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UNDER CONSTRUCTION! - MORE UPDATES TO COME!

CAPLA and its member organizations have been busy over the past two years and have a lot to tell about.  In the coming months, we'll be doing our best to update this website in order to provide pipeline landowners with the information they need to understand and manage the presence of pipelines on their land.  Keep an eye on www.pipeline-landowners.com for news of CAPLA's latest efforts on behalf of pipeline landowners across Canada!

National Energy Board LMCI Participation

In 2007, the National Energy Board initiated a consultation program designed to address landowner issues about energy pipelines, including the accessibility of NEB processes and pipeline abandonment.  While this program, called the Land Matters Consultation Initiative (LMCI), was created in response to repeated requests from CAPLA over several years, the vast majority of participants in the program represent either the oil and gas industry or the energy pipeline industry.  CAPLA is the landowner voice in this process.

CAPLA has filed with the NEB two position papers outlining serious concerns about the current state of NEB processes and the regulatory system for pipeline abandonment and proposing practical solutions to protect pipeline landowners.  CAPLA's papers on LMCI Stream 1 (Company Interactions with Landowners) and Stream 2 (Improving the Accessibility of NEB Processes) outline the ways in which the NEB Act and NEB processes need to change in order to correct the current extreme power imbalance that favours pipeline companies over landowners.  CAPLA's paper on LMCI Stream 3 (Pipeline Abandonment - Financial Issues) and Stream 4 (Pipeline Abandonment - Physical Issues) identifies the risk of liability landowners face when a pipeline is abandoned and proposes a regulatory framework required to ensure that the NEB's principle that "landowners will not be liable for costs of pipeline abandonment" is fulfilled.

CAPLA is continuing to represent the interests of pipeline landowners in this NEB process and welcomes your comments and support. 

CONTACT CAPLA

If you have any questions, or would like further information, please fill out our contact information form or email CAPLA's president, Dave Core, directly at e-capla@hotmail.com.

Click here to see CAPLA's advertisment in The Western Producer.
 

 CAPLA is Fighting for Landowner Rights
 

The Canadian Alliance of Pipeline Landowners Associations (CAPLA) was formed in 2000 to raise awareness among pipeline landowners of issues that are common to all pipelines such as:

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Pipeline Safety

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Environmental Protection

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Pipeline Construction practices

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Compensation for land rights

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Civil and Criminal Liability of Landowners

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Abandonment of pipeline facilities

We’re farmers like you that have to deal with all of these issues because pipeline companies, with the support of government, have built pipelines through our farms. Pipeline landowners need a strong voice to represent landowner interests to pipeline companies and regulators such as the NEB, and that’s why we formed CAPLA and why we’d like to hear from you.
  
CAPLA is growing! - Member organizations from across Canada:
 
British Columbia - Kiskatinaw Pipeline Landowners Association (KPLA) - formed by agricultural landowners in the Peace River country of B.C. in 2007 in response to an application to the National Energy Board by Spectra Energy (owned by Westcoast Energy Inc., in turn owned by Duke Energy Corp. in the U.S.) to build the South Peace sour gas pipeline.
 
British Columbia - Vancouver Island Pipeline Landowners Association (VIPLA) - formed by landowners on Vancouver Island who faced an application to the National Energy Board for the Georgia Strait Crossing Pipeline (GSX), which was to originate in Sumas, Washington.  Construction was planned to begin in 2002, but following delays the project was cancelled in 2004.
 
Alberta - Alberta Association of Pipeline Landowners (AAPL) - this association was formed in 2006 by farmers and ranchers in eastern Alberta concerned about the proposed TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, which will carry crude oil from the tar sands down to refineries in the U.S.  Prior to the formation of AAPL, the Kessler Landowners Group (KLG), whose members helped form AAPL, intervened on behalf of landowners in the National Energy Board hearing of the Keystone Pipeline application.
 
Alberta - Alberta Surface Rights Federation - the Alberta Surface Rights Federation came into being in April of 1981.  It was formed through a series of meetings by representatives from several grass roots Surface Rights groups that had sprung up in local communities affected by oil and gas development through out Alberta. 
 
Saskatchewan - Saskatchewan Association of Pipeline Landowners (SAPL) - hundreds of agricultural landowners across Saskatchewan make up this organization formed in 2007 in response to the proposed Enbridge Alberta Clipper pipeline project.  Together with MPLA (see below), SAPL intervened on behalf of landowners in the National Energy Board application process for the Alberta Clipper pipeline.
 
Manitoba - Manitoba Pipeline Landowners Association (MPLA) - was originally formed in the late-1990's by Enbridge landowners facing a new pipeline construction in a Right-of-Way dating from the 1950's in which five or more oil pipelines have been constructed.  In 2006 and 2007, MPLA participated with SAPL in the National Energy Board application process for the Enbridge Alberta Clipper and Southern Lights LSr pipelines.
 
Manitoba - Manitoba Surface Rights Association (MRSA) - The MSRA was formed in 1978 and has been instrumental in ensuring that Oil and Gas
Surface Rights are dealt with in a fair and equitable manner. The MSRA membership is comprised of Manitoba landowners who have oil and gas related surface leases on their property.    
 
Ontario - Ontario Pipeline Landowners Association (OPLA) - formed by landowners in the early 1990's to contend with the impacts of a pipeline corridor housing three Enbridge Pipelines Inc. pipelines (Lines 7, 8 and 9).  These National Energy Board (NEB) regulated pipelines are used to transport crude oil as well as refined oil products, and were installed from 1957 through 1975.
 
Ontario - Gas Pipeline Landowners of Ontario-Vector (GAPLO-Vector) - agricultural landowners with a three-pipeline TransCanada PipeLines Limited corridor through their properties formed this group to address issues related to these pipelines and the adjacent Vector Gas Pipeline (jointly owned by Enbridge Pipelines Inc. and MCN Energy Group Inc.).
 
Ontario - Gas Pipeline Landowners of Ontario-Union (GAPLO-Union) - formed by landowners to contend with the impact of four natural gas pipelines on their properties, installed since 1954.  These Ontario Energy Board (OEB) regulated gas pipelines are owned and operated by Chatham based Union Gas in Ontario, now a subsidiary of North Carolina based Duke Energy in the U.S.
 
Ontario - Gas Pipeline Landowners of Ontario-St. Clair (GAPLO-St. Clair) - landowners who formed this group have not yet had to contend with any installed pipelines.  The group was formed in 1997 in response to landowner concerns about an application in 1996 by Dresden based St. Clair Pipelines in Ontario, a subsidiary of Westcoast Energy (now owned by Duke Energy), to build a natural gas pipeline from the Dawn compressor station near Sarnia to the north shore of Lake Erie.  Following the failure to obtain National Energy Board regulatory approval for the construction of the proposed line, the application was withdrawn.
 
New Brunswick - McCully Pipeline Landowners Association - landowners in southern New Brunswick affected by the Corridor Resources Pipeline formed this association to address issues arising from Corridor gas wells and gathering and transmission pipelines.