Recent Developments in Surface Rights Law - Pipeline Right-of-Way Compensation - Annual Payments and Injurious Affection - Federal and Alberta Developments

Authors

  • Lars Olthafer

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29173/alr478

Keywords:

Energy Law, Petroleum Law

Abstract

Landowners have recently advanced novel claims for right-of-way compensation in connection with both federally and provincially regulated pipelines. The compensation paid for the acquisition of pipeline rights-of-way in Canada has typically been, with some notable exceptions, in the form of one-time payments for the value of the interest in land acquired, and any injurious affection to the remaining lands of the owner. However, relying on the precedents established by a few pipeline companies and the provisions for annual or periodic compensation under the Alberta Surface Rights Act and the National Energy Board Act landowners have attempted to secure compensation awards in the form of rental payments, the present value of which is several times greater than the compensation historically payable as a lump sum. This article examines two recent court decisions — the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench decision in Zubick v. Corridor Pipeline Limited and the Federal Court of Appeal's ruling in Balisky v. Canada (Minister of Natural Resources) — as well as a group of National Energy Board Act Pipeline Arbitration Committee awards in Alberta, and discusses their impact on pipeline rights-of-way compensation.

Downloads

Issue

Vol 43, No 1: Petroleum Law Edition

Section

Articles

License

For Editions following and including Volume 61 No. 1, the following applies.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License

For Editions prior to Volume 61 No. 1, the following applies.

Author(s) retain original copyright in the substantive content of the titled work, subject to the following rights that are granted indefinitely:

  1. Author(s) grant the Alberta Law Review permission to produce, publish, disseminate, and distribute the titled work in electronic format to online database services, including, but not limited to: LexisNexis, QuickLaw, HeinOnline, and EBSCO;
  2. Author(s) grant the Alberta Law Review permission to post the titled work on the Alberta Law Review website and/or related websites.
  3. Author(s) agree that the titled work may be used for educational or instructional purposes and/or in educational or instructional materials. The author(s) acknowledge that the titled work is subject to other such "fair dealing" provisions and applicable legislation.
  4. Author(s) grant a limited license to those accessing the titled work from an electronic database or an Alberta Law Review website to download the titled work onto their computer and to print a copy for their own personal, non-commercial use, subject to proper attribution.

To use the journal's content elsewhere, permission must be obtained from the author(s) and the Alberta Law Review.