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2014 Legislative Session: 3rd Session, 40th Parliament

FIRST READING

The following electronic version is for informational purposes only.

The printed version remains the official version.

MR. DOUG DONALDSON

BILL M 213 – 2014

BRITISH COLUMBIA OIL AND GAS ACTIVITIES AMENDMENT ACT, 2014

This Bill amends

section 28 of the Oil and Gas Activities Act to prohibit the conversion of natural gas pipelines to transmit oil or diluted bitumen by forbidding the Oil and Gas Commission

from granting such an authorization under their permitting authority.

HER MAJESTY, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of British Columbia, enacts as

follows:

Definitions and

interpretation

1 In this Act, the Oil and Gas Activities Act ,

Part 3 – Oil and Gas Activities, Division 1 – Permits,

section 28, Permitted activity under pipeline permits, is amended

by adding

section 28 (4).

Purposes

2 The purposes of this Act are as follows:

(

a) to facilitate the sound management of transportation of natural gas,

(

b) to ensure natural gas pipelines are not utilized for uses other than intended,

(

c) to ensure that no precedent be established whereby natural gas facilities may be used for oil purposes.

Intended use

3 The Oil and Gas Activities Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 293, is amended by adding

section 28 (4) as follows shown by the text

highlighted by underline:

Oil and Gas Activities Act

Permitted activity under pipeline permits

(1) In this section:

"applicable Act" means the Forest Act , the Forest and Range Practices Act , the Railway Act , and the Railway Safety Act ;

"regulator" means a person authorized to grant an approval under an applicable Act.

(2) Despite anything in an applicable Act but subject to subsection (3),

(

a) the commission, in a pipeline permit, may give permission to the pipeline permit holder to construct or operate a pipeline

across, along, over or under any highway, road, public place, railway, underground communication or power line or another

pipeline, and

(

b) the pipeline permit holder may carry out the activities referred to in paragraph (

a) in accordance with the pipeline

permit and this Act.

(3) If, but for subsection (2), a permit holder would not be entitled to carry out the activities referred to in subsection

(2) (

a) without obtaining an approval under an applicable Act, the regulator, on application made by the pipeline permit holder

in accordance with the applicable Act, must grant the approval to the pipeline permit holder, but may impose, with respect

to the carrying out of those activities, any conditions that the regulator is authorized to impose on the approval under the

applicable Act.

(4) Despite anything in a specified enactment, the commission may not grant an authorization for the conversion of natural

gas pipelines to transmit oil or diluted bitumen. .

Commencement

4 This Act comes into force the day it receives Royal Assent.

Explanatory Note

This Bill amends

section 28 of the Oil and Gas Activities Act to prohibit the conversion of natural gas pipelines to transmit oil or diluted bitumen by forbidding the Oil and Gas Commission

from granting such an authorization under their permitting authority.

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