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Interactive Timeline (HTML)
February 13, 1947 - Imperial's No. 1 Leduc strikes oil.
April 5, 1949 - Federal Transport Minister Lionel Chevrier introduces a bill to enact the Pipe Lines Act of Canada.
| June 11, 1949 - Interprovincial's 720 km pipeline from Edmonton to Regina is the first project approved by federal Board of Transport Commissioners under the new Pipe Lines Act of Canada. |  |
1955 - Vancouver MP Howard Green suggests that "...consideration be given to setting up what might be called a national energy board." Under such a board "would be gathered a professional staff...which would have the necessary information and the necessary training, and which could recommend policy to the government. Then once policy had been decided upon by the government, the board could implement the policy."
| November, 1957 - The Royal Commission on Canada's Economic Prospects, led by Walter Gordon, proposes forming "a national energy authority" that would advise the federal government on energy matters, and approve, or recommend for approval, proposals for the export of oil, gas and electricity. |  |
February 2, 1958 - Public hearings begin in Calgary as part of Henry Borden's energy commission.
October 22, 1958 - Borden's energy commission makes 34 recommendations including the formation of a national energy board. Matters such as approving or rejecting pipeline proposals, regulating gas and electricity imports and exports and regulating other forms of energy such as coal and nuclear were to be the exclusive responsibility of the Board.
January 15, 1959 - The Rt. Hon. John Diefenbaker, Canada's Prime Minister of the day, opened the 1959 Parliamentary Session with a promise to his MPs: "...at the earliest opportunity you will be invited to authorize the establishment of a national energy board to ensure, so far as it lies within the jurisdiction of Parliament, Canada's energy resources are used effectively and prudently, to the best advantage of Canadians."
June 30, 1959 - The National Energy Board bill receives its final reading in Parliament.
July 18, 1959 - The National Energy Board bill, subject to more than 17 amendments, becomes law.
August 10, 1959 - The first five-member National Energy Board is appointed. Ian N. McKinnon, a personal friend of Alberta Premier Ernest Manning and the chairman of the Alberta Oil and Gas Conservation Board is tapped to lead the young board. Joining him were Dr. Robert D. Howland, Lee Briggs, Douglas M. Fraser, Jules A. Archambault and Maurice Royer.
August 14, 1959 - The first meeting of the National Energy Board convenes at 10:30 a.m. in the boardroom of the Department of Trade and Commerce.
November 2, 1959 - By proclamation, the National Energy Board Act comes into force. The legislation transferred virtually all authority with respect to pipelines from the Board of Transport Commissioners to the NEB. As a result, the Pipe Lines Act was repealed. Although the NEB would have regulatory jurisdiction over the import and export of natural gas and the export of electricity, the Board was not authorized to license either the export or import of oil.
January 5, 1960 - Just two months after the NEB was created, the Board opens its first hearing into six pending applications for gas export licenses and certificates of public convenience and necessity.
February 1, 1961 - The Minister of Trade and Commerce announces Canada's new national oil policy.
October 2, 1962 - The Government of Alberta approves a proposal by Great Canadian Oil Sands Limited, now Suncor, to develop an oil sands project near Fort McMurray, Alberta. The $230 million facility went into production four years later with an initial design capacity of 45,000 barrels per day.
1966 - The first drilling program on Canada's east coast begins on the Grand Banks off the shores of Newfoundland and Labrador.
1967 - The first deep exploration well is drilled in the Sable Island area.
December, 1967 - Canada's average daily crude oil output exceeds one million barrels per day for the first time ever.
1968 - Atlantic Richfield Company and Humble Oil (now Exxon) confirm the largest oil field in North America, and the eighteenth-largest oil field in the world at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.
February, 1969 - The NEB releases its report on the National Oil Policy.
July, 1969 - The first gas discovery in the Arctic Islands is reported on Melville Island. The first oil discovery in the Mackenzie Delta was made in 1970 and in the Arctic islands in 1972.
August, 1969 - For the first time in its short history, the NEB denies a request for additional gas exports citing reasons of an inadequate surplus to protect future Canadian requirements.
1970 – Cabinet increases the number of permanent Board Members from five to seven.
1971 – The Panel assigned to the Board’s first rates hearing on an application by TransCanada sits for 78 days.
