A landowners group wants farmers to know about impending changes in jurisdiction over pipelines.
David Core, president of the Canadian Alliance of Pipeline Landowners’ Association (CAPLA), said the issue revolves around TransCanada Pipeline’s plan to change its oversight jurisdiction to provincial from federal.
Core said CAPLA became involved because the Alberta government wasn’t intervening at recent hearings.
“No one was representing landowners,” he said.
“Alberta landowners are upset government didn’t represent them.”
CAPLA fears the jurisdictional change could erode farmers’ rights and change their compensation.
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Core said the association is distributing letters and running radio spots to increase farmer awareness of the potential change.
“In future, there will be a balance of participation and hearing and communication,” he said of upcoming CAPLA activities.
The group also participated in recent hearings in Alberta examining funding for abandoned pipelines. It wants to see a fund established to pay for decommissioning or maintaining lines in perpetuity.
“Landowners should carry no risk,” Core said, but he fears companies that go insolvent could leave farmers on the hook for the pipelines.
CAPLA has hired a communications specialist to further its work on policy, advocacy and public education.
“We’re taking this thing to the next level,” Core said.
The group works with similar groups in Canada, providing support and speaking to government on safety, liability, environment and compensation issues while educating its members and the general public.
In Saskatchewan, Core said, the group is concerned that the provincial government does not have a regulatory board that pipeline landowners can ask for help to protect their interests.
Other concerns include the close proximity of pipelines to farmyards.
Irene Hopkins, a cattle producer from Outlook, Sask., said she will soon have six pipelines on her land, including some that touch the edge of her yard.
In addition to safety concerns, she feels the pipelines devalue her property.
“If we ever have a leak, it affects feed and water and us living there.”
Ken Habermehl, a farmer and cow-calf producer from Macrorie, Sask., who is also president of the Saskatchewan Association of Pipeline Owners (SAPL), said above-ground valve stations are another problem.
“They’re a real nuisance to farm around.”
He thinks the solution is for landowners to band together to lobby for compensation such as annual farm loss payments from pipeline companies.
“You have to work together; individuals have no hope,” he said, citing SAPL’s 265 members.
Like CAPLA, his group wants to increase awareness of pipeline maintenance, contamination from pipeline leaks and impacts on environmental farm plans and assessments.
