National Energy Board’s Communications Strategy

2013-14 to 2016-17

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NEB Communications Strategy: 2013-14 to 2016-17

“Strategic communications is not the solution to every challenge… but it is almost always part of the solution.” Grant Oliphant, Director of Planning and Communications, The Heinz Endowments

PURPOSE:

• This strategy establishes the vision, and provides a framework, for the NEB’s external communications-related activities, bringing support to and being consistent with the Board’s strategic goals and specific objectives. It is a three-year plan, reviewed and renewed annually.

GOAL:To increase Canadians’ confidence that the NEB is carrying out its mandate: protecting the safety of Canadians, their communities and the environment.

In order to achieve this goal, we will:

• be more deliberate and in control of the story we tell to Canadians about our mandate, our work and the difference we make;

• leverage data and seek opportunities to create awareness, improve knowledge and understanding, and inspire confidence in the NEB’s ability to fulfill its mandate;

• be more responsive to the needs and expectations of key stakeholders, media and the general public regarding the NEB’s transparency and effectiveness as a regulator;

• better equip ourselves to identify potential crisis situations in opinions and/or to handle a major actual crisis appropriately in terms of the required communications needs; and,

• maintain a strong focus on our key theme and messages related to the safety of Canadians and the protection of the environment.

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KEY ELEMENTS OF THE STRATEGY AND AREAS OF STRATEGIC FOCUS:

There are four key areas of incremental focus for the NEB in its strategic communications plan. It is incremental to the current best practices work the NEB has in place, which includes timely responses to media and stakeholder inquiries, proactive management of critical issues, and strong emergency operations response communications protocols.

In 2013-14 through to 2016-17, the NEB will focus on achieving the goal of increasing Canadians’ confidence that the NEB is carrying out its mandate in the public interest with one key objective, and four strategic areas of focus that align with that objective. It is summarized as follows:

What How

Objective: The NEB will be increasingly proactive in public relations and issue management… A: The Media – we will increase

the incidences of positive/ neutral coverage of the NEB in national, regional and local media

• Build stronger relationships with targeted media representatives • Use social media • Target and tailor communications products for smaller, local media

outlets • Continue to communicate actively and transparently, using NEB data

sources to tell our story B. Community Relations – we

will increase our community engagement activities to engage Canadians in discussions about the NEB, its mandate and role/responsibilities

• Focus on community-focused media • Identify and pursue community engagement speaking opportunities

that align with NEB activities • Monitor and analyze community concerns and issues through media

monitoring • Develop stronger, trust-based relationships with key publics through

active and honest outreach

C. Issues Management - we will increase our capacity to anticipate and quickly respond to emerging issues

• Communications and the Regulatory Approaches team will co-lead an Issues Management process

• We will leverage the information and data that the NEB currently produces to track trends, support our activities and to clearly demonstrate how we make a difference

• We will proactively plan and execute thoughtful, targeted responses to emerging issues

D. NEB Spokesperson and Strategic Communications

• We will hire a senior spokesperson reporting to the Director of Communications

• NEB teams/ key business areas will have dedicated Communications Advisors, residing in Communications, who, by developing depth of knowledge, will be better positioned to offer strategic input, connect all Board messaging under a common communications goal, act as primary responders for routine media enquiries, and alleviate the resources spent by teams/ business groups in managing communications activity

…using a flexible, transparent, risk-informed, resource-driven approach.

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SCOPE:

This strategy is not intended to be a list of every specific external communication activity that the NEB will undertake in support of the many important projects and initiatives currently underway. Each of those projects (including hearings) will still have their own communication plan, outlining strategy and tactics that will ensure successful communications for each initiative. This strategy describes an over-arching communications approach that will inform and guide the planning and execution of all project-specific communication.