November, 1971 – The NEB denies three natural gas export requests, the first time all export applications were turned down. At the time, the Board concluded that Canada’s gas requirements exceeded available Canadian reserves by 1.1 trillion cubic feet.
March 1, 1973 – In response to a NEB report issued the year before, all oil exports require a license from the National Energy Board as of March 1, 1973. American refiners request 1.3 million barrels/day but for the first time ever, the Board cuts back this amount by nearly 50,000 barrels/day.
March 1, 1973 – NEB Chairman Robert Howland appears before the House of Commons Committee on National Resources and Public Works and expresses concern over the lack of new oil discoveries. Dr. Howland retired later that year, two years before the end of his seven-year term.
September, 1973 – Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announces a program of voluntary price restraint for gasoline and heating oils. The oil industry was asked “to refrain from making further price increases affecting Canadian consumers before January 30, 1974.”
October, 1973 – The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cuts oil production by one quarter and announces future cuts of five per cent per month. Oil supplies bound for the United States and the Netherlands were embargoed completely in retaliation for Western support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War.
November, 1973 – Energy, Mines and Resources Minister Donald Macdonald announces a “voluntary program of energy conservation immediately, to be followed by a program of mandatory allocations.” Emergency measures included plans to ship Alberta oil east via the Panama Canal and calls for Canadians to lower their house temperatures and cut back on Christmas lighting.
December, 1973 - Partly in response to the OPEC oil crisis, the government announces a new national oil policy which includes the creation of Petro-Canada to spur oil and gas exploration and to help develop the Alberta tar sands.
January 21, 1974 – The NEB releases A Study of Canadian Petroleum Supply Including Import/Export Balance, which says that by 1978 Canada would stop being a net exporter of oil and domestic production would gradually decline to 735,000 barrel/day by 1990.
March 21, 1974 – A consortium of 27 companies referred to as Canadian Arctic Gas Pipeline Limited applies to the NEB to build a pipeline to ship natural gas from Alaska and the Mackenzie Delta to southern markets.
March, 1974 – Mr. Justice T.R. Berger is named as head of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry Commission with the mandate to inquire into, and report upon, the terms and conditions for a right of way that may be granted for a natural gas pipeline to cross the Northwest Territories and the Yukon.
1974 – Cabinet increases the number of permanent Board Members from seven to nine.
October 27, 1975 – NEB hearings begin on an application by Arctic Gas to build a natural gas pipeline from Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, east to the Mackenzie Delta and on to southern markets.
March 11, 1976 – The Supreme Court rules that the participation of NEB Chair Marshall Crowe as a Panel Member assigned to hear competing applications for a gas pipeline through the Mackenzie Valley "cannot but give rise to a reasonable apprehension, which reasonable well-informed persons could properly have, of a biased appraisal and judgment..." Mr. Crowe was a member of the Arctic Gas management committee in the early 1970s.
April 12, 1976 – New hearings into the Arctic Gas application open before a new Panel, more than two years after the application is filed.
September, 1976 – Foothills (Yukon) Pipe Lines Ltd. applies to the NEB to build a pipeline from the Alaska/Yukon border to ship Prudhoe Bay gas south.
1977 – Oil exports tumble from a peak of 1.2 million barrels per day in 1973 to 282,000 barrels per day in 1977.
May 9, 1977 – Mr. Justice T.R. Berger’s report on the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry is tabled in Parliament. He recommends that no pipeline be built across the Northern Yukon for environmental reasons and that any pipeline slated for construction in the Mackenzie Valley should be put on hold for at least ten years to allow for native land claims to be settled.
July 4, 1977 – After 214 days of public hearings, the Board releases its Reasons for Decision on the Northern Gas Pipeline Applications. Citing environmental concerns, the Board denied separate applications from Foothills Pipe Lines and Canadian Arctic Gas Pipeline to build a gas pipeline through the Mackenzie Valley. The NEB did approve a third set of applications by the Foothills (Yukon) Project Group which proposed building an "express line" along the Alaska Highway.
December 23, 1977 - Polar Gas applies to the NEB to build a $6.1 billion, 2,338-mile gas line from the Arctic Islands to southern markets.
August 13, 1979 - Chevron confirms hydrocarbon shows at Hibernia offshore Newfoundland. The announcement comes on the heels of Mobil Texaco’s natural gas discovery at Venture D-23 off the coast of Nova Scotia the previous May.
