Why Canada needs better information about all the energy it produces

A lack of information about Canada'senergy sector has long been an issue forthose trying to gaugehow the systemis workingfrom analysts toeconomists to public policyresearchers.

There are several government organizations that compile energy-related data such Statistics Canada, the National Energy Board, Alberta Energy Regulator and Natural Resources Canada.

But there's no single, official source of up-to-date, comprehensive informationon topics related tooil and gas production, renewable energy use, and the environmental impact of the sector, for instance.

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Now, difficulty assessing the impact of Alberta's oil production cuts has highlightedthose concernsagain, prompting renewed calls for faster access to more robust information.

Alberta imposed mandatory production cuts on the oilsector beginning in January in a bid to boost strugglingCanadian crude prices, which improved following the move.

However, analysts say it's difficult to know thefullimpact of the curtailment policy and how long it it will be necessary given alack of timely, insightfuldata.

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"We're blind right now," said analyst Samir Kayande, a directoratRS Energy Group, in an interview this month.

"How quickly are our stock levels dropping? We don't know. How much volume is actually flowing out of Alberta on a weekly basis on our large liquids pipelines? We don't know. We won't know how much oil flowed out last quarter for probably another month or two."

Timely access tooil storage levels as well as pipeline and crude-by-rail shipping volumes would help.

For storage levels, the Alberta Energy Regulator provides updates eachmonthbut lags a month behind. The National Energy Board givescrude-by-rail updates monthly, but with a two-month lag. It gets monthly data from its larger regulated pipelines on a quarterlybasis.

This kind of information should comefaster, Kayande said.

"Imagine trying to drive a car while having only the rearview mirror as your viewpoint," he said.

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Kent Fellows, an economist at the Universityof Calgary'sSchool of Public Policy, doesn't blamethe regulators for the situation. They're generally good at collecting data, he said,but it's not their mandateto assemble and disseminate it.

"What we really need is a Canadian version of the Energy Information Administration," hesaid.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration's goal is to collect, analyzeand disseminate"independent and impartial" energy information to promote sound policymaking, efficient marketsand public understanding of energy.

It doesn't solely focuson oil and natural gas, but the broader energy sector as well, including nuclear and renewable energy. The EIAalso provides analysisof the data from various sectors.

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That information is often used aspart of broader policy discussions on energy.

In 2012, a Universityof CalgarySchool of Public Policy reportcalledfor the creation of an EIA-styleagencyin Canadaand said it could operate on an annual budget of $5 million.

The agency would supplement the data collection activities of Statistics Canadaby conducting data analyses and offering reports and forecasts based on these analyses, the report recommended.

'Can you compare apples to oranges?'

Fellows saidhe believes thiswork would help provide a more complete picture of what's happening in the sector and leadto better policy decisions.

Canada is currently embroiled in a number ofenergy policy debates, from pipeline developmentto oil curtailment to Bill C-69a proposed new system for assessing future energy projects.

Another issue with Canadian energy data is a lack of consistency in how it's reported by the various agencies that collect it, Fellowssaid.

"Are you actually reporting the same thing in the same way?" he said."Can you compare apples to oranges?"

Also, Canada just doesn't have the same kind of data gathering powers that the EIA does in the U.S, saidUniversity of Alberta energy economist Andrew Leach.

"The amount and timeliness of data availability, they've made that a publicly provided and, I would argue, almost a public good in an economic sense that noweverybody can access it," Leach said. "That's a big positive."

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Kayandesaid he believes improving the availability of data is a public policy issue. Decision-makers should have the best information possible before setting a direction for the government and an industry, he said.

"You can get stories out in the real world that are divorced from what's actually going on," Kayandesaid. "The risk is that we're making, as a society, bad decisions that in some cases are irreversible."