management System Audits

The CER audits regulated companies to assess compliance with regulatory requirements. These audits typically target requirements related to establishing and implementing management systems against a particular protection program. In 2025-26, the CER conducted six audits: three companies were audited against facility integrity management requirements, and three companies were audited against emergency management requirements. All final audit reports are published on the CER website, and summarized in an annual information advisory.

Financial Regulatory Audits

The CER considers financial regulatory audits to be an important regulatory tool to ensure compliance with the CER Act, regulations, orders, and decisions, as well as documenting companies' current operations, management systems, procedures and internal controls. In 2025-26, the CER completed one financial regulatory audit. All Financial Regulatory Audit Reports are published on the CER website.

Inspection Officer Orders

An Inspection Officer Order is issued when a situation requires immediate action to maintain safety and protect the environment. The Order will require a company to complete certain actions by a set date.

In 2025-26, the CER issued six Inspection Officer Orders, which are available on the CER website.

Warning Letters and Administrative Monetary Penalties

The CER, on occasion, determines that an accountable officer in a company must be made aware of the seriousness of a non-compliance to ensure it is addressed or prevented from recurring. In these cases, the CER sends a warning letter.

In 2025-26, the CER issued two Warning Letters, which are available on the CER website.

Administrative Monetary Penalties (AMPs) are financial penalties used when a company or individual fails to comply with CER legislative or regulatory requirements, and the CER needs a stronger enforcement response. When the matter is serious enough to be investigated, AMPs are considered to deter future non-compliance and prevent harm.

In 2025-26, the CER issued four AMPs, which are available on the CER website.

Energy Adjudication

The CER’s mandate includes delivering timely decisions and evidence‑based recommendations to the Minister on applications for federally regulated pipelines and associated facilities, international power lines, tolls and tariffs, energy exports, and oil and gas exploration and drilling in specified northern and offshore regions of Canada, as well as proposed offshore renewable energy projects. The CER is committed to efficient and transparent regulatory processes that provide predictability and certainty for proponents and stakeholders while ensuring the rights of Indigenous Peoples are respected and that people, property and the environment are protected. This is achieved through continual improvement of adjudication processes supported by participant funding programs, land matters complaint resolution services, and the work of the CER’s Crown Consultation Coordinator.

The Commission is responsible for making decisions on toll and tariff applications and for pipeline projects under 40 km in length. Pipeline projects exceeding 40 km require approval by the Governor in Council (GIC ), informed by a Commission recommendation developed through an efficient and rigorous review process. Any project that proposes more than 75 km of new right-of-way requires an integrated review process led by the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada.

For further details on adjudicative decisions and recommendations submitted to the Minister, please see the 2025-26 Annual Report of the Commission of the Canada Energy Regulator.

The CER’s Commitment

• Energy adjudication processes are fair, timely, transparent, and accessible.

Performance Results Summary 2025-26 – Energy Adjudication

Regulatory Optimization Project

In April 2025, the CER launched the Regulatory Optimization Project (ROP) – advancing the CER’s commitment to regulatory excellence by improving regulatory efficiency and optimizing adjudicative decision-making. The ROP focused on standardizing the early application and hearing process steps for large pipeline applications with an aim at improving the efficiency and predictability of Commission completeness determinations enabling the assessment phase of a hearing to begin sooner. In March 2026, the Commission released Completeness Guidance which included information on the Commission’s approach and criteria for considering completeness, a standardized list of issues to be considered in hearings, as well as standardized hearing steps.
The ROP also focused on providing clarity to Indigenous Peoples, proponents, and stakeholders that Crown consultation occurs through the Commission’s adjudicative process for routine applications where the Commission is the final decision-maker. In March 2026, the Commission updated various template documents, and the CER updated its webpages to provide this clarity.

Implementation of the Building Canada Act

Following the enactment of the Building Canada Act (BCA) in June 2025, the CER worked closely with federal partners including the Major Projects Office to develop a streamlined assessment process for a potential pipeline application under the BCA including alignment on governance, timelines, and approach. This work focused on ensuring organizational readiness so that the CER and federal partners are well-positioned to support potential pipeline application under the BCA, including an anticipated submission as contemplated in the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Canada and the Government of Alberta.

Dispute Resolution

Dispute resolution plays a vital role in how the CER fulfills its mandate to help balance the interests of all Canadians in the stewardship of pipelines and energy development in Canada. Through various processes and methods, such as alternative dispute resolution services, including mediation, the CER helps to resolve disputes between companies and rights holders, owners and users of lands, Indigenous Peoples, other orders of government, and nongovernmental organizations. Disputes relate to CER -regulated facilities and activities, such as pipeline application hearings, construction  activities, and pipeline maintenance.

