Rural Municipalities Alberta

Critics are asking why the Alberta government's proposed regulations on renewable power seem to have ignored the conclusions of its own utilities regulator.

Based on the projects that were lined up before the Alberta government’s moratorium on renewals, an additional $170 million to $250 million in revenues could bolster municipal budgets in just a few years. 

A poll released on Thursday suggests nearly two-thirds of Albertans oppose the provincial government's moratorium on approvals for new renewable energy projects.

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. 

The Alberta government has introduced legislation that it says would help municipalities recoup some of the millions of dollars in unpaid property taxes they're owed by energy companies.

A new report from the University of Calgary says inactive wells increased by more than 50 per cent between 2015 and 2020. The Alberta Energy Regulator expects another 6,014 of them in 2021.

Alberta's environment minister said on Thursday, March 18, 2021, there's no plan to change water allocations in the province's arid southwest.

Alberta's environment minister is reassuring rural municipalities in the province's dry south that their water supply isn't threatened by industrial development such as coal mines.

The amount of unpaid property taxes that oil and gas companies owe Alberta rural municipalities has more than doubled over the last year, a trend some are calling a tax revolt.