Is Manitoba Hydro power line on your forcing a property? - Check out our website at www.caepla.org and the website we sponsor at ...
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Is Manitoba Hydro
forcing a
power line on your
property?
Check out our website at www.caepla.org
and the website we sponsor at www.pipelineobserver.ca
306.522.5000
I grew up on a farm in Ontario that was host to a number of the
pipelines that crisscross this country.
I remember as a child asking why we had pipelines on our
property. My father and neighbours said we had no choice but to
take them and even if we said No, the government would simply
expropriate us on behalf of the companies.
CAEPLA was founded by farmers just like you. Landowners who
also wondered why we had no say when pipeline and power line projects were proposed
for our property. Farmers and landowners who figured out that the best way to level the
playing field and protect our families was to work together with our neighbours.
Beginning in Ontario and Manitoba almost fifteen years ago, CAEPLA now has regional
associations and associate members in most provinces across the country.
At CAEPLA, we believe in energy resource development and the economic prosperity
that comes with it. But we also believe that you, the landowner, are the best manager of
your farm business and the best steward of your own land – not bureaucrats in cities like
Winnipeg, Ottawa, and Calgary.
You have the right to the use and enjoyment of your family’s property, to freedom of
association, and to enter – or not – into voluntary business agreements that work for you.
My family still has pipelines crossing their land in Ontario and I own farmland in
Saskatchewan. Because I am a farmer at heart, my first thoughts are always with you, the
landowner concerned about family and business.
As the founding president of CAEPLA, and presently CEO and Director of Federally
Regulated Projects, I and our Board of Directors continue to be committed to those
founding principles and look forward to working with you.
Dave Core
- CEO and Director of Federally Regulated Projects
Check out our website at www.caepla.org
and the website we sponsor at www.pipelineobserver.ca
306.522.5000
Why Should I Join CAEPLA?
There is Strength in Numbers
Only by working together with your neighbours can you, the landowner, protect
your investment in your home and business, family legacy, and quality of life.
Nobody else will do it for you.
Manitoba Hydro is a monopoly and has no respect for your property rights.
Protect Yourself from Expropriation
Manitoba Hydro land agents come to your door armed with government rules and
regulations allowing them to take your property and compromise your right to
negotiate an iron clad contract that protects you and your property.
But you have the right to rent. Rent can make the transmission line on your
property profitable and sustainable. But Manitoba Hydro refuses to pay rent. And
why should they? Manitoba Hydro’s monopoly grants it a kind of corporate rent
control exempting them from paying market rent for the land they use.
Whether you like it or not, you are now “transmission line farming”, and you
should treat this side of your farm business the same as you would your ranch or
cropland.
This is a new venture and you want to harvest a profitable crop while at the same
time protecting your other operations and leaving an asset, not a liability, to your
children and grandchildren.
Landowners don’t often work together. However, when you’re up against pipeline
and utility companies that have regulators and government on their side, landowners
need to work together for mutual benefits.
They need the guidance and understanding that CAEPLA provides. We would not
have gotten the agreement or compensation we derived from our negotiations on our
own if we had not had the help of CAEPLA.
Gerry Demare
- Somerset, Manitoba
Check out our website at www.caepla.org
and the website we sponsor at www.pipelineobserver.ca
306.522.5000
The CAEPLA Record
What can you accomplish by cooperating with your neighbours and working with
CAEPLA to protect your property rights?
We, together with grassroots groups of landowners just like you across the
country, have negotiated and concluded precedent setting contracts and
compensation related to construction and operation of transmission lines crossing
private property.
Benefits CAEPLA Won For Landowners:
ü An agreement to have our own construction monitor and Joint Landowner
Committee to oversee construction.
ü Soil remediation agreements that protect your top soil and against crop loss
in the future including bio-security protocols.
ü Payment for experienced, knowledgeable and expert legal counsel to make
sure the contract says what is means and means what it says.
ü The companies are required to consult with landowners on structure
locations to minimize landowner inconvenience and interference with
agricultural operations with the companies obligated to compensate the
landowner for additional costs incurred as a result of the transmission
facilities.
ü Compensation for all loss or damage resulting from the company’s
operations and the company must indemnify the landowner with respect to
third party claims.
ü Restored pre-existing grade, drainage and fences; implement measures
to prevent the spread of weeds and post-construction weed control; and
resolve post-construction compaction and reduced productivity.
ü Safety requirements include fire suppression measures, EMF monitoring
and tower and line identification markers.
Check out our website at www.caepla.org
and the website we sponsor at www.pipelineobserver.ca
306.522.5000
ü Ingress and egress... previously companies could cross our lands anywhere
they pleased to get to their transmission line. They are restricted to their
easement except in emergencies.
ü Pre-construction compensation agreements on crop loss and Temporary
Work Space.
ü Payments up front prior to construction.
ü Wet soil shut down agreement with increased compensation if they work in
wet weather.
ü Higher land compensation.
