Landowner update re Fulton Judicial Review & Notice of Additional Legal Challenges
Well-intentioned? Danielle Smith’s new plan hits a nerve in Alberta
Pilot project to clean up oil wells taps into province’s cherished energy royalties.
By Alex Boyd
Staff Reporter
Monday, February 20, 2023
SHOULDICE, Alta.—The section of pipe jutting out of the field has begun to decay, a small patch of gravel the only evidence of where a pumpjack once bobbed like a giant metal bird, drawing more crude oil from the ground with each dip of its head.
Every day it produced, every day a truck would take the products of its labour away.
That was, until the day its owner could no longer pay the bills — and so took the equipment they could and walked away.
“This particular well is in Never Neverland,” says Kelly Nelson, the farmer in whose field the well languishes, occupying a fenced patch of land about the size of two city lots. Besides the well itself, there’s a section of piping and a towering storage container that’s turned to rust.
“That’s a well that is abandoned. Nobody’s looking after it,” she says, sounding resigned. As far as she knows, it’s not on the radar of the provincial regulator or the association designed to deal with so-called orphan wells.
It’s an example of what might be the biggest problem looming over the oil industry in Alberta that most non-Albertans have never heard of.
As this province’s oil industry grew, it became quite common for an oil company to show up and announce it would be putting equipment in someone’s field, their yard or their town.
Saying no wasn’t an option. That’s not hyperbole. In Alberta, about 80 per cent of the mineral rights in the province are owned by the Crown, so when an oil company is granted the rights to explore, there isn’t much a landowner can do.
The boom and bust nature of the oil industry has left this province littered with aging equipment. It’s been left behind by companies that went bankrupt, judged it cheaper to just keep paying the rent required for wells or that simply abandoned it. It’s detritus that gets in the way of farmers and risks contaminating the ground and the air.
The cost of cleaning up 10,000 orphan wells in Alberta and Saskatchewan will, by 2025, reach $1 billion, according to a parliamentary budget report released last year.
It’s a number that critics have criticized for being too low — and for not including the 7,400 wells that are abandoned but not fully orphaned, or the 225,000 wells in the two provinces that are inactive, but whose future is uncertain.
Now, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is championing a new program to speed cleanup of the equipment left behind.
The new provincial $100 million pilot project, called the Liability Management Incentive Program, would reward companies who clean up wells that are at least 20 years old by giving them a future royalty credit, which would mean they’d have to give less of their future profits back to the province. It’s drawing fire for essentially paying companies to do what they’re already legally obligated to, and for using royalties, the financial bounty meant to compensate all Albertans for the exploitation of their natural resources.
There is a social contract upon which modern Alberta is built.
It’s an understanding that stretches back to a farm outside Leduc in 1947, when the province’s first major oil discovery took place with an unexpected gush of oil and a fireball that shot 15 metres into the air. (A museum in Leduc devoted to that moment still opens its doors most days from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.)
Yes, oil can be hard on the environment in general and tough on landowners specifically, but in return for the imposition of equipment on private land and tailings ponds in the boreal forest, the industry agrees to clean up its own messes and has gushed billions of dollars into government coffers in the form of royalties, money that helps fuel low taxes, high social spending and a quality of life that many Albertans would argue is the envy of the country.
Oil makes up a huge part of the Alberta budget, from the oilsands in particular. Right now, the war in Ukraine and fears of an oil shortage have the industry booming — thanks to a combination of those higher prices and projects reaching maturity, at which point they pay a higher rate. The Alberta government said last fall that oilsands royalties this year are expected to reach north of $20 billion, a number that is almost double what was initially forecast, and would set a new record. When you consider that total revenue for the year was initially predicted to be almost $63 billion, the outsized importance of oil is clear.
Yet, there’s a saying in Alberta that goes something like this: God grant me another boom, and we promise not to piss it away again. But with a tsunami of new royalty revenue on the way, some are worried Alberta is about to do just that.
Landowners are often quick to point out that they’re not anti-oil. Indeed, it can be hard for many to speak out, given how ubiquitous the industry is here. Grinding one’s teeth about well cleanup can be taken as criticism of your sister or your neighbour’s livelihood.
At Nelson’s farm, the orphan well is just a short drive from her house. It’s been about five years since the company that owned it went bankrupt and walked away. Now, it’s a chunk of land that grows nothing but weeds that threaten nearby crops, an obstacle around which Nelson’s son must maneuver hulking farm equipment, and a potential risk to a creek nearby.
But if you were to go downwards, beneath the gravel and the crop stubble and the layer of soil, you would enter the domain of the Alberta government, and by extension, the world of oil and gas.
For a long time, Nelson says, many wells were welcomed, when oil companies maintained their equipment, sprayed for weeds and paid their annual rent — usually a few thousand dollars — on time. There was a time, she says, when some of her fields were dotted with the red lights of pump jackets at nighttime.
