Proposal for the Output-Based Pricing System Regulations: chapter 18

Notification of errors and omissions

A person responsible for a covered facility is required, pursuant to section 176 of the Act, to notify the Minister when that person becomes aware of an error or omission in its report within five years of having submitted that report. The regulations will specify the circumstances under which a person responsible for a covered facility would be required to submit a corrected report to the Minister and to cause that report to be verified by a third party.

If the Minister discovers an error or omission in a report within five years of the report being submitted, the Minister may require, pursuant to section 177 of the Act, a person responsible for a covered facility to submit a corrected report and may require that the report be verified by a third party.

The regulations will identify the time and manner by which the corrected report and verified corrected report must be provided.

Requirement to communicate the detection of an error or omission

29. If, within five years after submitting a report under section 173, a person that is responsible for a covered facility becomes aware of an error or omission in the facility report, the person must notify the Minister in writing as soon as possible and indicate whether the detected error or omission meets or exceeds the materiality threshold as set out in subsection 11(4) related to the Emissions_{net fac} of the covered facility, or to the production data of that facility.

Requirement to submit a corrected report

30. (1) For errors or omissions detected under 176 of the Act, a person responsible for a covered facility must submit a corrected report for the facility if one or more errors or omissions were detected in the facility report after it has been submitted.

Requirement to verify

(2) When the error or omission detected under 176 of the Act meets or exceeds the materiality threshold as set out in subsection 11(4) related to the Emissions_{net fac} of the covered facility, or to the production data of that facility as reported in that person’s facility report submitted under section 173 of the Act, a person responsible for a covered facility must cause the corrected report and any related data and information supporting the corrected report to be verified by a verification body that:

subject to subsection (3), meets the requirements set out in section 11, except for subparagraph 11(1)(b)(ii) and subsections 11(5) and (6); and
expresses an opinion to a reasonable level of assurance on whether the corrected information related to GHG emissions, the amount of each product produced or emissions limit, as appropriate, in the corrected report—as reported by a person responsible for the covered facility—is free from material error or omission, and whether the corrected report was prepared in accordance with these regulations.

Non-inclusion under paragraph 11(2)(a)

(3) In the case where the verification body verified the original report under section 173 that is being corrected, the verification of the corrected report does not count as a facility report under paragraph 11(2)(a).

Deadline for submission—corrected report

(4) The person responsible for a covered facility must submit the corrected report to the Minister within 60 days of the discovery of one or more errors or omissions by that person under subsection (1) or of the reception of the request by the Minister made pursuant to subsection 177(1) of the Act.

Deadline for submission—verified corrected report

(5) The person responsible for a covered facility must submit the verified corrected report and the verification report to the Minister within 90 days of the discovery of one or more errors or omissions by that person under subsection (1), or of the reception of the request by the Minister made pursuant to subsection 177(1) of the Act.

Content of the corrected report

(6) In the case that a corrected report is submitted pursuant to subsection (1) or is required by the Minister under section 177 of the Act, the corrected report must include the following information:

a description of the corrections made to the original report;
a description of measures that a person responsible plans to, or did implement to avoid future errors or omissions of the same type;
the circumstances that led to the errors or omissions and reasons for why the errors or omissions were not previously detected and, where applicable, correction made;
where applicable, the amount of GHG emissions to which the detected error or omissions correspond;
where applicable, the amount of production to which the detected error or omissions correspond;
where applicable, the change in the emissions limit due to the detected error or omission; and
where applicable, the change in compensation as a results of the errors or omissions.
where applicable, the corrected total quantity of each greenhouse gas—and the corrected total combined quantity of those greenhouse gases—emitted by the covered facility, in tonnes of CO₂e, during the applicable compliance period as determined in accordance with subsection 12(b) of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Information Production Order, or, where an OBS determined in section 17 applies to the facility, consistent with the methods used to quantify emissions under section 17;
where applicable, the corrected amount of each type of product produced by the covered facility during the applicable compliance period as determined in accordance with subsections 9(1) and (2) of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Information Production Order, or, where an OBS determined in section 17 applies to the facility, consistent with the methods used to quantify production for the activity under section 17; and
any other corrected information originally reported under paragraphs 10(2)(c) to (f).

Content of verification report for the corrected report

(7) In the case that a corrected report is required to be verified pursuant to subsection (2) or is required by the Minister under section 177 of the Act, the verification report of the corrected report must include:

the information outlined in Schedule 2, with the exception of sub-item 3(q) of that schedule; and
a verification statement by the verification body as to whether the corrected GHG emissions, the corrected amount of each product produced or corrected emissions limit—as reported by a person responsible for the covered facility in the corrected report—are free from material errors and omissions, and as to whether the corrected report was prepared in accordance with the regulations.

Change in obligation

31. (1) When the corrected report or corrected verified report reveals that the compensation provided after the submission of the facility report was not sufficient, and if the amount of the additional compensation amount is greater than or equal to 500 tonnes of CO₂e, a person responsible for the covered facility must provide additional compensation in an amount equal to the result of the following formula:

Compensation_Corrected – Compensation_Initial

where

Compensation_Corrected means the result of the equation in subsection 19(1), when using the values reported in the corrected report; and

Compensation_Initial means the compensation submitted for the compliance period affected by the correction as identified in paragraph 22(2)(d).

Submission before November 15

(2) If a person responsible for a covered facility submits a corrected report by November 15 of the year immediately following the compliance period that is the subject of the corrected report, it must provide additional compensation according to the deadline and rate specified in section 20.

Submission after November 15

(3) If a person responsible for a covered facility submits a corrected report on or after November 15 of the year immediately following the compliance period that is the subject of the corrected report,

it must provide additional compensation at the rate established in subsection 174(3) of the Act within 30 days of the submission of the verified corrected report, or
it must provide additional compensation at the rate established in subsection 174(4) of the Act within 60 days of the deadline in paragraph (a).

Revocation and replacement

(4) When the verified corrected report reveals that a person responsible for a covered facility has received more surplus credits than they should have due to a material error or omission,

the Minister must revoke excess surplus credits that remain in the account of the person to whom surplus credits were originally issued; and
the responsible person to whom surplus credits were originally issued must replace any surplus credits that are not still in their possession by providing additional compensation using subsection 26(4).

Issuing additional credits

(5) If the corrected report reveals that the quantity of surplus credits originally issued to a person responsible for a covered facility was not sufficient, the Minister may issue additional surplus credits, in accordance with section 178(1) of the Act, to that person, and the quantity of surplus credits to be issued is based on the following formula:

Surplus credits_corrected – Surplus credits_issued