ROLE OF COMMUNICATIONS: The Communications function at the NEB has evolved in step with the organization’s increasing visibility as a regulator, Canadians’ appetite for deeper engagement, and the Board’s risk-tolerance for more proactive public relations. In general, we do a good job at responding to public requests for information about our mandate and processes, insight into Canada’s regulatory and energy market environment, and media relations. Now, there is a requirement for the Communications role to expand, to help strategically plan, manage and sustain the organization’s relationship with key audiences (in some cases, this role is focused on supporting others who have lead responsibility for these relationships), strengthening the organization’s reputation and thereby helping the organization achieve its strategic and operational goals. We have to create and deliver more deliberate, compelling and controlled messages about the work we do. TIMELINES AND SCALEABILITY: This strategy outlines a vision and an approach to better, more cohesive communications at the NEB. Endorsement of this strategy does not mean that all suggested tactics must be executed immediately. Demands on NEB resources will be managed with mindful consideration of our dynamic working environment. This communications strategy will be supported and implemented by realistic communications tactics over realistic timelines, and implemented on an on-going (routine work) and annual (special projects) basis over the next one-to-three years. Flexible planning allows us to adapt activities to respond to NEB/ energy/ regulatory trends without being restrictive in scope or unable to meet routine service requirements. Depending on possible (sudden or planned) changes in the NEB’s operating environment, our stakeholder focus, messages and tools may require adaptation and enhancement; however, the longer-term vision of the NEB’s communications activities will remain the same.

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KEY MESSAGES: The primary key messages of the NEB are our highest level expressions of our mandate and our purpose. They fall directly from the Board’s Strategic Plan, adapted as needed for the medium being used, and they frame all other, more specific messaging. Primary key messages include:

• The NEB is an independent federal regulator. • We regulate pipelines, energy development and trade in the Canadian public interest. • The NEB will take all available actions to protect the environment and the public.

These messages are repeated in our formal reporting, public engagement, on our web site, and as the basis for all other messaging we develop. Beyond these primary statements, key messages are developed on a project-by-project (or issue-by-issue) basis, in careful consideration of audiences, what the Board wants to convey, and the medium being used to relay the information, and risk analysis. AUDIENCE: As Canada’s federal energy regulator, the NEB must communicate with all Canadians – an enormous, diverse and complex audience. Our approach to communicating with this broad audience is to divide them into target groups. Some Canadians fall into several target groups. Some target groups require more or less focused communication, depending on current issues, interests and NEB activity. Target groups include:

• Landowners and Landowner groups • First Nations groups • Northern Canadians • NEB Employees • Companies and industry associations such as CAPP and CEPA • Non-government environmental associations • Provincial/ Territorial Regulators and Boards • NRCAN and Parliament • Municipal/ Provincial governments/ Civic groups • Media • General public

The challenge before the NEB is to be responsive to the engagement and information requirements of different groups, and to do so in a way that maximizes the efficiency and effectiveness of our use of resources and Canadian taxpayer dollars. A strong communications strategy, aligned with issues management and carefully utilizing the resources we have, will increase our chances of successfully reaching all our of target groups.

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COMMUNICATIONS TACTICS in EACH OF THE FOUR AREAS OF FOCUS: A. The Media

The media - general media, social media and specialty media - is both a key target group as well as a channel. When we target and/ or employ this group, our goal is to create user-friendly and accessible communications deliverables about NEB which can be used to target key stakeholders, as well as appeal to the general public. Proactive communication efforts towards media will be further developed and strengthened. To appeal to the general media, we will continue our processes as they have been developed, under the principles of responsiveness and transparency.

What’s Different: We’ll be engaging the media and general public on deeper, more deliberately targeted level. We will also have a primary NEB spokesperson who will provide a consistent point of contact for media, and who will handle crisis media relations.

We will soon have a Twitter account, and so will be able to incorporate elements of social media into our strategy for telling our story to Canadians. We will continue to enhance our relationships with media by focusing on opportunities to tell our story and by developing closer contacts with specialized media such as Daily Oil Bulletin, The Hill-Times and Platts Energy, and with smaller local media for project-specific communications.

Status Quo Over the next 12 months 1 – 2 years

More accurate, strategic story-telling via media = Increased confidence that the NEB is fulfilling its mandate in the public interest

Media Relations

Stronger relationships with targeted media representatives Strategic use of social media to broaden our range of contact and media exposure Targeted and tailored NEB info for smaller, local media outlets to ensure our story is heard in more communities Dedicated media relations specialist (NEB Spokesperson) who will provide consistency for media contact

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We will also take a closer look at what the NEB should be marketing to the media as “newsworthy” to ensure that any viable strategic opportunity to tell aspects of our story are seized upon, and begin presenting these opportunities to leadership for consideration.

• Tactic: Create and maintain a common data base of all relevant media and contacts.

• Tactic: “Push notifications” to media – updates even when directly not sought.

