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Bulletin 2010-29

September 1, 2010

Revised Directive 019: Compliance Assurance Issued
Directive 019: Compliance Assurance—Enforcement Rescinded

Directive 019: Compliance Assurance provides the framework for the Energy Resources Conservation Board’s (ERCB) Compliance Assurance program. The program is designed to ensure that resource activity is conducted in a manner that protects public safety, minimizes environmental impact, provides for effective conservation of resources, and maintains stakeholder confidence in the regulatory process.

This bulletin announces the release of the revised edition of Directive 019. This edition replaces all previous editions and is effective November 1, 2010.

The policy interpretation set out in Bulletin 2010-04: Directive 019: Compliance Assurance—Enforcement Voluntary Self-Disclosures has been incorporated into the revised edition of Directive 019.

Key Changes to Directive 019

• Change of the name of the directive from Directive 019: ERCB Compliance Assurance—Enforcement to Directive 019: Compliance Assurance to emphasize the goal of compliance
• Addition of another compliance assurance tool, Notice of High Risk Noncompliance, to the ERCB’s high risk process (Section 4)
• Elimination of the 2nd ERCB Notice of Low Risk Noncompliance (Section 4)
• Change of the name of the 1st ERCB Notice of Low Risk Noncompliance to Notice of Low Risk Noncompliance
• Removal of the high risk process sequential numbering (i.e., High Risk Enforcement Action 1 to High Risk Enforcement Action) in order to be more reflective of the specific purpose and use of enforcement actions
• Clarification of the appeal process for appeals of decisions by the Enforcement Advisor (Section 5)
• Addition of new definitions to the glossary (Appendix 1)
• Addition of an appendix clearly setting out the main components of the prevention notice and enforcement action appeal process (Appendix 2)
• Clarification of the Voluntary Self-Disclosure policy (Section 6), as previously announced in Bulletin 2010-04: Directive 019: Compliance Assurance—Enforcement Voluntary Self-Disclosures, and the addition of an appendix (Appendix 3) that explains how the policy will be applied

External Feedback
The ERCB’s proposed amendments to Directive 019 were published for stakeholder feedback on May 21, 2010. The ERCB received feedback from 24 different stakeholders, which was incorporated into the revised directive where appropriate. The feedback and the ERCB’s associated responses can be found on the ERCB Web site at www.ercb.ca under Industry Zone : Rules, Regulations, Requirements : Directives : Directive 019 : Related Information.

Risk Rating
The ERCB received quite a bit of feedback regarding the risk rating process in Section 3 of Directive 019. The existing risk rating process, which underpins Directive 019, was outside the scope of the proposed amendments to Directive 019. Therefore, at this time the ERCB does not propose any changes to its process for risk rating of noncompliant events.

Transition Process
Depending upon when the ERCB initiated a response to a noncompliant event under the previous edition of Directive 019, the response may overlap with the effective date of the revised edition.
For information on the transition of each Directive 019 response in both the low and high risk processes from the previous edition of the directive to the revised edition, refer to the supporting document Transition of Directive 019 Responses on the ERCB Web site www.ercb.ca under Industry Zone : Rules, Regulations, Requirements : Directives : Directive 019 : Related Information.

The revised edition of Directive 019 is available on the ERCB Web site under Industry Zone : Rules, Regulations, and Requirements : Directives, as well as in print from ERCB Information Services, 640 – 5 Avenue SW, main floor; telephone: 403 297-8311; fax: 403-297-7040; e-mail: infoservices@ercb.ca.

Questions or concerns regarding this bulletin or Directive 019 should be directed to the ERCB Compliance Assurance Section by e-mail at compliancecoordination@ercb.ca or by phone at 403 297-8316.

<original signed by>

Dwayne Waisman, B.E.S., C.E.T.
Executive Manager
Field Surveillance and Operations Branch