ü Higher Temporary Work Space compensation.
ü Annual compensation for operational impacts.
ü CAEPLA was successful in forcing an intransigent National Energy Board
(NEB) to make companies set aside funding for when pipelines are
abandoned at the end of their lives. While this new NEB ruling, announced
in 2014, still falls far short of landowner requirements, CAEPLA was the only
organization fighting to put this issue on the government regulator’s policy
agenda.
Working with CAEPLA changed our perspective on the importance of property rights
and intensified our commitment to protect property rights for ourselves and others.
It was a pleasure working with CAEPLA’s dedicated, selfless team. They are people
passionate about the best for others.
Given the opportunity, would we be willing to work with CAEPLA again?
In a heart beat!
VaLinda and Frank Ivanics
- Medicine Hat, Alberta
Check out our website at www.caepla.org
and the website we sponsor at www.pipelineobserver.ca
306.522.5000Call Manitoba Hydro’s Bluff
By working together you level the playing field to negotiate a business
agreement.
Manitoba Hydro may resort to having the government expropriate your land
which denies you your right to just say No to even the poorest offer. That is no
way to negotiate a contract.
Nobody wants to see you robbed of your land. Expropriation is a last resort, but
it is one Manitoba Hydro will turn to if they can’t fool you with a lowball offer or
bluff you into a bad deal.
But if landowners like you stand your ground, with your neighbours,
expropriation becomes very risky business – a sure-fire public relations disaster
for Manitoba Hydro and the government itself.
What Problems Will CAEPLA Be Tackling For
You in the Future?
• We will continue to build on the success of our previous agreements
including addressing the technical language used to describe payments.
• Manitoba Hydro needs to sit down with CAEPLA to address landowners’
issues including rental agreements. As a transmission line farmer you
need substantial rental payments that reflect the cumulative risks you
bear to ensure the sustainability of your business and farms.
• These agreements should be updated on a regular basis to protect
property values from inflation, and reflect the soaring prices of your
agricultural land.
Check out our website at www.caepla.org
and the website we sponsor at www.pipelineobserver.ca
306.522.5000Manitoba Hydro has never faced a united landowner group before in
its history. Landowners through CAEPLA need to keep the pressure on
Manitoba Hydro as this is precedent setting not only for Bipole III, but for
any future transmission line construction.
• Manitoba Hydro has transmission lines as assets on their Financial Balance
Sheet, assets making them daily profits. Meanwhile, transmission lines
are a liability on your Financial Balance Sheet with no offsetting profits,
only business costs. By sticking together, you and your neighbours can
negotiate to have these costs, risks, and liabilities reallocated where they
belong: with Manitoba Hydro – not you.
• A lease contract rather than an easement agreement is the only
resolution to all of these issues.
We used to have five pipelines on our land and now we have six.
In the past, we never thought there was anything we could do
or even negotiate. We knew nothing about regulators and the
regulations that affect us.
Irene Hopkins With that lack of understanding as a backdrop, the energy
- Outlook, Saskatchewan company land agents really did take advantage of our rural
culture. We simply accepted what they told us, and took what
they offered. CAEPLA enlightened us, and showed us how to
stand up for ourselves, how to value our time, and our farms, in
the midst of regulations and negotiation. I now understand many
new things because of CAEPLA, and one of them is the value
of understanding the rules of engaging energy companies and
government regulators.
Check out our website at www.caepla.org
and the website we sponsor at www.pipelineobserver.ca
306.522.5000What Kind of Landowner Are You?
Ø Are you a conscientious property owner who recognizes the responsibility
you have to preserve your capital investment as well as your family’s legacy
and quality of life?
Ø Do you want to maintain the operational efficiency and integrity of your
business operation?
Ø Do you believe your property rights give you the right to say “No Thanks” to
a bad deal – just as any other business owner can?
Ø Do you agree that expropriation is simply exploitation from a government
that does not have your best interest at heart?
Ø Are you concerned for your neighbours who – while they may not get a
transmission line on their own land – are sure to suffer decreases in property
values by ripple effect as improperly compensated landowners in their
district experience loss directly from the imposition of power lines on their
farms?
Ø Do you believe Manitoba Hydro should be required to pay market rents like
any other business does?
Ø Do you agree that working with your neighbours is the best way to protect
your own and everybody’s property values?
Ø Do you believe experience matters when it comes to leveling the playing field
and negotiating ‘win-win’ business agreements with Manitoba Hydro?
Ø Are you the type of person who understands you can ‘do well by doing
right’ – that you can protect the profitability of your farm by protecting your
principles?
Check out our website at www.caepla.org
and the website we sponsor at www.pipelineobserver.ca
306.522.5000If you answered yes to any of the questions above, CAEPLA is the place for you
and your neighbours.
Of course, the choice is yours.
Will you accept a ‘lowest common denominator’ deal from the next land agent to
knock on your door?
True, you can choose to sit on the sidelines and still get the same money as those
who do work together to get a better agreement. But without you, everybody will
then get less – including you.