And most of the almost 20 wells on her land now are operational or in line for cleanup — but not all.
“It’s for the ‘greater good,’” says Nelson, who’s a councillor of the county of Vulcan, making air quotes with her hands. “But you know, they’re not going to go into city and drill next to your house.”
Kelly Nelson pictured at her farm near Shouldice, Alberta.
Environmental law in Alberta is based on the idea of what’s known as polluter pay, which means that whoever makes a mess has to clean it up. Oil companies are legally obligated to clean up their own wells, but don’t always do it.
There is the Land and Property Rights Tribunal, which hears disputes between operators and landowners, and a body called the Orphan Well Association, funded by oil companies, which is working to clean up wells with no other owner.
Still, landowners are often left holding the bag. Sometimes the well gets passed from company to company, sometimes paying rent on the site is cheaper than reclaiming it, and sometimes the producer goes out of business.
It’s a problem that has infuriated many landowners.
“Society put the rules in place, that industry could take our land, force their way on, exploit the resources for the benefit of all society,” says Daryl Bennett, a farmer near Taber, Alta., and director of a landowner group called Action Surface Rights.
“On condition that they would pay for the annual income inconvenience, and then pay to clean it up.”
Oil companies are granted a lot of leeway. Landowners aren’t able to say no to an operator looking to put a well on their land. You can try to negotiate nicely. One surface rights advocate says he’s seen people ask for a drill to be put in the corner of their field, or even across the road, away from water or specialty crops such as potatoes or canola.
Often companies accommodate, but sometimes they don’t, dotting fields with equipment and putting up fences that, in one case, separated cow from calves, or, in another, herds from water. Roads built to access wells can track in invasive weeds or chemicals can seep into land long after they stop producing.
There have been other recent efforts to speed the cleanup. During the pandemic, when oil prices had sunk, the federal government announced a billion dollars to help with cleanup, in a move that was partially billed as a job generator at a time of economic uncertainty.
But the premier has argued a fresh approach is needed.
“I suppose we could keep on doing things the way we’ve always done them and get the same result,” she told reporters earlier this month.
“I’ve been following the case of abandonments and suspended wells and the long-term liability of sites going back to the ’50s and ’60s and ’70s that have not been in active service that are still not cleaned up. So that’s just not tolerable to me. I think that we owe it to the landowners to make sure that those sites get cleaned up.”
The new provincial program has a relatively narrow focus — it doesn’t tackle orphan wells such as the one on Nelson’s land. Furthermore, given the fact that credits are applied to future activity, it will only be appealing to companies that are currently producing and therefore, critics say, arguably already able to pay for their own cleanup, particularly as oil prices spike to a generational high.
The proposal has sparked serious criticism, and not just from the freshman premier’s expected political opponents. Scotiabank has warned that the plan could give the whole industry a black eye. In a report, the bank pointed out that major oilsands players would financially benefit, and that the program goes against a core capitalist principle — that companies pay for their own messes.
The backdrop to the debate is the fact that, thanks to factors such as the war in Ukraine, Alberta has never produced more oil.
“It’s corporate socialism,” says Duane Bratt, a professor of politics at Calgary’s Mount Royal. “The profits go to private companies, and the costs go to the taxpayers. That’s great for industry.”
“If I was an oil company, why would I do any cleaning up right now? I would just ignore that and wait for more money to flow through,” he adds. “There’s a real moral hazard to what the government is doing.”
The use of provincial royalties to fund the program has also hit a nerve. While the appropriate level royalties has been debated for decades, what’s clear is that they’re seen as belonging to Albertans. “This is a sale of a depleting resource that’s owned by the people. Once a barrel of oil goes down the pipeline, it’s gone forever. It’s like a farmer selling off his topsoil,” storied Alberta premier Peter Loughheed said, decades ago.
“We get our pound of flesh,” then premier Ralph Klein countered in 2006.
Muddying the waters is the fact that before Smith was premier, she was a lobbyist for this exact program, then called RStar, raising uncomfortable questions for some about her motivations.
“I mean, if she was premier of Alberta, and was being paid by these companies to bring in our RStar, that is corruption, and she would have to resign,” Bratt says.
“But what happens when she was paid prior to becoming premier, and is now implementing it?”
Paul McLauchlin, the president of the Rural Municipalities of Alberta and reeve of Ponoka, Alta., spent much of the pandemic raising the alarm about what he estimates is the quarter billion dollars in unpaid taxes the oil industry owes towns and villages across the province — and arguing for policy changes to address those debts, changes that have largely not come to pass.
He marvels at the speed at which this new policy was enacted in comparison. His organization sent representatives to a recent meeting with the energy minister at which the program, which is technically still a pilot, was presented as “pretty much a done deal.”