• Tactic: Develop relationships with small, local media in areas where specific projects are underway, and push “background” news items about how the NEB regulates (safety program overviews, relevant staff profiles, etc.) to boost local understanding of NEB activities.

• Tactic: More aggressive correcting/ commenting where strategic (for example, response to Alberta Energy Regulator report in Fall 2013.)

• Tactic: Advance notice to key media contacts with whom we have active professional relationships.

• Tactic: More us-to-them suggestions and pitches for themes and stories (individual reporters and Editorial Boards).

• Tactic: Leverage the rich data sources within the NEB (via the Regulatory Information Analysis Initiative, currently in development) to tell our story, illustrate how we make a difference as a regulator and support discussions of industry trends.

• Tactic: Create a common calendar of important industry, regulatory and energy-related events in order to better plan activities and maximize media attention by issuing of relevant press releases and effective event participation.

B. Community Relations

The NEB has robust programs in place for application-related engagement, and non-application, operational engagement as it relates to liaising with companies regarding construction and maintenance of facilities, and landowners who may have specific questions or complaints about that activity. These two programs, managed through the Applications and Operations Business Units, cover direct “rights and interest of those affected” communications. What is lacking is a slightly higher level program of engagement that speaks to groups who may not qualify as “directly affected”, but who are very interested and/ or concerned about how the NEB regulates, or how that regulation impacts others issues (such as environmental protection). Currently, we primarily address these groups through our web site, publications and the general media: while these mediums are viable to limited extents, they do not necessarily build trust or develop relationships between the NEB and those communities of “not-affected -but-deeply-

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invested” individuals. Building relationships with our publics is at the heart of increasing public confidence in the NEB, and we are missing an opportunity to do so here. To fill this gap, external communications should provide organized, complementary, community-level engagement for non-application engagement. To differentiate this type of engagement from that being done by Applications and Operations, we are calling this “Community Relations.” The cultivation of community relations opportunities, with a view towards creating an organized and sustainable community relations program, should be a top priority for Communications, in consultation with Applications, Operations, Strategy and Analysis, the Secretary’s Office and the Northern Engagement team. Communications also intends to work closely with the Information Management team to maximize the effectiveness, accessibility and technological integrity of our web-based communications. What’s Different: We’ll be taking opportunities for engagement that we previously have missed out on, and filling in gaps in our engagement processes that are not currently being addressed.

• Tactic: Work with key regulatory staff/ groups, including the Technical leader, Environment, the Land Matters group, the Aboriginal Engagement specialists, etc.) to seek out, develop and recommend strategic, value-focused community relations opportunities to leadership.

Status Quo Over the next 18 months 2 – 3 years

Stronger community-level relationships = Increased confidence that the NEB is fulfilling its mandate in the public interest

Community Relations

Greater exposure of mandate and goals in community-focused media Face-time with community leaders and interested citizens (builds relationships) More opportunities for audience specific messaging Deeper understanding of audience-specific issues

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• Tactic: Develop and maintain an annual calendar of potential speaking engagements for technical experts, the NEB Spokesperson and Board Members (based largely on historical research and maintained in partnership with the Secretary’s Office) and leverage speaking engagements where possible vis-à-vis community interests or issues.

• Tactic: Leverage specific stakeholder lists currently maintained by Board staff (including ENGOs, government committees, or landowner groups) to ensure that any notable publication (Safety Culture Framework, Energy Market Assessments, etc.) are shared with all appropriate stakeholders.

• Tactic: Based on feedback from community groups, begin developing series of fact-and-data-sheets that help explain or illustrate key issues under the Board’s mandate that are of community interest. These sheets would be tailored to specific regions of Canada, address specific aspects of industry regulation, and would be broadly available for community relations/ local media outreach.

• Tactic: Leverage existing regulatory engagement plans to plan parallel community relations activities: for example, if technical inspections are being done in a specific area or community, Communications would explore the potential to provide NEB information about the inspections through the local paper, municipal departments or community groups.

• Tactic: Develop, in careful coordination with appropriate Hearing Managers and the Rights and Interests Steering Committee, community relations activities to lay a foundation for positive engagement and facilitate understanding of NEB’s mandate and role, in anticipation of complex/ controversial hearings. These may include meetings with provincial and municipal leaders or committees, specific professional associations or other identified civic groups.

