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Video Stories - Bob Andrew - Transcript

Bob AndrewHi I'm Bob Andrew. I was at the NEB for five years in the early 1990s.

My sort of observation of the NEB over the past 50 years has been that there has been two sort of general cycles of regulation. The first, sort of, 25 years or so, involved the introduction of regulation in Canada, introduction to the NEB, and for the most part it was by our current standards, fairly involved regulation including the control of prices and the control of exports etc. Then you came with the deregulation of natural gas prices and following that the change to the regulatory process with market base procedure, light-handed regulation etc. My time with, both in government, during that period of deregulation at the NEB was to participate, to some degree, in the major change in the regulatory process.

I also saw the NEB move from Ottawa to Calgary. During that period, I mean, whether it was in one area of regulatory process or the other, it seems to me the NEB did very well to adapt, to deal with change very well and to maintain its credibility as an institution.

Always when you think about the 50 years, you also need to think about where you go forward from there and what that 50 year history could mean to that. And it seems to me that what the Board might be looking at now, or what the world might be looking at is whether or not you're going to see another cycle of significant change in energy regulation. And if you do, sort of the current thinking would involve around environment, how energy is better used etc. And in the event that that happens, one would hope the NEB would play a part in that as a credible institution with credible people employed at the NEB over a long period of time, and so one would look forward to that. For the people that are here, obviously the chance to deal with change is a very exciting period of time and so I suppose what I would say is congratulations for the last 50 years and good luck in whatever comes forward in the next 25 years, 50 years.

Thank you.

 

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Date Modified:
2011-10-26