December 6, 1979 – The federal government ratifies a Board decision to approve an additional 3.75 trillion cubic feet of gas exports. Half of this gas was to be shipped via the "pre-built" section of the Foothills pipeline.
April, 1980 – The Board approves an extension of TransCanada’s gas system from Montreal to Québec City, but denied a related application by Q&M Pipelines to extend the line to Halifax on environmental and economic grounds.
October 28, 1980 – Finance Minister Allan MacEachen announces the federal government’s new energy strategy – the National Energy Program. The program would "...redistribute revenue from the [oil] industry and lessen the cost of oil for Eastern Canada..." in an attempt to insulate Canadians from rising global oil prices. Domestic oil prices were kept below world market prices in order to subsidize all Canadian consumers. The strategy was released without input from the National Energy Board.
October 30, 1980 – Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed announces that Alberta will cut its oil production by 15 per cent over nine months, hold back a major oil development and take the federal government to court over its tax on natural gas exports.
November, 1980 – In a speech at McGill University, NEB Chair Geoffrey Edge tells the audience that the federal government had no authority to implement some of the key features of the National Energy Program.
March, 1981 - The NEB approves Interprovincial Pipeline's application for a 866-km oil pipeline from Norman Wells, Northwest Territories to the pipeline system at Zama, Alberta for the first substantial oil production from the NWT.
July 22, 1981 - Mobil announces the discovery of its Hebron well, offshore Newfoundland.
December 18, 1981 - The National Energy Board Act is amended to include provisions for appropriating land for a pipeline right-of-way and to give the Board authority over interprovincial and international power lines.
February 15, 1982 - The Ocean Ranger, the largest Mobile Offshore Drilling Rig in the world at the time, sinks in a storm 175 nautical miles east of St. John's, Newfoundland. All 84 men onboard perish.
March 5, 1982 - The Canada Oil and Gas Act is proclaimed. It includes subsidies for exploration on federally owned oil and gas properties in the North and offshore.
April, 1982 - Citing financing difficulties, high interest rates and sagging world oil and gas prices, the sponsors and producers tied to the Alaska Highway Gas Pipeline agree to postpone the project.
May 14, 1982 - The NEB adopts a more flexible procedure for determining the amount of surplus gas available for export. Established reserves sufficient to meet current Canadian needs and anticipated export volumes for the next 25 years would be set aside before granting new export permits.
January 28, 1983 - After year-long hearings, the Board recommends approving 11.6 trillion cubic feet of additional gas exports, less than half the amount applied for.
1984 - The number of permanent Board Members is increased from nine to eleven with provisions for one temporary member.
June 29, 1984 - The Canada-Nova Scotia Oil and Gas Agreement receives royal assent, paving the way for the development of Sable Island natural gas.
July 3, 1984 - Polar Gas applies to build a 2,145 km pipeline from the Mackenzie Delta to Edson, AB.
August 2, 1984 - The NEB dismisses the Arctic Pilot Project to bring Liquefied Natural Gas from Melville Island in the Arctic to an Eastern Canadian port.
March 28, 1985 - Ottawa signs the Western Accord with Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. The agreement phases out the National Energy Program by relaxing oil export restrictions, abolishing five federal taxes and removing the petroleum and gas revenue tax over four years.
June 1, 1985 - Federal controls on the pricing and marketing of crude oil and petroleum products are removed.
October 31, 1985 - TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. (TCPL) is required to provide open access for gas shippers. Unbundling TCPL's merchant and transportation functions leaves the company owing $1 billion to gas producers under the take or pay provisions of its contracts.
December 1985 - The Board orders TCPL to move gas owned by Cyanamid - the first step of "open access" on the TCPL system.
May, 1986 - In the TOPGas decision, the Board requires producers and consumers to help pay the cost of TransCanada PipeLines' default payments under its take-or-pay gas purchase contracts.
January, 1987 - The Board's report "Canadian Energy Supply and Demand 1985-2005" forecasts increasing oil imports and declining domestic supplies, if prices remain low.
February 15, 1987 - The Canada Petroleum Resources Act is proclaimed. The act replaces the Canada Oil and Gas Act of 1982 and calls for frontier oil and gas explorations subsidies to be scaled back and the preferential treatment for Petro-Canada to be eliminated.
September 9, 1987 - The NEB scraps the gas surplus test for determining the amount of gas available for export in favour of supply and demand and regular monitoring.
