Rob Schwartz:
Please do a history check on all the renamed and reassigned oil & gas regulatory systems that Alberta has had since the 1920s. Non of these regulators have lived up to their public mission statement and absolutely non of them have removed the regulatory opportunities imbedded in the regulations that allow oil companies to walk away from their reclamation obligations.
Albertans want oil industry to pay up: poll by Paul Cowley, Nov 20, 2025, Red Deer Advocate
A polluter pay advocate takes issue with Premier Danielle Smith’s statement to clear up “inaccurate claims” about a proposed government program encouraging well site cleanup through royalty breaks.
Albertans overwhelmingly say oil and gas companies should pay their bills, says a new poll.
A recent poll by Janet Brown Opinion Research found 92 per cent of Albertans say oil and gas companies should be responsible for final cleanup of their wells. 
So why – decade after decade – do they keep voting for cons, wildrose lowlifes, even lower scumbag Libertarians like Danielle Smith that only serve mostly foreign-owned private profit rich fuckers, polluters, frac’ers, coal miners and USA repuglicans, extremely hideous hate-filled evangelicals (eg TBA) and not Albertans?
Eighty-seven per cent said energy industry players should pay the taxes they owe municipalities and 84 per cent support the government getting tough on companies and making them pay unpaid rents to landowners.
“Albertans don’t agree on a lot these days,” said pollster Janet Brown, “but our research shows they overwhelmingly want the oil and gas industry to pay their bills.”
The poll was released just as representatives from 69 municipal districts and counties met in Edmonton at Rural Municipalities of Alberta’s (RMA) fall convention that wrapped on Thursday. RMA has been pressing the Alberta government for years to crack the whip and force oil and gas companies to pay what they owe to municipalities in property taxes.
Annual surveys have highlighted the extent of the problem, with the most recent showing rural municipalities are owed $254 million in back taxes. Reportedly, some companies are now also reneging on contracts with free holders (own the mineral rights), and are not paying for what they profit on
What especially frustrates municipal representatives is that many of the tax dodgers are active and profitable companies.
“Rural Albertans are paying the price for these unpaid oil and gas taxes, through service cuts and increased costs,” said Ponoka County Reeve and RMA past-president Paul McLauchlin. “This polling tells me they’ve had enough, and it’s a full rejection of the government’s inaction … to date on this topic.”
Central Alberta municipalities have written off millions in unpaid taxes over the years, including $6.5 million in Ponoka County.
In Red Deer County, council was told this summer that 33 companies owe $5.2 million in unpaid taxes.
The county has tried to meet them halfway by offering payment plans to spread payments over a longer period and freezing penalties. Only one company is currently on a plan to pay its $1.4 million in back taxes.
Between 2015 and 2024, the county has written off $9.8 million in oil and gas taxes and $1 million is budgeted every year to write off bad debts.
To cover some of the shortfall the county boosted farmland tax rates by 20 per cent, which raised about $500,000.
Concerns from environmental watchdogs and rural municipalities only deepened last month when a draft report on the province’s Mature Asset Strategy was leaked.
Coalition for Responsible Energy (C4RE), said the proposed strategy will weaken industry accountability for oilfield cleanup, water down reclamation standards and push more costs on to taxpayers. Of course, that’s always been the fucking plan, impacted Albertans just refuse to face reality – those lease cheques are too tempting.
Alberta Energy Minister Brian Jean has defended the strategy and said in the Legislature that no public money will be given to energy industry companies to clean up their wells. Fucking douche liar. Many $millions have already been given!
Brown said her polling found that support for industry accountability is high in both urban and rural areas, which are most affected by the unpaid tax and landowner compensation issues.
“These findings show that these aren’t just rural concerns. People across Alberta agree that industry should be held responsible for these costs.”well of course, it only makes fucking sense. The companies are legally responsible, but nothing done by regulators or gov’ts in Alberta regarding fossil fuel companies ever makes sense – they always let the polluters off, and always punish and further harm those speaking out.
In Alberta there are more than 300,000 wells, 450,000 kilometres of pipeline and 40,000 facilities that have yet to be cleaned up. The total cleanup bill has been estimated at $60 billion to $130 billion.
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