NEW: ON – Propane Advisory Council meeting gives industry opportunity for candid feedback

The TSSA’s Propane Advisory Council (PAC) met on February 25, 2020. The council is chaired by CPA member, Dowler-Karn President and CEO, Dave Karn and is comprised of 10 industry representatives, including CPA Government Relations Director, Marcelline Riddell.

Prior to the meeting, Riddell organized a call with PAC members to align priorities and positions on several issues. These included the status of TSSA’s draft auto propane fuelling advisory and the data requirements of Level 2 Risk and Safety Management Plan (RSMP) application forms regarding the proximity of stored fuels to sensitive institutions.

The PAC meeting consisted of twenty agenda items and included an in-camera session with PAC members and TSSA's President and CEO, Bonnie Rose and Vice-President of Stakeholder Relations, Alexandra Campbell. No other TSSA staff were present. 

Agenda items included the president’s quarterly report, updates on modernizing the agency to become an outcome based regulator, the Code Adoption Document strategy, a stakeholder engagement update from Campbell, a safety and compliance report from Director John Marshall, as well as discussion of the new business model/fee structure, an update on the utility and purpose of the Risk Reduction Group and changes to the Level 1 and 2 RSMP applications.

Meeting highlights:

• The group discussed the significant time and expense the data requirements that Level 2 RSMP forms represent to industry, particularly the requirements regarding proximity of stored fuels to sensitive institutions (page 5). The TSSA stated they were attempting to make things simpler, but most PAC members indicated the opposite is true. TSSA is revamping the form process for both RSMP levels and PAC members expressed a desire that these requirements apply to all other fuels.
• With regard to an RSMP for LNG, the TSSA said that upon investigation a year ago, there was little uptake of LNG in the province.  CPA members stated that the LNG industry can do things with LNG that propane is unable to do, for example, refuel tankers and roll them out.
• With respect to the draft auto propane fuelling advisory, the TSSA believed the draft advisory would be helpful to industry as per the cardlock/keylock regulatory change enacted in spring 2019.  Given industry objections, the advisory has been withdrawn.
• Members stated that the TSSA’s RRG has become dysfunctional and offside its stated purpose. Bonnie Rose agreed to review the purpose and need for the RRG.

The CPA will continue to work with members and the TSSA to influence the agenda and policy developments of this industry advisory council. A TSSA representative will be asked to present an update on the agency’s modernization activities to a CPA member forum in the near future.