In a decision highlighting a new openness and transparency regarding regulatory operations that protect public safety and the environment, the National Energy Board of Canada will require pipeline companies to publish their emergency procedures manuals online for public viewing by 30 September 2016.

Companies must post the entirety of their emergency procedures manuals on their company’s public internet site except companies may protect information including:

personal information, such as names, medical and contact information;
security information such as information where there is a risk that its disclosure will impair the security of a pipeline; and
species at risk and heritage resources information such as the location of Indigenous traditional land use sites, archaeological sites or paleontological sites.

NEB Chair and CEO Peter Watson says “the NEB continues to set a very high bar for transparency and openness. Canadians deserve to have this important information. They also deserve to know that the NEB provides strict regulatory oversight of pipeline safety and environmental protection through the entire life of every NEB-regulated pipeline.”