September, 1988 - The Board's Guidelines for Negotiated Settlements set a framework for gas shippers and pipelines to negotiate rates, eliminating the need for rate hearings in many cases.
October 20, 1989 - The Board approves an application from Esso Resources Canada Limited, Shell Canada Limited and Gulf Canada Resources for licences to export 9.2 trillion cubic feet of Mackenzie Delta gas as early as 1996.
March, 1990 - After a public hearing, the Board decides it will no longer include social benefit-cost analysis as one means of determining if proposed gas exports were in the public interest.
March 26, 1990 - The National Energy Board Act is amended to reduce federal and provincial duplication in electricity regulation.
June 1, 1990 - Amendments to the National Energy Board Act allow the Board to approve power exports for up to thirty years without public hearings, include provisions for the Board to recover its operating costs from the companies it regulates and reduce the number of permanent Board Members from 11 to nine.
February 26, 1991 - Finance Minister Michael Wilson announced the move of the National Energy Board from Ottawa to Calgary in his budget speech.
April 2, 1991 - The Board assumes regulatory responsibility for oil and gas activities in most frontier areas. Fifty-five Canada Oil and Gas Lands Administration staff are transferred to the Board and the NEB creates an Environment Directorate.
September 3, 1991 - The NEB begins operations in Calgary with its new headquarters officially opening on November 1, 1991.
December 10, 1991 - Three companies pledge record spending on four land parcels in the Mackenzie Delta and Beaufort Sea.
June 26, 1992 - Saying it was "concerned and dismayed" by the California Public Utility Commission's plan to undermine its existing long-term natural gas contracts with Alberta producers, the NEB issues orders to suspend short-term sales of natural gas to California.
May, 1993 - The Canadian government agrees to transfer control of oil and gas resources in the Yukon to the Yukon territorial government; the Board will continue to regulate oil and gas activity in the Yukon for up to 18 months.
February 24, 1994 - The Supreme Court of Canada rules that the Board has jurisdiction to assess the environmental impact of upstream Hydro-Québec power projects related to electricity export applications.
May 12, 1994 - Amendments to the Canada Oil and Gas Operations Act, the Canada Petroleum Resources Act and the National Energy Board Act receive royal assent. The amendments give the NEB authority to regulate oil and gas activities in frontier areas, except offshore Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
July 28, 1994 - The Board's Supply and Demand report sees almost unlimited potential supplies of natural gas, but conventional oil supplies from the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin have nearly peaked.
September, 1994 - The NEB launches its first external website to make certain key documents available to the public.
December 15, 1994 - The federal Department of Energy, Mines and Resources officially becomes the Department of Natural Resources.
January, 1995 - The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act spells out new provisions for environmental assessments, which the Board must ensure are conducted for projects under its jurisdiction. This leads to joint hearings by the Board and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.
March, 1995 - Following a hearing in 1994, the NEB establishes the cost of capital for major pipelines on a generic basis, with provisions for automatic annual adjustments to the rate of return on equity. This change drastically reduced the number of tolls and tariff hearings coming before the Board.
June, 1996 - The Board approves the Express Pipeline, a 435-km oil line from Hardisty, Alberta to Casper, Wyoming, following the first environmental assessment hearing conducted jointly with the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. It was the first large new oil pipeline out of Western Canada in 40 years.
July 1, 1996 - The Board receives all jurisdiction over commodity pipelines (those that carry anything other than oil or gas), except municipal pipelines, pursuant to the Canada Transportation Act.
November, 1996 - The Board publishes the world's first comprehensive study on pipeline stress corrosion cracking, which caused numerous pipeline failures in several countries, including explosions on TransCanada PipeLines' gas line. The result was a series of 27 recommendations to promote public safety as described in Stress Corrosion Cracking on Canadian Oil and Gas Pipelines.
March 26, 1997 - Canada becomes the second largest exporter of crude oil and refined products to the United States.
October 27, 1997 - The Joint Review Panel for the Sable Gas Projects approves both the Sable Offshore Energy Project and the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline Project, subject to a number of conditions.
November 17, 1997 - Commercial oil production begins from the Hibernia field offshore Newfoundland.
December, 1997 - The Board approves a reversal of IPL's Sarnia-Montreal line to supply Ontario refineries with imported oil.
July 3, 1998 - TransCanada PipeLines Limited and NOVA Corporation complete the largest ever merger undertaken by energy companies in Canada.
