When Alice Murray’s horse became entangled in wire
after an energy company failed to close gates, she called
to complain.
“I suppose it’s the most expensive horse on the place,” said the company representative.
“As a matter of fact, she is,” Murray replied.
The agent scoffed and said he would talk with the company to make sure she was not crazy. He scorned the wrong person.
Murray is the community affairs co-ordinator for Shell Canada in central Alberta and knew whom to call to get the matter resolved.
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Born and raised in Caroline, Alta., she is part of a new arm of the energy industry working with communities to handle complaints and facilitate peaceful negotiations in new developments. She also helps company executives understand community dynamics.
“The companies have to look at each community as a unique entity,” she said.
“If you don’t do a good job of public consultation, it is very likely you will be restricted access to the resource.”
Murray likened landowners’ reactions to industrial and resource development to an oil executive seeing someone digging a hole in his backyard without permission. Communities want to know what is going on in their backyard and how it might affect them even after the resource is depleted.
She works with five landowner and surface rights groups as well as individuals. Joining a group is a good idea to build relationships and trust, she said. A company’s first project may take two years to implement, but once a relationship is formed, development can proceed without antagonism.
“I think it is the wave of the future. It works really well,” she said.
The Alberta Energy and Utilities Board is restricted in what it can do as a regulator, so communities are better off negotiating specific requests with a company. This can alleviate fears and disrespectful behaviour on both sides.
As one of the country’s largest natural gas developers, Encana Resources has formed a community engagement team in Calgary and regional offices. When the company considers licences to operate, it thinks in more than legal terms, said Bruce DeBaie, who handles stakeholder relations.
“There’s the regulatory licence and the bigger licence is the social licence because that is an ongoing license. It is a licence that needs to be renewed every time you engage with the public,” he said.
People are now more concerned about the impacts of drilling than payments. The companies bring employment, tax revenue and local spending, but also construction noise, dust, increased traffic and potential water and soil damage.
“The general concern is getting enough information and knowledge on what we plan to do and how we do it and being able to provide input to any negative impacts that might arise from our operations,” he said.
The company works with individuals or a landowner association, the chamber of commerce or municipality.
“Increasingly we are working with surface rights groups and multi-stakeholder groups because they are bringing the community’s collective interest to the table at once and we are interested in working with both.”
Community outreach also means rural newspaper inserts, group presentations and regular public opinion surveys.
“In the last year we had drilled several thousand wells and we only went to one hearing. We never would have been able to drill any of those if we didn’t have the support and relative trust of the stakeholders and landowners that we work with,” DeBaie said.
Some groups are critical of the EUB, but Encana says the regulations and enforcement are effective.
“The regulations help us be better producers. They are trying to catch up with the level of activity as much as we are and the public itself,” he said.