“A lot of this is frustration on … is this the best way to address the issue?”
He points out that the province has the Alberta Energy Regulator, a body he argues has dropped the ball in not dealing with these issues sooner. An environmental scientist by trade with several wells on his own land, he points out that this question has hung over the province for decades, and it’s time for Alberta, if not the rest of the country, to have a real reckoning with the cost of an industry that has contributed so much.
“It’s a crucially important conversation, because this is really about the future of Alberta. I don’t see oil and gas going away in Alberta, but I definitely see it changing, and this is the time to make good decisions,” he says.
Looking out over the fields where, once the last crusts of snow finally melt, her family will begin planting crops such as peas and canola, Nelson gestures with frustration at the patch of land where, technically, she’s not even allowed to mow the grass or control the weeds.
“I don’t think most people realize that, as farmers, we care so much for the land,” she says. “We have to have them on here and we can deal with that. You know, whatever. When the company is running, it’s fine.
“But when this happens, then we become concerned, because how can we clean this up? We’re not allowed to touch anything, we don’t get a say.”
Alex Boyd is a Calgary-based reporter for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @alex_n_boyd
Confusion, lack of clarity dog Alberta plans to clean up old well sites
Story by Joel Dryden • February 14, 2023 5:00 a.m.
CBC News
With the Alberta government facing pushback to its plan to give oil and gas companies a royalty break to clean up old well sites, questions are mounting about how the program will function and who, ultimately, will pay for it.
The proposed pilot project dubbed the Liability Management Incentive Program, previously known as RStar, has in recent days garnered criticism from economists, landowners, analysts and the Opposition NDP.
Late last week, it also drew a warning from analysts with Scotiabank, who wrote in a report that though the program could benefit some producers, it had the potential to generate "negative public sentiment toward the sector."
"Moreover, we also believe the program goes against the core capitalist principle that private companies should take full responsibility for the liabilities they willingly accept," the report reads.
The province has said that the program, which would involve $100 million in royalty breaks, is still in development and no final decisions have been made. Producers pay royalties to the province for extracting resources that the province owns on behalf of all Albertans.
Oil companies largely appear to be reserving comment on the proposed plan. On Monday, a spokesperson with Cenovus said the company was assessing the program.
"We'll determine how it may affect our plans after we've seen more details," the Calgary-based company wrote in a statement to CBC News, adding it's about halfway through its well site reclamation inventory target.
Between 2019 and 2021, Cenovus said it received 1,455 reclamation certificates from the Alberta Energy Regulator.
In a statement sent Tuesday morning, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) senior special advisor Brad Herald said that there had been a "dramatic acceleration" in well cleanup.
"Industry, orphan well funds, the federal government and provincial governments have all played key roles in updating liability management policies and policy supports to make this happen," Herald wrote.
"We look forward to the consultation process with the Alberta Government on their proposed Liability Management Incentive Program and will work to ensure the momentum built in the reclamation of legacy sites in Alberta continues."
Opposition has suggested lobbying a 'huge concern'
Kathleen Ganley, the NDP's energy critic, has called it a "huge concern" that Smith had lobbied for an oil well cleanup bailout prior to re-entering politics.
Over the weekend, Smith told her audience on a province-wide radio show that governments of the past shared the blame for wells that hadn't been cleaned up effectively.
"Because we're targeting it so closely on the worst wells, we're looking at sites, for instance, that have been inactive for 20 years that were drilled prior to 1990, so these are kind of the worst of the worst sites," Smith said, arguing regulators had failed to require cleanup from companies in the past.
Andrew Leach, an economics professor at the University of Alberta, said Monday the premier's comments suggest industry was prepared to leave liabilities on the landscape indefinitely.
"When the premier comes out and says, 'This is reclamation that would not have otherwise happened,' that's a big shot across the bow to the industry," Leach said.
"Because she's essentially saying, 'You oil and gas producers are not going to meet your legal obligations to Albertans.'"
Though the program has nothing to do with oilsands, Leach added that such an approach had future implications for other liabilities on the landscape, such as massive oilsands tailing ponds and site reclamation.
During a press conference held Monday to discuss Alberta's TIER fund, Sonya Savage was asked about comments she had made during her time as energy minister stating that the RStar program wouldn't fit within Alberta's royalty structure, and would violate the province's polluter-pays principle.
Savage acknowledged those comments, but noted the pilot project was under consultation and directed questions around the pilot project to the current energy ministry.
Energy minister met with landowner groups
Leach added that questions loom about how the program will work and who will be covered.
"Are we talking about wells that are literally, from a regulatory perspective, orphans, or are we talking about wells that are still owned by operating entities?" he said.
In response to a request for comment requiring clarification over which sites could qualify for the pilot, a spokesperson for Energy Minister Peter Guthrie said such details would be made available when development of the pilot program is complete.
