Well its is high time this discussion hit the board.
For Albertans, you should remember, or know about, the recent situations around Bill 46 which was passed by our Conservative alberta government in late 2007 (allowing almost no debate, and invoking closure of debate in the Legilature twice).....
This is what Bill 46 is all about. It is what Klein's "deregulation" of the utilities was all about.
Once government handed over public utilities to private corporations, the use of eminant domain, or whatever you want to call it, and the right to expropriate land.... was corrupted further....
Utilities are considered a public need, fuel (oil and gas) a public need, and natural resources like water, oil, gas, tar sands... a public asset which cannot be profited from via Royalties, without exploration by someone (private companies mostly)....ANY ACTIVITY which is related to these "needs" will be allowed to use the Government's power of expropriation to TAKE YOUR LAND.
Compensation for that TAKING, should include a hell of a lot more than land value plus "physical damages". In the case where land has been taken, say for mining, o/g wells, the loss of use is a very contentious issue. If in the case of coal mining, the company need to consider the viability of the entire ranching operation once that land was taken. In many cases, it completely destroys viability of the unit, making the remaining land less valuable. However, the fights are long and hard, and who has the most money usually wins this battle.
As for burying the pipeline only 5 feet down, WAKE UP..... Canadians are already experiencing severe conflicts with oil and gas pipelines buried even deeper. The pipeline companies are restricting the crossing of pipelines, or working of land over-top their pipelines by newer heavier agriculture and forestry equipment. 5 feet burial depth, will guarantee that 'modern' farming equipment cannot be used over the pipeline.
Also, the pipelines (more so the bigger ones) are being granted EXTRA land on each side of the pipeline right-of-way that they don't have to pay for, or compensate for.
The ownership of the company is not the issue any longer, as most of these companies have multinational shareholders. The government has handed over to these corporations their "elected" responsibilities and their "elected" powers. Except, we never elected these corporations.
The only thing we can do is unelect the corrupt politicians that have made our long-term sustainability (via control of our land) a game.
Oil companies have liabilities too, and they can be kept off of your land by learning what their liabilities entail. EG. air quality (flaring). One (new) requirement of drilling on our land is NO FLARING; and we do not accept drilling mud on our land either (both are full of toxins). This seems to have kept them off for now.