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The acting leader of the Green Party of British Columbia says the provincial agency that regulates oil and gas projects has been “captured” by special interests and should become an independent agency.

Jeremy Valeriote was reacting to an investigation by The Narwhal and the Investigative Journalism Foundation that found the BC Energy Regulator quietly exempted oil and gas giant Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNRL) from environmental regulations for more than 4,300 pipelines the company operates across the province. 

The investigation found CNRL had not deactivated and cleaned up those pipelines within the legal timeframe. The exemption, which was granted in 2020 and lasts until 2028, was never publicly disclosed.

The regulator previously said it “does not post publicly when exemptions to regulation are granted.” But after The Narwhal and the Investigative Journalism Foundation revealed the existence of the CNRL exemption, the regulator sent a second statement, saying it was “currently working on a process for posting regulatory exemptions publicly on our website.” It declined to explain why this information is not already public.  

Valeriote, whose party has signed an agreement to help the BC NDP hold its slim majority in the legislature, said keeping the exemption secret was “completely unacceptable.” 

“I think regulators work in the public interest and that information should be made public,” Valeriote, MLA for West Vancouver-Sea to Sky, said in an interview. “There’s no question that shouldn’t be done behind closed doors.”

Such exemptions for pipelines are fairly rare. The regulator said it had granted only three since 2019 — and one was an amendment to an existing exemption. 

But during the same period, the regulator said it granted 90 exemptions for drilling projects like oil wells, none of which were publicly disclosed. Valeriote said the exemption is part of a larger pattern where the regulator is beholden to oil and gas companies, something he speculated was due to political pressure to advance natural resource projects.

B.C. Minister of Energy and Climate Solutions Adrian Dix did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Conservative Party of British Columbia Leader John Rustad, Larry Neufeld, the natural gas and LNG critic for the BC Conservatives, and Trevor Halford, the environment critic for the BC Conservatives, also did not respond to requests for comment.

‘Political rhetoric’ restricts regulator’s work: BC Greens 

Industry groups say B.C.’s oil and gas sector employs around 12,000 people, a number expected to grow as the province’s burgeoning liquefied natural gas (LNG) export sector gets underway this year.

Recent reporting by The Narwhal and the Investigative Journalism Foundation detailed how, in many cases, the BC Energy Regulator did not fine or reprimand companies when they apparently broke regulations intended to protect the environment and public health and safety. Inspectors with the regulator identified more than 1,000 apparent infractions while inspecting oil and gas sites, but did not fine the companies operating the sites or mark them as non-compliant with government regulations. 

“I think there’s a tremendous amount of economic influence and … maybe what we would call groupthink and political rhetoric around overregulation,” Valeriote said. “I think that gets some traction in the political realm and it can lead to regulators being hampered in their ability to do their work.” 

The BC Energy Regulator, formerly known as the BC Oil and Gas Commission, is funded by levies charged to industry and overseen by a government-appointed board that reports to Dix’s office. 

In a statement to The Narwhal and the Investigative Journalism Foundation, the regulator said it does not “advocate for industry nor solicit economic development.”

But Valeriote said he is worried political pressure is influencing regulator decisions. He argued the regulator should either be an independent government entity outside a minister’s direct purview or it should have additional layers of insulation from elected officials, whom he argued might have reasons to rush environmental approvals to appease influential industry groups. 

“There’s too much money at stake and, quite frankly, large profits at stake to deny that there is political influence here,” Valeriote said. 

“We have a lot of legislation. We have a lot of regulations. But we don’t enforce it consistently and that undermines the whole purpose.”

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