"Minister Guthrie was very clear that stakeholders would be engaged as part of this process and that is what we're doing," wrote Gabrielle Symbalisty in an email.
"This pilot program will target some of the oldest sites in the province that have not produced oil and gas for many years. Our goal is to shrink the inventory of inactive and orphaned wells and create jobs across Alberta."
Guthrie was instructed to develop such a targeted program as a part of his mandate letter last fall. On Thursday, Guthrie met with landowner groups to discuss the project.
Daryl Bennett, director of Action Surface Rights Association and the Alberta Surface Rights Federation, said the meeting lasted around two hours, and included staff from the Alberta Energy Regulator.
Bennett said he didn't attend the meeting but two representatives of the group did.
In an interview, Bennett said it was one of the best meetings the organization has had in terms of receiving access to the minister.
"I'll be frank, from a landowner perspective: we want the wells cleaned up," he said.
"And the original social contract was society can take our land, expropriate it, extract resources, with a guarantee you're going to clean up the mess," Bennett added, noting the organization prefers industry pays for it.
"But if they're unable to do it, then the taxpayer does have some responsibility. But at a time of record profits, I think the taxpayer should be insisting that industry pays a little bit more."
In Vulcan County, where hundreds of wells with no owners need to be cleaned up, there is confusion surrounding why taxpayers could be left footing the bill to clean up the messes oil companies made, said Reeve Jason Schneider.
"We're going on about seven years, where we've had companies that have operated without paying their taxes," he said.
"Now, it's a small number of them, but between those companies and companies who walked away from their liabilities, we're over $9 million worth of taxes that haven't been collected.
"So I guess we're a little disappointed to see the province move so quickly on this RStar program to give tax credits, when for seven years, they've been ignoring municipalities like ours."
Premier rejects NDP claim oilwell cleanup help is linked with her leadership campaign
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By The Canadian Press on February 11, 2023.
EDMONTON – Alberta’s premier is rejecting Opposition claims her planned $100-million pilot project for cleaning up old oil wells was influenced by her United Conservative party leadership campaign, arguing that federal money to get the job done missed many of the province’s worst sites.
Speaking on her province-wide radio call-in show Saturday, Danielle Smith noted the worst wells have been inactive for decades and repeated her argument that government shares some of the blame for the fact regulators let companies off without fulfilling their responsibilities.
Smith said many of the companies that left those wells without cleaning them up aren’t around anymore.
“Because we’re targeting it so closely on the worst wells, we’re looking at sites, for instance, that have been inactive for 20 years that were drilled prior to 1990, so these are kind of the worst of the worst sites,” Smith told listeners Saturday after being asked about the NDP’s claims the program is linked with her leadership fundraising.
“Now we’re left with somebody holding the bag that may not have been responsible for the initial liability. We have regulators who allowed for those transfers to occur. We have regulators in the past who didn’t require cleanup.”
“I think we have to take some of the responsibility as government for the fact that we didn’t manage it the way that we should have historically.”
NDP Energy critic Kathleen Ganley said Friday it’s a “huge concern” that before Smith re-entered politics, she lobbied for an oil well cleanup bailout that she made a government priority when she became premier.
The sources of the $1.3 million Smith raised for her leadership campaign last year have not been revealed, and her office has not responded to requests to address questions about how her campaign fundraising has affected her governing priorities.
The Liability Management Incentive Program proposes to give $100 million in royalty breaks to companies that fulfil their legal obligations to restore old oil and gas wells. A royalty is the price Alberta charges a company to develop a resource.
Analysts with Scotiabank said in a report that the proposal “goes against the core capitalist principle that private companies should take full responsibility for the liabilities they willingly accept.”
An Independent legislature member and former member of the UCP caucus, Drew Barnes, has called the plan “corporate welfare.”
Smith on Saturday praised the federal government’s Site Rehabilitation Program which provided $1 billion for well-site recovery, but she noted the program is about to end and that it missed the worst sites.
She said flare pits — which she described as pools of water where waste materials were just thrown in — are the biggest problem and have sat in some cases for 40 to 60 years. She said they’re not being cleaned up because “it’s a huge environmental liability expense companies are worried that they’re not going to be able to get the signoff on it.”
Landowners, she said, are left with the unremediated sites.
“The reason I advocated for this program when I first heard about it was because I feel so passionately about landowner rights. I feel so passionately that this has been a long-term problem. No one’s ever found a way to address it,” Smith told listeners.
Alberta launches talks on proposed tax breaks for oil companies that clean up old wells
Bob Weber
The Canadian Press
Posted: Feb 08, 2023 11:17 AM MST | Last Updated: February 8
The Alberta government is moving ahead with a plan that would give oil and gas companies a tax break for meeting their legal obligations to clean up old well sites, inviting a select group of landowner organizations to a meeting to discuss a pilot project.
