Editing National Energy Program (section)

====National Energy Board====
{{main|National Energy Board}}
The National Energy Board (NEB) was created in 1959 "to monitor and report on all federal matters of energy as well as regulate pipelines, energy imports and exports and utility rates and tariffs."<ref name="OAG_2007" /> The NEB regulated mostly the construction and the operation of oil and [[natural gas pipeline]]s crossing [[provinces and territories of Canada|provincial]] or international borders. The Board approved pipeline traffic, tolls, and tariffs under the authority of the National Energy Board Act.<ref>{{citation |author=Government of Canada |author-link=Government of Canada |title=National Energy Board Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. N-7) |publisher=Department of Justice |url=http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/N-7/index.html |date=2014-04-01 |orig-year=Enacted 1985 |access-date=2014-11-03}}</ref>

From its introduction in 1961 to its end in September 1973, the National Oil Policy (NOP) was the cornerstone of Canadian energy policy. It "established a protected market for domestic oil west of the Ottawa Valley, which freed the industry from foreign competition,"{{attribution needed|date=October 2016}} and the five eastern provinces, which included major refineries in Ontario and Quebec, continued to rely on foreign imports of crude oil, such as from Venezuela.<ref name="OAG_2007">{{citation |url=http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/att_c003aa_e_11101.html |title=2000 May Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development |date=15 November 2007 |work=Auditor General |access-date=27 January 2015}}</ref> In 1973, "the federal government announced the extension of the inter-provincial oil pipeline to Montreal (completed in 1976), froze prices of domestic crude and certain oil products, and sought to control export prices. The federal government announced this change in policy so that supply problems in the United States would not automatically raise prices for Canadian consumers."{{attribution needed|date=October 2016}}<ref name="OAG_2007" />

After the first OPEC price shock in 1973, the federal government "formally broke the link between domestic prices and international prices. The objective of 'made-in-Canada' prices for crude oil was to protect Canadians across the country from the whims of the world oil market and to provide producers with enough incentives to develop new energy resources."{{attribution needed|date=October 2016}}<ref name="OAG_2007" />

In 1981, the [[Edmonton]] economist Brian Scarfe claimed that the NEB's setting of the price of oil and natural gas in Canada meant that producers did not receive full world prices for the resource and that consumers were not charged world prices.<ref name="Scarfe_1981" />{{rp|2–5}} He claimed that the subsidies had a number of side effects, including larger trade deficits, larger federal budget deficits, higher real interest rates, and higher inflation.<ref name="Scarfe_1981" />{{rp|2–5}}<ref name="Doern_1984">{{citation |first1=B. |last1=Doern |first2=G. |last2=Toner |title=The NEP and the Politics of Energy |year=1984}}</ref><ref>{{citation |first=J. |last=McDougall |title=Fuels and the National Policy |year=1982}}</ref>