Federal government reduces size of proposed emergency fund for pipeline spills
CALGARY — The federal government is reducing the size of a proposed emergency fund pipeline operators would be required to have on hand to deal with short-term costs of incidents such as spills.
Natural Resources Canada says the fund proposed under its new Pipeline Safety Act would bring down the minimum amount of “readily available” money to at least five per cent of a company’s liability from the 10 per cent originally proposed when consultations on the act began more than a year ago.
If adopted, regulations would require a large company with capacity to transport at least 250,000 barrels of oil per day to demonstrate it can cover cleanup bills of $1 billion. The “readily available” fund requirement at five per cent would thus be $50 million, versus $100 million at 10 per cent.
No such fund was required under previous pipeline rules.