On Thursday, Alberta Energy Minister Peter Guthrie is scheduled to host those groups to discuss "a concept for a royalty credit program to incent accelerated oil and gas site closure," indicates a government document that outlines the proposed pilot program, obtained by The Canadian Press.
That pilot program, previously known as RStar and now called the Liability Management Incentive Program, would issue $100 million in credits that qualified companies could use to apply against royalties earned from new production.
Credits would be earned by cleaning up well sites that have been inactive for at least 20 years.
Opposition New Democrat energy critic Kathleen Ganley said there should be a conversation about the pilot project happening with the public.
"They're taking public money and giving it to oil companies to do work they are already legally obligated to do and they're doing it at a time of high oil prices," Ganley said.
The idea has been widely panned by economists, environmentalists, rural municipalities and analysts within Alberta Energy. Critics call the program risky, opaque and a violation of the polluter-pay principle.
"For some reason, we're incentivizing future royalties to eliminate liabilities when profits are high," said Paul McLauchlin of Rural Municipalities Alberta. "It's very confusing to a lot of people."
Alberta landowners dealing with the 170,000 unreclaimed sites on their properties aren't crazy about the idea but need to get those wells cleaned up, said Daryl Bennett of Action Surface Rights, which will attend the meeting.
"It's somewhat regrettable that the taxpayer is left to fund these programs and that royalties will be reduced," Bennett said. "However, landowners are dealing with lots of abandoned wells. It's kind of a catch-22 situation that was never in the social contract."
Not all landowners groups have been invited to the meeting with Guthrie.
Dwight Popowich of the Polluter Pay Federation said his group made repeated requests to attend the session, but have instead been told to meet with department officials.
"If you happen to be a dissenter of any kind, you definitely won't be invited," he said.
Alberta Energy spokesperson Gabrielle Symbalisty said further consultations are planned.
"Indigenous groups, municipalities, industry associations, oil and gas companies, landowners and other groups have been asked to provide feedback on the proposed criteria," she said in an email.
The government document says the program is still in development and no final decisions have been made.
However, some feel the United Conservative Party government has already made up its mind.
"It's moving a lot faster than we expected," said McLauchlin, who has had what he described as "some engagement" on the pilot project.
The proposal has been pushed for years, including by Premier Danielle Smith when she was a business lobbyist. A former RStar lobbyist now works in Smith's Calgary office. The program was part of Guthrie's mandate letter when Smith named him to cabinet.
"I very much get the feeling the fix has been in on this program," said Ganley. "It sounds to me like this (program) was always going to go forward."
Other suggestions to address Alberta's huge abandoned well program exist.
"They could say, 'You're not allowed to drill any more unless you clean up a well,"' Bennett said.
Timelines are another option, said Popowich.
"If a well is shut for 12 months, you've got 18 months to clean it up," he said. "Most jurisdictions have that timeline. Alberta has none."
McLauchlin said other taxes on oilpatch activity have been lifted and wonders why further incentives are needed at a time of record industry profits.
"This is designed by industry," he said. "The engagement with landowners is going to be a day, and then the pilot's going to roll out.
"This (program) hasn't been built from the ground up on what is the big picture liability conversation."
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Alberta oil and gas producer cleanup cost estimates set too low, coalition says
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By Dan HealingThe Canadian Press Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. chairman Murray Edwards, left, prepares to address the company’s annual meeting in Calgary on May 9, 2019. The Alberta Liabilities Disclosure Project says the province’s largest oil and gas companies are underestimating how much it will cost to clean up thousands of oil and gas wells […]
Limited Partnership Provides Valuable New Revenue for Piikani Nation
June 11, 2019 By Admin
Altalink News Releases June 4, 2019 CALGARY, ALBERTA — (Globe Newswire – June 4, 2019) – A recently approved limited partnership provides the Piikani Nation the opportunity to make an equity investment in the transmission infrastructure that crosses their land and delivers a valuable new revenue stream for the First Nation. “It’s great to see that this Piikani […]
Renuwell Project
May 20, 2019 By Admin
ASRA has been greatly concerned
May 20, 2019 By Admin
Action Surface Rights Members, As you are well aware, ASRA has been greatly concerned with the proliferation of inactive and Orphan Wells over the last couple of years. In fact we intervened at the Supreme Court of Canada in the Redwater affair to make sure that any leftover assets of Bankrupt Operators went to reclaim surface leases […]
