Part two of a four-part series entitled “From Pipelines to Partnerships: Navigating the Intersection of Energy and Community” by Brian Hall, GDM Inc. President, with a focus on crown and freehold land
Land designation, specifically whether it’s Crown or freehold, doesn’t directly influence the technical aspects of pipeline integrity. However, it significantly impacts the regulatory processes, land access, and a pipeline’s class location, which in turn affects safety and integrity management.
The process for obtaining access to land for a pipeline project differs significantly between Crown and freehold. A company must negotiate a right-of-way or easement agreement with the freehold landowner, while it must obtain a disposition or lease from the government for Crown land.
These differences in access are tied to the legal framework but don’t change the physical engineering requirements for pipeline integrity. In other words, a pipelines integrity is governed by provincial (BCER, AER, MER, MPB) or federal (CER) regulators regardless of who owns the surface.
The dilemma is a two-way street for operators and communities alike. On one hand class location impacts current and future land use. For example, it can determine setbacks or restrictions on construction near a pipeline, which can then influence how that parcel of land is developed and documented in future land titles or municipal plans. On the other, surface title changes that prompt increased occupancy or development will potentially trigger a location change that mandates a pipeline reassessment.
So at the end of the day this causality dilemma, be it chicken or egg, requires all stakeholders to curate and maintain accurate, current data and information management systems to assess, plan, predict and ultimately avoid a costly and perhaps even a life threatening “collision”.
This is why GDM has introduced our new Crown/Freehold surface data layer in Converge. By combining infrastructure insights with population growth patterns, municipalities and energy companies can work from the same source of truth, ensuring communities are built with foresight, safety, and fairness. This is how Canada connects—through clearly defined data that supports sustainable growth, strengthens collaboration, and keeps our communities safe.
In Part One of this series embarked on a journey to explore how energy infrastructure shapes communities and how communities, in turn, influence energy development the expanse and intersection of municipalities and our massive oil and gas infrastructure. Stay tuned for Part Three, dropping soon. Until then, if you have thoughts or comments, let us know below.
To learn more about our new data layer, contact us today.
