Open Government Datasets

The 2021 Abandonment Cost Estimate (ACE) Calculation Method uses four Open Government geospatial datasets from Natural Resources Canada:

• Land cover data – Atlas of Canada Land Cover Dataset, 2015 Edition. As described in the link, the dataset provides land cover data in a Canada-wide 30 metre spatial resolution format with an update frequency of every five years. It is produced using observations from the Operational Land Imager (OLI) Landsat sensor.
• Hydrographic data – CanVec Series – Hydrographic Features Dataset. Canada-wide hydrographic features such as rivers and lakes, available by province.
• Road data – National Road Network - NRN - GeoBase Series^Footnote 1. The dataset describes the Canada-wide road network by province.
• Railway data – National Railway Network Dataset. The dataset describes the Canada-wide railway network by province.

The CER downloaded the above-noted datasets in June 2022 during the 2021 ACE Review, and it is these locally saved versions of the datasets that are used by the 2021 ACE Calculation Method. While the land cover dataset was downloaded by the CER in a nation-wide format, the hydrographic, road and rail datasets were downloaded separately for each province and territory due to the large file sizes of the nation-wide information.

Some of the Open Government geospatial datasets have been updated since the CER downloaded them. The versions of the datasets locally saved by the CER, for use by the 2021 ACE Calculation Method, are provided for download at the links below. All data are licensed under the Open Government Licence - Canada.

• Atlas of Canada Land Cover Dataset, 2015 Edition [ZIP 27 Mb]
• CanVec Series – Hydrographic Features Dataset [TIFF 1.6 GB]
• National Road Network - NRN - GeoBase Series [ZIP 16.8 GB]
• National Railway Network Dataset [ZIP 1.3 GB]

To prepare each downloaded dataset for use in the 2021 ACE Calculation Method, the data was reprojected by the CER to the Canada Lambert Conformal Conic coordinate system to maintain spatial consistency and to have the unit of measure be in metres. The data was then stored in centralized geodatabases.

To calculate an ACE, the 2021 ACE Calculation Method program accesses centralized geodatabases and takes a copy of the data found within certain buffered areas of the company’s pipeline system. This reduces the quantity of data the program needs to manage and decreases the run-time of each ACE calculation. The buffers used are:

• Land cover dataset – data within a 500 metre radius area centered on the pipeline system
• Hydrographic, road and railway dataset – data within a 100 metre radius area centered on the pipeline system

Date modified:

2026-03-31