Fortunately, there is another way. You can choose to do the right – and profitable
– thing for your home, your family, your business, and your neighbours. You can
work with your neighbours and put CAEPLA to work for you.
You as a Manitoba landowner are making history.
By joining with your neighbours, Manitoba Hydro will be forced to recognize the
social and economic impact transmission lines have on individual landowners as
they never have before.
By working together our landowners group was able to create
a groundswell of knowledge and information sharing that
industry and Alberta regulators simply could not ignore.
The idea that no segment of society should unfairly bear
the burden of utility infrastructure will only be heard when
Wade Watson landowners stand in unison in the defence of our property
- Medicine Hat, Alberta
rights.
Check out our website at www.caepla.org
and the website we sponsor at www.pipelineobserver.ca
306.522.5000My experience with CAEPLA was eye-opening.
In 2010, we heard whispers of a proposed pipeline
project across our ranch. We knew, early on, that we
wanted and needed some advice.
In the beginning, we figured our issues were things like reclamation, crossing,
fencing and annual payments. So, we organized with other landowners to improve
our negotiating position. However, as the whole process went on, it became clear
that our issues were much bigger and more complex than we had thought.
We discovered that our property rights no longer existed. The regulators
(government) have the power to give our private property over to private
corporations. The whole thing is a mess. We, as landowners, have been
completely sold out by our own government. Because of all the corrupt
regulations and legislation we were seen, and treated, as an obstacle to the
pipeline project rather than as a partner in it.
The entire negotiation process was trying. While we were at the negotiating table
with the pipeline executives, their landmen were out in our community spreading
lies about us and the project.
I can’t imagine having gone through it without the support and guidance from
the CAEPLA staff. They understand the legislation. They are constantly working
to get it changed for the better. They are knowledgeable, professional and hard-
working. The strong ethics and morals with which they operate are in stark
contrast with those of the pipeline company and the regulator.
CAEPLA is the only organization I would trust to advise us on energy projects.
Stephanie Fradette
- Stephanie and her family ranch in Southern Saskatchewan.
Check out our website at www.caepla.org
and the website we sponsor at www.pipelineobserver.ca
306.522.5000Something To Think About…
There is some farm land just outside Hardisty, Alberta, where the major pipelines
begin their journeys crisscrossing the continent. Recently, a nearby tank farm (oil
storage facility) was looking to expand.
That farmland needed by the oil storage company wound up fetching $3.5 million.
Identical land surrounding that facility, with one or more pipeline easements
running through it, went for only a tiny fraction of that price.
Why? The owner of the land the tank farm needed was free to negotiate a market
price for the sale of his property. The owners of the land with pipe on it were
picked off one by one by pipeline companies who enjoy the privilege of having
government expropriate owners of the land they need. A company operating a
tank farm cannot take your land by expropriation.
A pipeline company, even with the power of expropriation, will have a much
harder time taking your land if you work together. The same is true for power
transmission companies.
Working together with your neighbours, CAEPLA can work with you to win the
best price possible for the use of your property, with terms and conditions you can
live with.
We struggle with grain and cattle prices out here, and with
what we are able to get for our money when we spend it. I
have never, in my entire life as a farmer and landowner, gotten
as much for my money as I did for the money I gave CAEPLA.
The initial offer we received from the pipeline company was a
Larry Ness pittance compared to the final agreement CAEPLA negotiated
- New Brigden, Alberta
for us, and that we ended up signing.
Check out our website at www.caepla.org
and the website we sponsor at www.pipelineobserver.ca
306.522.5000YES! I want to protect my family, my business, and quality of life
by working with CAEPLA to protect my property rights.
Name: ______________________________________________________________________
Farm/Business Name: _________________________________________________________
Address: ____________________________________________________________________
City/Town:_______________________________ Postal Code: _________________________
Phone:__________________________________ Fax:_________________________________
E-mail: _____________________________________________________________________
Important: Please provide a fax and/or e-mail address for the delivery of important information.
Count me in as an associate member. I enclose my annual associate membership fee of
$150.00 (plus $7.50 GST. Total: $157.50).
Ontario, Newfoundland and New Brunswick residents, please add 13% HST ($150.00 + $19.50 = $169.50)
Nova Scotia residents, please add 15% HST ($150.00 + $22.50 = $172.50)
I enclose a one-time contribution of $_________________ to help CAEPLA with the cost of
these important landowner campaigns that defend and protect our property rights.
Total Amount Enclosed: $___________________________
Make your cheque payable to CAEPLA and mail to the address below:
CAEPLA Administration
#257-918 Albert Street
Regina, Saskatchewan S4R 2P7
306.522.5000
To become an associate member or renew your associate membership online at a secure and
encrypted website, visit us at:
www.CAEPLA.org, then on the navigation bar click the word “Membership.”
CAEPLA is a federally incorporated non-profit association.
(GST #86584 9830 RT0001)
Become an associate
member online!
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