In 2025-26, the CER received 23 disputes and facilitated the resolution of 14 cases. Submissions were primarily associated with post-construction operations and maintenance activities.

Filing Manual Updates

The CER continues to update the Environmental and Socio-Economic Assessment (ESA) and Lands portion of the Filing Manual and the Electricity Filing Manual. The Filing Manuals provide guidance to proponents to support an application for a potential project. Updating the Filing Manuals aligns with one of the commitments made under the UN Declaration Act Action Plan.

Although the ESA and Lands sections of the Filing Manuals are not “law,” they form part of Action Plan Measure Shared Priority 34 (APM SP34). As such, there is a need for consultation and cooperation with Indigenous Peoples under section 6 of the UN Declaration Act. To determine these consultation and cooperation requirements, the CER completed a Stage 1 section 6 assessment, which informed how these updates to the Filing Manuals will advance alignment with the UN Declaration while reflecting Indigenous rights, interests, and perspectives. The CER used a multi-year engagement process with stakeholders and Indigenous Peoples on both the Filing Manuals and the OPR to inform updates. Phase II engagement of the OPR and Filing Manuals review ran from June 2024 to March 2025. The CER received 251 comments from industry and 871 comments from Indigenous communities on the three discussion papers.

Early Engagement Activities

The CER completed early engagement activities related to NGTL GP Ltd.’s Kainai Interconnect Project and Westcoast Energy Inc.’s Deadman River Crossing 5 Permanent Erosion Mitigation Project. Early engagement occurred with the Kainai Nation (Blood Tribe) and Skeetchestn Indian Band, whose reserve lands may be directly affected by these projects. The purpose of the engagement was to identify procedural and substantive issues, opportunities, and suggestions, which could inform application submissions and the design of the Commission’s adjudicative process.

CER Portal

In February 2026, the CER launched the CER Portal to external users. The CER Portal is a single-window, secure access point from the external website that allows users to interact with the CER on certain adjudication and regulatory matters. The CER Portal centralizes section 214 project information including project descriptions, required filing information, document links, templates, work instructions, and tasks all in one place, optimizing regulatory processes, resulting in more efficient adjudicative processes, and improving user participation in CER adjudicative processes. This CER Portal now allows companies to submit applications and related filings for small pipelines (section 214 applications), as well as for interested stakeholders to file statements of concern about these projects.

Rapid Review

In January 2026, the Commission issued amended Streamlining and Decommissioning Exemption Orders for negligible-risk projects to clarify or reduce duplication of criteria within the existing Orders. The Orders allow companies to undertake certain negligible-risk projects expeditiously, while ensuring the rights of Indigenous Peoples are respected, and that people and the environment are protected. The Commission first issued these Orders in October 2025, and they took effect on 1 December 2025.

Crown Consultation

The CER conducts Crown consultation primarily through the Commission’s adjudication processes, where Indigenous Peoples are encouraged to participate. For certain projects, primarily those where the GIC makes the final decision, the CER, in its capacity as Crown Consultation Coordinator (CCC), conducts supplemental consultations.

In 2025-26, the CER, in its role as the CCC, conducted supplemental Crown consultation activities with 73 Indigenous communities on Westcoast Energy Inc’s application for the Sunrise Expansion Program and with 36 Indigenous communities on Pouce Coupé’s Pipe Line Ltd.’s Taylor to Gordondale Pipeline Project. For both projects, the CCC established collaborative relationships with Indigenous communities and engaged in active, two-way dialogue, as described in the CCC submissions filed on the hearing records. The CCC’s objective was to ensure the Commission had the information it needed to consider in its assessment of the projects, including the projects’ impacts to rights and any proposed accommodation measures.

A GIC decision on the Taylor to Gordondale Project was made on 5 February 2026 and was informed by the CER’s Crown Consultation and Accommodation Report. This report described the totality of the Commission’s consultation work through the hearing process and the CCC’s activities, including 141 meetings with Indigenous communities on the Crown List. Through a reconciliation lens, the CCC actively fulfilled its role in the hearing and decision processes, supporting dialogue on the issues and providing transparent, timely and solutions-oriented advice.

The CER continued its supplemental Crown consultation activities with Indigenous communities to understand and respond to any potential outstanding impacts from the Sunrise Expansion Program Project on Indigenous Peoples’ rights and interests, to support a decision in 2026-27. A GIC decision on the Sunrise Expansion Program was received in April 2026.