Farmers call for strong political response to expanding trade obstacles for Canada
April 11, 2019 By Admin
By Andy Blatchford The Canadian Press April 9, 2019 Canola farmers whose livelihoods have been targeted by China in its feud with Canada say it’s time for the federal government to be aggressive at the political level in its fight against a growing number of agricultural trade barriers around the world. Several producers told two […]
Cleanup of Alberta’s Abandoned Oil Wells Could Cost $70 Billion
April 11, 2019 By Admin
If companies can’t pay, taxpayers could be on the hook. Scattered across Alberta are more than 300,000 oil and gas wells. About 167,000 of them are inactive and abandoned wells that a coalition of landowners, researchers and former regulators call a “ticking time bomb” that will eventually leak, polluting farmlands, forests, waterways and even playgrounds. […]
Alberta’s Mega Oil and Gas Liability Crisis, Explained
March 22, 2019 By Admin
A Supreme Court ruling now forces firms to clean up abandoned wells before paying creditors. That doesn’t solve much. By Andrew Nikiforuk 4 Feb 2019 | TheTyee.ca How will Alberta find the billions of dollars needed to clean up its inactive pipelines, wells, plants and oilsands mines as the oil and gas industry enters its […]
Owners must deal with old oil wells: high court
February 4, 2019 By Admin
Canada Press 3 days ago OTTAWA – The Supreme Court of Canada says the trustee for a bankrupt Alberta energy company cannot simply walk away from unprofitable wells on agricultural land without having to clean up. The high court’s 5-2 ruling overturns an Alberta Court of Appeal ruling that upheld a 2016 decision in the […]
Solar, wind not reliable power
January 30, 2019 By Admin
Follow @Leth_Herald on twitter Lethbridge Herald By Letter to the Editor on January 30, 2019. Our provincial NDP government is clearly attempting to ram as much solar and wind power as possible onto our electrical grid before likely losing this spring’s election. They are doing this using an auction format to give the process the […]
Pincher Creek MPC rejects wind project
December 3, 2018 By Admin
Follow @LethHerald on twitter December 1, 2018. Tim Kalinowski Lethbridge Herald -PINCHER CREEK [email protected] In a case which could have implications for the provincial government’s ambitious targets for renewable energy generation, the Municipal Planning Commission for the MD of Pincher Creek, which has one of the largest densities of wind farms in southern Alberta, rejected […]
The story of Alberta’s $100-billion well liability problem. How did we get here?
November 7, 2018 By Admin
The Narwhal Sharon J. Riley Alberta investigative reporter Landowners once promised a fair share for hosting oil and gas infrastructure on their properties say Alberta’s liability management system is broken. They’re worried the regulator has long been propping up the industry by exaggerating profits and underestimating the costs of cleanup — often leaving landowners with […]
The truth about dairy farming in Canada
October 5, 2018 By Admin
by Kyle Edwards Oct 4, 2018 With producers predicting more than $1 billion in losses and demanding compensation, we took a hard look at the state of the industry—here and across the border The morning after the U.S. and Canada reached a deal to save NAFTA, the Dairy Farmers of Canada put out a press […]
Alberta dairy farmer explains why he’s disappointed with NAFTA replacement
October 2, 2018 By Admin
By Kyle Benning Videographer Global News Conrad van Hierden says he is feeling a little sour following the Canadian government’s announcement that they have reached a deal to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The dairy farmer from Fort Macleod says he is sick of being used as a pawn after learning of […]
Alberta milk producers slam new North American trade agreement: ‘What do I do now?’
October 2, 2018 By Admin
By Kaylen Small Online Journalist Global News Under the newly-negotiated U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), American dairy producers will get expanded access into the Canadian market. Alberta Milk said the province’s more than 520 dairy farms will now be told to produce less milk, resulting in a smaller paycheque. Mike Southwood, general manager of Alberta Milk, is […]
Canadian dairy farmers slam new trade agreement, say it will have ‘dramatic impact’
October 1, 2018 By Admin
By Staff The Canadian Press October 1, 2018 WASHINGTON – Canadian dairy farmers are panning the renegotiated trade pact between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, saying the deal will undercut the industry by limiting exports and opening up the market to more American products. Dairy Farmers of Canada issued a terse statement soon after the […]
RCMP, Alberta government say plan to fight rural crime is paying off
September 5, 2018 By Admin
Lauren Krugel AIRDRIE, Alta. The Canadian Press Published September 4, 2018 The Alberta government and RCMP say rural property crime fell by 11 per cent in the first half of this year thanks to a new policing strategy that targets the most prolific offenders. In March, the province announced $10-million in funding to hire more […]
Notley pulling Alberta out of federal climate plan after latest Trans Mountain pipeline setback
August 31, 2018 By Admin
