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Video Stories - Ken Vollman - Transcript
Congratulations National Energy Board on 50 years of successful regulation in the public interest. I'm pleased to have been part of that history. My name is Ken Vollman and I was Chairman from 1998 to 2007.
The factors that comprised the public interest have changed a great deal over those 50 years and the Board itself has been very successful in evolving its regulatory program to respond to that changing concept of public interest. It's reasonable to expect that what we understand as the public interest will continue to evolve in the future, bringing new challenges and new opportunities to the NEB. When I think of challenges it's important to remember that the Parliament of Canada has made the National Energy Board its custodian over the vast network of pipelines that carry oil and gas to Canadians. Some of these pipelines are older than the National Energy Board itself, and bring new challenges to regulation as these pipelines continue to age. There's no engineering reason why these pipelines can't operate another 50 years, but as they age they will require increased vigilance on the part of the pipeline operators, and on behalf of the government's custodian, the National Energy Board.
When I think of opportunities, I think firstly of the fragmentation that has occurred in the regulatory review process, particularly in the last two decades. It seems that each new piece of legislation has brought with it new processes, sometimes entirely new agencies, without any thought as to how it can be stitched to the existing regulatory system. Even some of the early advocates of these duplicative processes, I think are now starting to ask themselves whether this really all makes sense. Certainly the public is losing its appetite for these confusing regulatory processes and I think legislators, both federally and provincially, are ready to act.
The NEB meanwhile has been addressing concerns about its own processes, making them less formal, making them easier for the public to engage in public reviews. Like most opportunities in life, they are there for awhile and need to be seized before life moves on with other challenges. So I'd like to suggest that now is the time for the Board to move fairly aggressively in putting itself forward as the one single public review.
Another challenge has to do with the wise use of our natural resources. Canadians are facing many complex decisions about their energy use, and they want to know that their choices make environmental sense, economic sense, and perhaps most importantly that they are sustainable in the long term. There's a lot of confusing information out there, and I think the National Energy Board is well situated with its expert staff, its public review processes for gathering data to provide the information that Canadians will need in the future on making the wisest choices in how to use our rich endowment of natural resources.
In closing, and on a lighter note, let me remark that 50 is not very old, and it shows. The NEB's in fine form. It has a bright and dedicated staff and members, it enjoys an excellent reputation among stakeholders, and I will be looking forward to watching the NEBs future successes with great interest. Thank you.
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