A focus for the CER through 2025-26 has been to promote regulatory excellence and efficiency through the coordination of Crown consultation amongst federal and provincial authorities, ensuring a whole of government response to the concerns of Indigenous communities about impacts to rights from projects.

Energy Information

The CER collects, monitors, analyzes, and publishes information on energy markets and supply, energy sources, and the safety and security of pipelines and international power lines. The CER plays a vital role in conveying timely and relevant information to Canadians and is at the forefront of energy markets monitoring and analysis. Staff model Canada’s energy supply and demand projections, provide Canadians with reports and analysis to help inform decisions on energy matters and support regulatory hearings on pipeline projects in Canada. The CER also collaborates with the Canadian Centre for Energy Information (CCEI) on a variety of energy data and information initiatives that are prioritized in the CCEI's annual workplan.

The CER’s Commitment

• Canadians can access and use energy information for knowledge, research, or decision-making.
• Canadians have opportunities to collaborate and provide feedback on CER information products.

Performance Results Summary 2025-26 – Energy Information

Canada’s Energy Future

In March 2026, the CER released its flagship publication, Canada’s Energy Future 2026: Energy Supply and Demand Projections to 2050. The Canada’s Energy Future series explores how possible energy futures might unfold for Canadians over the long term, building on decades of economic and energy modelling and analysis. The scenarios cover all energy commodities and all Canadian provinces and territories.

The 2026 edition featured four scenarios to explore future uncertainties facing the energy system. Along with the baseline scenario, Current Measures, the report introduced two new scenarios: the Higher scenario and Lower scenario. These scenarios examined the impact of key drivers of Canada’s energy system, such as economic growth and oil and natural gas prices, trending higher or lower than in Current Measures. The Canada Net-zero scenario, first introduced in Canada’s Energy Future 2023, now showed an updated pathway to net-zero emissions by 2050.

Recent changes to longstanding geopolitical and trade relationships have sharpened the focus of Canadians, policymakers, and businesses on the energy system’s security, resiliency, and competitiveness. The report included a new chapter looking at the future of energy security and trade diversification based on its projections.

The analysis in Canada’s Energy Future 2026 benefited from the input of experts from across the energy system: government and industry representatives, Indigenous participants engaged through our collaboration with Mokwateh, and Canadians who responded to the CER’s Discussion Paper. Their perspectives helped inform our assumptions, improve our analysis, and strengthen the report.

Market Snapshots

The Market Snapshot series aims to further the CER’s goal of providing Canadians with a neutral source of timely and relevant energy information and analysis. The series is designed to provide analysis on a mix of topics from current energy production, transportation and markets to emerging energy markets and supply trends. Market Snapshots also provide data and analysis on Canada’s energy trade with other countries.

In all, the CER produced 22 Market Snapshots in 2025-26 with 7 focused on trade of energy commodities with other countries. Other areas of focus included production and transportation of traditional hydrocarbons like crude oil and natural gas and emerging technologies such as hydrogen and ammonia. Finally, publications also covered electricity, energy transition, and Indigenous ownership in Canadian pipelines and liquefied natural gas facilities.

Pipeline Profiles

Pipeline Profiles is a flagship energy information product attracting 85,000 pageviews in 2025-26. It is a key source of pipeline information for Canadians and includes comprehensive information about pipelines the CER regulates. These include descriptions, maps, pipeline flows, markets served, tolls, financial, and safety information. This product currently consists of 26 Profiles that are accessible, easy to use, and cover 90 per cent of the pipelines the CER regulates.

The CER uses the recently developed Content Management System to ensure all Profiles are kept up to date in a timely and consistent manner. The Profiles also play a prominent role in planned communication and engagement activities with Canadians and help publish key datasets on Open Government. These efforts ensure Canadians have access to accurate, relevant, and continually improving pipeline information.

Provincial and Territorial Energy Profiles

The Provincial and Territorial Energy Profiles serve as a trusted resource for Canadians. Attracting over 320,000 pageviews in 2025-26, the Profiles remain one of the CER’s top five most visited digital products. They describe the diverse energy systems across Canada, highlighting how each region produces, uses, transforms, transports, and trades energy. These profiles help Canadians understand how energy systems differ across provinces and territories and how regional strengths contribute to Canada’s overall energy landscape. During the year, the CER introduced a redesigned layout informed by extensive user research. The updated design enhanced the product with clearer navigation, improved data visualization, and more accessible explanations of regional energy trends.

