Canada's Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna, announced proposed rules to reduce methane emissions and air pollution from the country' oil and gas sector.

The government says it is moving to catch up on action already taken by California, Colorado, and North Dakota. The new rules are part of the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change to reduce methane emissions by 40-45% by 2025.

In total, 26 refineries, oil-sands upgraders, and petrochemical facilities would be affected by the regulations.

Under the proposed regulations, companies would need to regularly check and repair leaks from their equipment, use cleaner technologies to minimize emissions, monitor emissions at their property line, and report the results to the Government of Canada.

Canada's oil and gas sector is the country's largest emitter of climate-warming methane gas and a source of air pollutants known as volatile organic compounds, some of which are toxic to human health and are contributors to smog.

With these regulations, the government says that greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by about 20 megatons a year.

The proposed regulations were to be published in the Canada Gazette, Part I, on May 27, 2017. Provinces, industry stakeholders, and interested Canadians may provide comments to Environment and Climate Change Canada until July 27.