By Phil Heidenreich Online journalist Global News Hours after a stunning Federal Court of Appeal decision in which Ottawa’s approval of the contentious Trans Mountain pipeline expansion was overturned, Premier Rachel Notley addressed Albertans about the latest hurdle to come before the project and dropped a political bombshell of her own. “Signing on to […]
Trans Mountain pipeline court decision ‘a real sad day for Alberta,’ says energy expert
August 30, 2018 By Admin
By Spencer Gallichan-Lowe Online journalist Global News Reaction to the Federal Court decision to quash the Trans Mountain expansion pipeline project from Alberta stakeholders was swift on Thursday. “It’s a real sad for Alberta and for Canada in terms of what it’s going to mean for our economy,” said Richard Masson, executive fellow at the […]
The Redwater Decision – Why citizens may soon be liable for more oil and gas industry messes
August 13, 2018 By Admin
By Michael Ganley June 26, 2018 All across this province, from the banks of the Peace River to the barley fields of Lethbridge County, 155,000 holes have been drilled in the ground that share four characteristics: They were made to release oil and gas from the Earth’s crust; they’ve produced as much hydrocarbon as they’re […]
Farmers play waiting game as flooding delays seeding
April 19, 2018 By Admin
Tim Kalinowski Lethbridge Herald [email protected] April 18, 2018 During this time last year, local farmer Colten Bodie was seeding his land, but this year’s unusual weather and overland flooding will cause delays. He estimates about 40 per cent of his farmland in Lethbridge County is underwater. While in the short term overland flooding in […]
Overland flooding in area results in other concerns
April 18, 2018 By Admin
Dave Mabell April 18, 2018 Lethbridge Herald [email protected] While southern Alberta crews continue the battle against overland flooding, officials have issued warnings about additional dangers. Landowners who depend on cisterns and wells which have been flooded are being warned not to use the water – but to consider it contaminated. Owners are, meanwhile, being asked […]
High snowpack across Alberta has river forecasters on alert this spring The immediate concern is in low-lying areas on the prairies
April 9, 2018 By Admin
Colette Derworiz CBC News Posted: Apr 08, 2018 7:40 PM Provincial officials are keeping a close eye on creeks and streams across Alberta as temperatures start to rise. During last week’s monthly snow survey by Alberta Environment and Parks, all of the river basins across the province still had higher than average snowpacks. “In the […]
Alberta power system in a state of change
March 23, 2018 By Admin
March 23, 2018 Dave Mabell Lethbridge Herald [email protected] Albertans will see plenty of change in their electrical power system over the next decade. As coal-fired generating plants are retired, natural gas thermal facilities will take their place. Meanwhile wind, solar and other renewable resources will be developed to provide up to 30 per cent of […]
Rural landowners ‘free prey’ – Rural residents worried about crime, property rights
March 14, 2018 By Admin
Lethbridge Herald 13 Mar 2018 Lauren Krugel THE CANADIAN PRESS David Reid says he’s become more diligent about locking up on the land his family has farmed in Alberta for more than a century and is more watchful of strange vehicles along rural side roads. “Neighbours have been broken into in the middle of the […]
Oil firm ceasing operations, leaving thousands of Alberta wells untended
March 10, 2018 By Admin
By Staff The Canadian Press Sat, Oct 31: They are littered across the country and practically cover Alberta- oil and gas wells that have done their time and no longer in use. Once an oil well is no longer in use, the company is responsible for shutting it down and bringing the land back to […]
Ag Expo and North American Seed Fair take over Exhibition Park
February 27, 2018 By Admin
By Martin, Tijana on February 27, 2018. Joel Maljaars helps set up a robotic milking system from GEA Farm Technologies at the Lethbridge Dairy Mart Ltd. booth at Exhibition Park on Monday in advance of the annual South Country Co-op Ag Expo and North American Seed Fair. Herald photo by Tijana Martin @TMartinHerald Tijana Martin […]
Grain industry raising concerns over growing backlog of grain shipments
February 27, 2018 By Admin
By The Canadian Press on February 26, 2018. CALGARY – Grain shippers and producers are raising concerns about a growing backlog of rail shipments that they say is leading to lost sales and unreliable exports. The Ag Transport Coalition that represents several grain associations says that car order fulfilments from Canada’s two major railways was […]
New enviro assessment bill revealed – New system will provide clarity about how process works for energy projects
February 13, 2018 By Admin
Lethbridge Herald 9 Feb 2018 Mia Rabson THE CANADIAN PRESS — OTTAWA Catharine McKenna Major new energy projects will have to be assessed and either approved or denied within two years under a massive new national assessment bill being introduced in the House of Commons. Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, who introduced the 341-page Impact Assessment […]
Farmers don’t want to be left holding the bag when wells abandoned
January 25, 2018 By Admin
Daryl Bennett is director of the Action Surface Rights Association and a farmer with experience representing land owners in Alberta for the past 10 years. His group will appear before the Supreme Court of Canada to oppose the legal ruling in the Redwater case, which frees creditors from covering the cost of old wells when […]