Renewable Energy in Canada: Current Status and Near-term Developments

The Renewable Energy in Canada publication was released in November 2025. The publication expanded its scope to provide additional information about the share of renewable energy in end-use demand and bioenergy. Key features of the publication included: (1) A detailed overview of the current state of renewable energy in Canada; (2) Highlights of recent and near-term developments in renewable energy across all provinces and territories, including new sections on bioenergy, end-use demand, and energy storage; and (3) Data visualizations and market analysis of energy generation, production, and capacity from 2010 to 2023.

Engagement

The CER ensures its decisions and work are informed by engagement with Indigenous Peoples and Canadians, which is key to its regulatory effectiveness, shaping CER programs and delivering on strategic priorities.

The CER engages extensively nationally and regionally on a variety of topics related to its mandate. CER staff attend conferences and meet with Indigenous Peoples, various levels of government, safety and damage prevention groups, landowner associations and energy experts to build relationships, gather feedback, and foster trust and collaboration to improve the CER’s work and to prevent harm. CER staff do this by cultivating relationships, investing in dialogue and partnerships, removing participation barriers, integrating Indigenous worldviews, and considering regional context and linguistic duality.

The CER is guided in its engagement by its National Engagement Strategy. The purpose of the strategy is to integrate engagement efforts across the organization so that the CER can effectively and efficiently deliver on its mandate. It provides clear direction on why and how we engage, and it is supported by the following key documents: a national plan for coordination, regional engagement plans and a blueprint for Indigenous -specific engagement.

The CER’s Commitment

• Input provided by Indigenous Peoples and stakeholders will influence the CER’s decisions and work.
• Indigenous Peoples and stakeholders provide feedback that engagement with the CER is meaningful.

Performance Results Summary 2025-26 – Engagement

Indigenous Involvement in Oversight

In 2025-26, the CER continued to advance implementation of the UN Declaration Act through APM SP34, co-developed with Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and the Indigenous Advisory and Monitoring Committees (IAMCs) for the TMX and Line 3 projects. A Leadership Table composed of Indigenous leaders from the IAMCs and senior leadership from the CER and NRCan was established to guide the overall implementation of APM SP34, with its Terms of Reference endorsed in May 2025. The CER also strengthened internal governance and accountability for Reconciliation.

The objective of APM SP34 is to work in consultation and cooperation with First Nation, Métis and Inuit communities, governments and organizations to (i) enhance the participation of Indigenous peoples in, and (ii) set the measures that could enable them to exercise federal regulatory authority in respect of, projects and matters that are currently regulated by the CER.

The CER advanced foundational work to develop a Systemic Model (APM SP34, Element 3) to enhance Indigenous Peoples’ involvement in compliance and oversight over the lifecycle of CER-regulated infrastructure. The model will integrate learnings from existing structures and relationships, including the IAMCs and ongoing collaborative work with Indigenous Peoples potentially affected by new and proposed projects under the NGTL system.

The CER also collaborated with NRCan to engage on options to develop regulations respecting the Minister of Natural Resource Canada’s power to enter into arrangements that would enable Indigenous governing bodies to be authorized to exercise specific powers, duties and functions under the CER Act.

These efforts, along with ongoing work to amend the Onshore Pipeline Regulations and Filing Manuals in a manner that incorporates specific localized knowledge held by Indigenous peoples, as well as Indigenous laws, policies, practices, protocols, and knowledge, and that strengthens measures to prevent and address impacts to Indigenous rights and interests, including in relation to heritage resources and sites of Indigenous significance, mark a shift toward a more consistent, structured, and scalable approach to Indigenous participation in regulatory oversight. They lay the groundwork for enhanced Indigenous involvement in the oversight of projects and matters regulated by the CER, aligning with the objectives of the UN Declaration Act.

CER Indigenous Cultural Intelligence

The CER’s Indigenous Cultural Intelligence Framework guides the organization in learning about Indigenous ways of being and knowing and deepening understanding of Indigenous rights, interests and cultures. This commitment to continuous learning, growth, and collaboration extends across the organization, where staff actively apply learnings to their work. By building awareness and understanding in how they carry out their roles, building trusting relationships, and contributing to meaningful changes, the CER helps advance this shared Reconciliation journey. This journey of cultural intelligence is grounded in Two-Eyed Seeing – an approach that brings together both Indigenous and Western ways of knowing support meaningful learnings and to better serve all Canadians.

In 2025-26, the Framework led to several key achievements:

• 24 Elders and 7 Knowledge Keepers supported staff at various activities, gatherings and events.
• Staff submitted over 80 requests for Indigenous protocol support, advice, and guidance. 64% of CER staff have participated in Indigenous Cultural Intelligence learning and development.
• Approximately 17.11% of CER contracts were awarded to Indigenous-owned businesses—well exceeding the federal target of five per cent.

Date modified:

2026-08-24