November, 1998 - The Board approves Alliance Pipeline's $3 billion, 3,000-km gas pipeline from northeastern B.C.
June, 1999 - The National Energy Board releases its new Onshore Pipeline Regulations, 1999.
November, 1999 - The first commercial production of natural gas from the Sable Island gas fields starts with the completion of the 1015-km Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline Management Ltd System, extending across Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to markets in the U.S. Northeast.
March, 2000 - The NEB pilots a new approach to resolving disputes between pipeline companies and landowners called Alternative Dispute Resolution.
December 1, 2000 - The first shipment of gas on the Alliance Pipeline begins its 1,560 km journey from northeastern B.C. to the Canada-U.S. border.
April, 2001 - The NEB launches its Safety Performance Indicators Initiative to evaluate the effectiveness of safety programs among companies regulated by the NEB.
2001 - For the first time ever, bitumen production (271 million bbls) exceeds conventional crude production (264 million barrels) in Alberta.
February 18, 2002 - The NEB launches its e-filing system, Livelink, which allows the public to view and submit regulatory documents online.
June, 2002 - Together with the 12 boards and agencies with jurisdiction in the North, the NEB establishes the Co-operation Plan for the Environmental Impact Assessment and Regulatory Review of a Northern Gas Pipeline Project through the Northwest Territories. This plan lays out the framework for reviewing a potential application for an arctic pipeline.
January 30, 2003 - The NEB launches its new Processing Plant Regulations.
August 14, 2003 - A massive power outage leaves an estimated 10 million people in Ontario and 45 million people in the northern U.S. in the dark.
September 19, 2003 - The NEB denies an application from the Province of New Brunswick requesting changes to the way the NEB examines applications for short-term natural gas export orders.
March 4, 2004 - The NEB denies an application from Sumas Energy 2, Inc. to construct an international power line in Abbotsford, B.C. saying the project was not in the Canadian public interest.
April 29, 2004 - The National Energy Board releases a new Filing Manual that provides guidance to companies preparing applications for review by the Board.
May 10, 2004 - The NEB and the United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission sign a Memorandum of Understanding to enhance interagency coordination.
October 8, 2004 - The NEB receives five applications to build the McKenzie Valley Natural Gas Pipeline.
June 2, 2005 - The NEB releases a report on the Outlook for Electricity Markets which warns that supplies of electricity could become tight as soon as 2007.
November 12, 2005 - Husky achieves its first production from the White Rose oil field in the Jeanne d'Arc Basin, east of Newfoundland.
January 25, 2006 - The NEB's public hearing on the Mackenzie Gas Project opens in Inuvik.
May 4, 2006 - The NEB receives approval to substitute the Board's environmental process for that of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency in a pilot project.
October 26, 2006 - The NEB approves an application by Terasen Pipelines for the 158-kilometre TMX - Anchor Loop Pipeline through Jasper National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park.
July 24, 2007 - NEB staff respond to a pipeline rupture that released approximately 232 cubic metres of crude into the streets of Burnaby, BC.
September 21, 2007 - Gaétan Caron is appointed NEB Chair and CEO following Ken Vollman's retirement in April.
October 3, 2007 - The NEB establishes the Land Matters Consultation Initiative to provide a forum for interested parties to discuss issues relating to land use with the Board.
November 15, 2007 - The Board releases Canada's Energy Future - Reference Case and Scenarios to 2030 which examines three possible energy futures that may unfold for Canadians up to 2030.
February 22, 2008 - An Enbridge application to build and operate the 1,607 km-long Alberta Clipper oil pipeline is approved by the Board.
October 2, 2008 - The NEB is named one of Canada's Top 100 Employers, one of Alberta's Top 40 Employers and one of the Canada's Top 20 Family Friendly Workplaces.
February 26, 2009 - The Board approves a TransCanada Pipelines application to recognize the 23,500-km long TransCanada Alberta system as being under federal jurisdiction.
October 8, 2009 - The National Energy Board abandons the 1994 multi-pipeline return on equity formula, used to determine cost of capital for pipeline companies. Instead, cost of capital will be determined through negotiations or by the NEB if a cost of capital application is filed.
November 7, 2009 - Nearly 700 Board Members, staff and colleagues gather at Heritage Park's Gasoline Alley for the Board's official 50th birthday party.
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