Private law in the energy sector.
The CSA charges $180, per person, to access electrical law. Trade schools teaching electrical compliance are likewise charged because the subject matter is now CSA’s property. The CSA charges royalties to contractors who post jobsite safety information because CSA drafted some of those laws. Never mind that contractors are required to post that info, in complying with law the contractor is now obligated to pay whatever CSA wishes to charge. It’s a blank cheque. And it gets worse.
It’s not merely the sale of access to legislation, but the drafting of that legislation is for sale too. In 2014, CSA was outed for selling votes at set prices on legislative committees, selling seats at legislative committee to the highest bidder, and selling “custom” legislation at floating prices of a few hundred thousand dollars each. The CSA has been monetizing the legislative process.
The CSA has also started positioning itself as a new regulatory layer in the energy sector. They’ve opened an office in Calgary and are specifically targeting oil sands and pipeline entities. As their CEO admitted in 2013, “We have been trying to get in there and say, ‘we can help you develop standards,’ [and] we are starting to make some progress” at getting established in the sector.
The CSA has a long history of entering new market sectors promising to help coordinate environmental or safety standards of a purely voluntary nature. Once established however, the standards they develop are referenced as “regulations,” parties voluntarily not participating are deemed materially non-compliant. These regulations are then incorporated by CSA into legislation and are enacted as laws. Thus, voluntary standards today become laws tomorrow, industry agreeing to the one are not consulted on transition to the other.
The issue isn’t so much an increase in project cost as a financial veto over project development. That is, having legislative authority over the sector, combined with private ownership of regulations, means that CSA or their committee members have the power to force royalty payments at extortionate rates in exchange for regulatory compliance or, worse, to deny regulatory approval entirely to the preferences of their members. The CSA committees in the sector are assembled at CSA’s discretion on a “balanced matrix,” comprised of industry, interest groups, environmentalists, and other CSA members. The energy sector does not control the composition on the committees and does not have most votes thereon.
In practical terms, then, the energy sector is facing a new layer of regulatory authority, this time run by committees comprised in the main of opponents of the energy sector. That’s dangerous, given that under the Court ruling energy companies now have no right to read or otherwise access the regulations that apply to them, no right to comply with regulations without payment or penalty, and no right to government inspection, permitting, or approval without CSA permission. And all that comes at CSA’s pleasure, and at whatever cost they wish to charge.
Is the Saskatchewan government paying attention yet?
CSA Z662 (Pipeline Design & Construction) is already the ‘law’ in BC, AB and SK and all NEB projects. This seems to be no different than the CEC dispute. I can why they will fight this tooth and nail:
http://shop.csa.ca/en/canada/petroleum-and-natural-gas-industry-systems/cancsa-z662-15-/invt/27024912015
At $800 a copy every few years it adds up.
CSA is suppose to be a not for profit, private company, that now makes laws. I think its time we reign them in. There are some things government should do. Not because they do them better but because we are the share holder and have a say.
Pretty soon that will go by the wayside where Z662 simply won’t matter as API1169 becomes the defect GO TOO Code.
But as you say,,,its all about the $$$…these bastards along with the CWB and API as well are in this game…My API570 Exam cost 900 US Flipping D..!! 1350 bucks just to write a goddamned exam on a computer no less. At least they don’t make you re-do said exam at the same cost every 6 years as does CWB (Canadian Welding Bureau). And I had to go to Edm to write….add Hotel, Food + Fuel to that cost.
If one happens to live in a city where these SOB’s don’t have an office….you gotta travel to wherever they are…for me that’s typically an overnight trip, hotel, food and 570km o f travel…that adds up, especially if you are not working but MUST keep up ones certification in order to be able to work. Myself being a Level II Welding Inspector. $275 for Exam, and I think $68 ea for the 4 codes I am certified to…$200+ for hotel, $50 for food an another $150 for fuel.
Its EXTORTION – All of it. and to be sure, I know I’m not the only one pissed off completely at this game they play.
Intersting to note that Each one of these scab Organizations, have built brand new Corporate Palaces over the past 15 -20 years….I wonder where they got the $$$$…?
You are correct, the re-certification scam is nothing but fúckin’ extortion. It’s happening in all the trades.
Perhaps all those fine folks running to become captain of the good ship CPC Dredger
could enlighten the peasant class on the views they hold about this particular long
out of service overflowing political septic tank?
Tell me, why shouldn’t the administrative state pauperize us all and rule over us like the lords of olde? We got ashats here who think that cops should be able to disarm citizens at will, for no reason, and kill them if they don’t comply. Why not a nice ruling bureaucratic class, to go with that, eh, fugtards?
You either have freedom, or slavery, and it seems most love “freedom, but…” which is another way of saying slavery.
Idiots.
it also applies to speech. who will be the first to die for refusing to follow the government edict regarding the truth about islam.
I had been getting replies to my questions at a rate of several a week from Max, Andrew, and Erin until asked for a position on this issue. Crickets… I told them that silence must be taken as consent. Crickets…