C. Issues Management Organized, proactive issues management is an increasingly important area of focus for the NEB. While we have historically been able to “rise to the challenge” of responding quickly and well to emerging issues, those responses cost a great deal of staff time and effort to coordinate, and we run a reputational risk if we are caught unprepared or without adequate information. A more strategic, coordinated, responsive and timely approach to issues management supported by factual data will help us to ensure that we are able to carry out our mandate to protect the safety of Canadians, their communities and the environment. This will require a well-designed issue management process that enables proactive management and response preparation, relying on the better use of regulatory data to identify issues, support NEB activities and inform the NEB’s external messaging. Work on this project is currently underway in the Strategy and Analysis business unit, and Regulatory Approaches is developing a

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work process through which various NEB information channels (for example, media monitoring, the look-ahead and other internal and external reports) will be reviewed for current and developing issues and recommendations would be made to leadership on potential strategic action. The Communications Team will be very involved with, and supportive of, this project, as there are strong links between issues management and the strategic communications plan. In addition, NEB Communications liaises regularly with other government communications departments, providing background and / or messages on NEB files, and reviewing messages that may impact the NEB. We will maintain these positive and open working relationships to help support the issues management process.

What’s Different: We’ll improve our ability to identify and develop proactive responses to issues by leveraging NEB-sourced data to demonstrate what we do and how we make a difference, and by developing a strong, communications-focused issues management process.

D. NEB Spokesperson (Media Relations Senior Spokesperson) and Assigned Communications Specialists

The Communications team is both a tactical service provider to other teams at the Board, and a strategic advisory group with a stake in the outcomes of the Board’s external-facing activity. Historically at the NEB, the emphasis of our function has been on service provision. Our service role and processes have been developed to maturity. It is time for our focus to shift toward

Status Quo Over the next 2 years 2 – 4 years

Responsive, timely issue management supported by factual data = Increased confidence that the NEB is fulfilling its mandate in the public interest

Issues Management

Well-designed issue management process that enables proactive management and response preparation Better use of regulatory data to identify issues, support NEB activities and support the NEB’s external messaging Better internal coordination of complex issue response across teams

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developing our strategic communications function, in order to become more active and effective partners in fulfilling the Board’s mandate and goals. Senior leadership have also identified a need for a senior-level, bilingual NEB Spokesperson. This person would act as a primary media relation contact and crisis communications contact, working closely with leadership and Legal Services to represent the Board on complex issues. He or she would also be an additional resource for community relations activities and would support NEB leadership with media coaching and advice. There will always be instances when the only appropriate or credible spokesperson will be a senior technical specialist/ Business Unit leader or the CEO; strong communications planning in any organization recognizes the need to ensure senior leadership is prepared to take on those roles when required. These instances will be addressed as they occur. We will further develop our Communications Officers’ capacity to act as Strategic Advisors and as NEB Spokespeople across the Communications Team by dedicating communications officers to specific business units/ projects (they will continue to reside in Communications and report to the Director of Communications) and identifying them as lead communicators for these areas. The dedicated officers will be expected to develop a deep understanding of the work activities and communications needs, to provide strategic guidance on internal and external communications. The Communications Officer assigned to business units/ projects will be more consistently involved in the planning and the “lifecycle” of a project communications, sharing responsibility for not only the quality of communications deliverables, but for measuring the effectiveness of their use and providing recommendations for future communication approaches on similar projects.

What’s Different: The NEB will have a bilingual spokesperson who will act as our primary media specialist, and crisis/ issues management spokesperson. Critical NEB business activities and projects will receive specialized, proactive, and strategic communications advice from an specifically assigned communications officer.

Status Quo Over the next 2 years 2 – 4 years

More strategic communications, delivered consistently and proactively = Increased confidence that that the NEB is fulfilling its mandate in the public interest

NEB Spokesperson Capacity An NEB spokesperson will provide a focus for media in crisis/ issues management Communications will offer more comprehensive strategic advice on critical NEB projects/ activities Board communications will be more consistent, with a single key media contact and a more unified look and feel Communication staff will assist in promoting stronger internal information sharing

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• Tactic: A gap analysis of non-application communications at the NEB will be undertaken. Through a consultative process with team and group leaders, an assigned Communications officer will identify and analyze the Communications support being provided at the Board, looking for any gaps in support or emerging needs for support across the Board’s various teams and project groups. The result will be recommendations for leadership on where more communications focus is required.

