Direction from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to her new energy minister suggests the United Conservative government hasn't given up on a controversial program that would see taxpayers backstop the cleanup of old oil and gas wells that companies are already legally required to do.
Earlier this month, Rural Municipalities Alberta released figures showing that energy firms owed $268 million in back taxes in 2022, a figure that is up more than six per cent from 2021.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's last budget before an expected spring election gives strong support to a proposed tax break for energy companies to fulfil their legal cleanup duties but doesn't tell voters how much would be spent on it.
Alberta's United Conservative Party government is facing growing criticism for a plan to give oil companies a royalty credit for cleaning up their old wells.
Alberta's New Democrat Opposition wants public consultations on a government plan that would subsidize oil and gas companies to fulfil legal commitments to clean up old wells, a major proponent of which has been working directly in Premier Danielle Smith's office for months.
Critics fear Alberta's new United Conservative premier is preparing to bring in a program that would use billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded royalty breaks to subsidize energy companies to fulfil their legal duty and clean up old wells.
A southern Alberta town has become what it says is the first municipality to endorse a community−developed policy that calls for a permanentban on new coal exploration and development in the Rocky Mountains.
The amount of unpaid taxes energy companies owe to small-town Alberta is growing despite high oil prices, the province's rural municipalities said on Tuesday, March 8, 2022.