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May 2015
Melanie
Vermont, USA
Dear Melanie,
I read your email with great interest.
As a non-profit organization, the Canadian Association of Energy and Pipeline Landowner
Associations (CAEPLA) and our predecessor landowner groups have been advocating for
pipeline landowners for more than a quarter century. I personally have been advocating for
landowners for more than 20 years.
Our experience has brought us to the understanding that pipeline regulatory bodies and the
legislation that created those bodies, with the resulting regulations, were created to help
pipeline companies with a kind of rent control, an externalization (as economists call it) of their
costs to landowners and the public.
Yes, the government and the companies want the public to think that these bodies and
regulations were created to protect the public by making pipelines safer. In reality they were
simply created to protect politicians and industry from the public while at the same time
providing cover for eminent domain (Right of Entry in Canada).
The best way to hold companies responsible for their liabilities and costs is through business
agreements, contract law, the courts and insurance. Regulatory law, “administrative laws,”
simply compromise property rights and the rule of law.
Just a note of interest, in Canada CAEPLA initiated a Class Action lawsuit to challenge the
creation of new regulations that restricted our farm operations because we had pipelines on
our land. The first judge and then three more on appeal stated we had no Rights or Remedy
outside the administrative regulations (the National Energy Board Act) to go to a court of law.
Yes, the system really is “rigged.” The good news is we have learned how to work around it.
After years of dealing with regulators and the courts CAEPLA has found only one way to protect
landowners and to get safer pipelines that protect people and the environment. That is for
landowners along a proposed project to work together to level the playing field. By working
together we are able to compromise the eminent domain/condemnation (in Canada Right of
Policy Centre Mailing: #363-918 16th Ave. NW, Calgary, Alberta T2M 0K3 | [email protected]
Administration Mailing: #257-918 Albert Street, Regina, Sask. S4R 2P7 | Phone: 306.522.5000 | Fax: 306.522.5006
Administration email: [email protected] | www.landownerassociation.ca
Entry/expropriation) processes. No government or court wants to be seen stealing land from
large numbers of people and handing it over to private companies.
Governments, regulators and the courts are not worried about stripping a few individual
landowners of their land and rights. All the better to make an example of them for others. As
you can imagine, their goal is to divide landowners so as to be better able to “conquer” them. It
is much simpler to avoid the pressure of the press if you can make it look like an individual is
just an isolated, cranky landowner causing trouble against the “public interest.”
Yet over the last decade, CAEPLA has negotiated many precedent setting pipeline/landowner
settlements. Agreements that are changing the way industry sees landowners.
These agreements hold the companies responsible for construction practices, biosecurity, crop
and woodlot losses, crossing rights, proper remediation, compensation, abandonment,
landowner construction monitoring, research and pipeline safety issues such as depth and
thickness of pipe, etc. Things government regulators ignore and fail to understand. Things
industry will attempt to bluff their way out of, or throw short term dollars at that leave
landowners holding the bag in the long run for liabilities and ecological disruption to soil, water,
and vegetation.
Our negotiated settlements help protect our landowners, their families, their quality of life, as
well as their environmental stewardship and the safety of the public at large. No government
regulator can accomplish what self-reliant, savvy landowners acting in solidarity with their
neighbors can. CAEPLA has the track record in Canada to prove it.
Our philosophy is straightforward: property rights are a Common Law right that ensures our
ability to defend our families, land, and livelihoods. Property rights are a Human Right that
empowers the “little guy (and girl)” to stand up to predatory corporations and corrupt
government bureaucrats. Combined with a knowledge of your rights, and working
cooperatively, ours is a surefire approach to protecting what you value most.
When landowners work together this way they take back their right to choose – choose the
terms and conditions upon which industry and development take place, and choose to protect
our land, water, and food security. As well as choose the highest safety standards possible.
Neighbours need to understand that acting on their own they have no right to protect their
property and the future of their investment. Landowners need to work together to counter the
company’s access and feeling of entitlement to eminent domain.
Landowners cannot hope to compete with the millions of dollars and whole floors full of
lawyers a pipeline company can throw at them in the courts. By relying solely on lawyers and
the legal process landowners leave themselves vulnerable to an industry capable of breaking
the morale and finances of even the most resolute landowners.
However, by sticking together under the guidance of experienced and expert organizers like the
team at CAEPLA, there is hope. Knowledge is power and there really is strength in numbers.
It is easy to get started. Form a local landowners committee and join CAEPLA for a small
membership fee up front and a modest percentage of any successfully negotiated settlement
afterward. Think of us as activist, advocate, real estate agents – if we fail to secure a
satisfactory settlement for your members, we collect nothing. In this way we ensure our team
of experts delivers our very best service to you, the landowner.
One of the many benefits of organizing under the CAEPLA umbrella is our ability to secure costs
from the company for such things as experts and negotiation meetings attended by committee
members – landowners did not volunteer to have a pipe pushed through their property and
communities -- this is not a discussion between a willing buyer and seller, but rather an
imposition you should not be expected to bear the costs of.
Yes this can be hard work. But nothing worth having comes easy. As the saying goes, ‘freedom
isn’t free.” Sometimes we have to fight to be free – free of environmental risk and unsafe
pipelines that can seriously impact quality of life and the value of your land.
And yes the companies will pull out all the stops to undermine your alliance and your resolve.
They will play hardball. Remember, for them it is all about divide and conquer. But our
experience proves when landowners weather the storm, it does blow over. Companies soon
realize it is cheaper to work with landowners than against us. We are familiar with most of the
tricks land agents play and can spot any new ones they dream up. We will be with you every
step of the way.
We have been successful in Canada over and over again. It had never been done until CAEPLA
came along and many were skeptical. Are there any guarantees? No. We cannot guarantee
success, but we can deserve it. Our approach has been proven to be the highest percentage
approach landowners have.
Not only has our process produced precedent-setting agreements, but it has also shown
regulators, government and pipeline companies that there is a different way to respect
landowners and the land itself. It is also a better way to create safer pipelines that one way or
another will be built somewhere anyway.
The key is respecting consumers and stakeholders through respect for property and human
rights.
Now, some may oppose the oil and gas industry altogether. As an organization we are agnostic
on this question. Think of us as a union representing workers – some workers and some unions
may oppose corporations and capitalism, but that does not stop them from working in the here
and now to achieve justice.
Remember: stopping one pipeline in one area one time does nothing to force industry to
respect the environment and invest in state-of-the art safety technology.
For better or for worse, the world is not going to go “cold turkey” on oil and gas any time soon.
This does not mean letting industry off the hook when it comes to the safety and
environmental demands of the landowners and the general public. Working together,
landowners can win a better deal for themselves and strike a blow for the greater good.
Thank you for your letter and for reading mine. I look forward to answering any questions
you may have, and while we are very busy battling pipeline companies across the country, I
am always only a phone call away: 306.522-5000
Regards,
David R. Core
CEO & Director of Federally Regulated Projects
P.S… The regulatory system is designed to confuse the public and affected landowners. It is
designed to protect industry and politicians. It is designed to wear you down and allow
corporations to win a war of attrition. Lawyers meanwhile are only too happy to run up billable
hours on hardworking folks -- win or lose. Don’t let this happen. Let CAEPLA and our team put
our proven techniques to work for you to protect your property, your quality of life, your
environmental stewardship, and your peace of mind.