• Tactic: NEB spokesperson will identify his/ herself to key media and reinforce a primary contact point in order to proactively foster strong working relationships in advance of “media issues” responses.

• Tactic: Develop issue-specific media kits that outline the issue from the NEB perspective, offer facts and data on the issue, and provide an overview of the NEB’s involvement or role.

• Tactic: Bi-weekly Communications strategy discussions that emphasize information and idea sharing among the Communications officers, facilitating consistency, best practices and streamlining of effort across all NEB communications.

• Tactic: Develop a common toolkit of communication best practices, focused both generally and specifically on NEB communications, and ranging from planning to measurement, will be created, maintained, and used by all staff in developing project-level communication plans.

• Tactic: A Communications-driven publication review, focusing specifically on the quality and consistency of our external print/ web publications, will be undertaken. The goal will be to have compelling, relevant, user-friendly information available to the public to maximize the impact of this type of communications.

KEY PARALLEL NEB INITIATIVES Excellence in Communications cannot happen in isolation of technology, data management, issues tracking, government reporting protocols, and so on. Communications is fully aligned with key NEB projects that run parallel to the development of this strategy, and that will inform and contribute to its outcomes:

• The Issues Management Framework • The Regulatory Information Analysis Initiative • The Transparency Project • NEB Web Renewal Project/ Government of Canada Web 2.0 • Information Management Renewal

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MEASURING OUR SUCCESS: We will continue to measure whether or not external communications are being delivered efficiently and effectively. This includes both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Specific targets will be established based on the applicable baseline data by the end of the first year of the strategy. Indicators of success may include:

• An increase in positive/neutral media coverage about the NEB; • Maintenance or improvement in response times to media enquiries; • An increase in public interest and awareness in the NEB’s activities, including visits to

our website, requests for information, and/or participation in NEB forums and events; • Positive feedback (surveys) from Canadians’ about their view of the NEB; • An increase in opportunities for engagement and discussion with Canadians about the

role of the NEB. The following methods could be used as source data to measure the impact of the strategy:

Medium

Quantitative Qualitative Website • Visits/statistics (Website content

management system) • Links from other websites/blogs • Downloaded presentations

• User surveys • Direct user feedback

Publications • Distribution at events • Downloads • Requests or mentions from other sources • Additional print runs

• Reference from other institutions/bodies

• Survey of users

Information requests

• Phone/fax/e-mail • Measure of info requests via the

website

Events • Participant totals • Booth/ display visitors • Publications distributed

• Evaluation forms/direct feedback • Focus group/ Follow-up calls

Media • Mentions • Requests for info/ interviews • Media response times (primarily for

complex inquiries)

• Positive mentions, more requests • Successful uptake of NEB-generated stories

or pitches • Assessment of interviewees as to the feel of

an interview (i.e. positive experience)

Social media

• Number of views, shares, re-Tweets • Number of followers on Twitter • Subscriptions for the NEB RSS feeds

• Positive mentions, quality of the information about the NEB (i.e. accurate or inaccurate)

Community liaisons

• Number of meetings completed with key stakeholders

• Analysis of discussion/ development of on-going relationships

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RISKS AND MITAGATION: There are always risks associated with strategic communications – notably, the risk that media coverage of an organization’s key messages and strategic communications objectives are misconstrued, not understood or not well-received by stakeholders/ communities. The NEB, in response to the issues raised by Board Members and leaders in the context of strategic planning, has incorporated this area into its Corporate Risk Profile for the NEB. THEME AREA for Corporate Risk Registry: Maintaining public confidence as an effective regulator and enhance communication with Canadians

Risks:

Inaccurate, incomplete or inadequate information about NEB-regulated facility or NEB operations communicated to Canadians

Negative media coverage of NEB processes

These risks are best mitigated by ensuring we have strong and consistent communications practices, including:

• Ensuring our communications activities align with an overarching Strategic

Communications Strategy and the NEB’s Strategic Plan;

• Supporting the career development and technical expertise of our communications specialists;

• Ensuring we have training available for ALL those involved in media engagements, supported with strong key messages and strategic communications tools and plans;

• Establishing key, strategic messages that align with the NEB Communications Strategy; and

• Ensuring roles and responsibilities for communications activities are clear and well-documented, so as to demonstrate compliance with best practices in this area.

These mitigation practices are in place or underway, and are notably aligned with the adoption and implementation of this strategy.