QR 77 interview with Danielle Re: Abandoned Wells
January 24, 2018 By Admin
Click on link below and choose “Abandoned Wells” Abandoned Wells
Court of Appeal decision for Redwater
January 24, 2018 By Admin
Click on link below to go to PDF document of the “Redwater Court of Appeal” Redwater Court of Appeal
Farmers join top court fight against wells
January 19, 2018 By Admin
Lethbridge Herald 19 Jan 2018 A group with the support of thousands of farmers will appear before the Supreme Court of Canada to oppose a legal ruling that allows energy companies to walk away from unprofitable wells on agricultural land. The court announced Thursday that it will hear from the Action Surface Rights Association in […]
Record heat hits southern Alberta
December 11, 2017 By Admin
By Jodi Hughes Weather Anchor Global News Many Albertans have been enjoying an unusually warm start to December, with some locations 15 degrees above average. Lethbridge and Grande Prairie both set new record highs Friday, with temperatures above 14C, while Calgary, Sundre and Claresholm were all notably close to new records. On Saturday, Calgary officially […]
Alberta man with vision loss auctions off rare collection of farm equipment he’s repaired over 50 years
October 31, 2017 By Admin
By Katelyn Wilson WATCH: A rare auction over the weekend in Enchant saw a lifetime collection of vintage farm equipment, over 400 items sold off. Interesting the collector lost his sight 40 years ago but still does all of the restoration work himself. Katelyn Wilson reports. A rare auction over the weekend in Enchant, Alta., […]
Alberta urged to compensate farmers to make up costs of health and safety rules
October 27, 2017 By Admin
By Dean Bennett The Canadian Press An Alberta government panel is recommending the province subsidize farmers and ranchers to offset costs of new occupational health and safety rules. The panel said the long list of requirements in the occupational health and safety code, “when added up, may be significant for some and may be perceived […]
Threat of NAFTA collapse, weak inflation put Bank of Canada on hold
October 25, 2017 By Admin
FRED CHARTRAND THE CANADIAN PRESS October 25, 2017 Canada’s central bank is hitting the pause button on hiking interest rates in the face of surprisingly weak inflation and the threat of NAFTA’s demise. The Bank of Canada kept its key overnight rate unchanged at 1 per cent Wednesday and appeared to push further down the […]
What if NAFTA ended? These would be Canada’s hardest-hit provinces, industries
October 18, 2017 By Admin
By Jesse Ferreras National Online Journalist Global News After four rounds of talks, negotiations around the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) aren’t exactly going smoothly, with proposals that could have serious implications for certain Canadian provinces. On Tuesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland criticized a series of proposals that the United States has advanced […]
As U.S. shocks with NAFTA demands, Canada and Mexico ask: What does Trump want?
October 16, 2017 By Admin
News 07:07 PM by Alexander Panetta The Canadian Press Hamilton Spectator ARLINGTON, United States — The chief U.S. negotiator shrugged his shoulders when asked about signs of trouble in the NAFTA talks on Sunday. John Melle pulled open a door, entered a work room, and offered a one-word reply about how it’s going. “Fabulous,” he […]
U.S. slow to present specifics on key NAFTA demands Canada still optimistic deal can be renegotiated by the end of the year
September 22, 2017 By Admin
By Katie Simpson CBC News Posted: Sep 22, 2017 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: Sep 22, 2017 4:27 PM ET U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to terminate NAFTA unless his country gets what it wants. A source says Canadian officials are anticipating a change in tone from U.S. negotiators, given these negative statements. The […]
U.S. wants 5-year ‘sunset clause’ in NAFTA: Ross NAFTA
September 14, 2017 By Admin
NAFTA, Trump and Canada: A guide to the trade file and what it could mean for you In this April 21, 2008 file photo, national flags representing the United States, Canada, and Mexico fly in the breeze in New Orleans where leaders of the North American Free Trade Agreement met. (A P Photo/Judi Bottoni, File) […]
Alberta blasts NEB ‘overreach’ – ENERGY EAST DECISION COULD AFFECT FUTURE ENERGY DEVELOPMENT
September 11, 2017 By Admin
9 Sep 2017 Lethbridge Herald THE CANADIAN PRESS – CALGARY Alberta’s energy minister is calling a decision by Canada’s national energy regulator to consider indirect greenhouse gas emissions in evaluating a multi-billion-dollar pipeline an “historic overreach” that could cast a chill over the future of energy development. Margaret McCuaig-Boyd said it’s inappropriate for the National […]
Farmers turning to specialized forecasting – Service plants weather stations throughout property
August 14, 2017 By Admin
Lethbridge Herald 12 Aug 2017 Ian Bickis THE CANADIAN PRESS — CALGARY In an industry that lives and dies by the weather, farmers like Dwight Foster are looking for all the help they can get to know what’s coming. “We use every tool in the toolbox we can get our hands on to try and […]
Logical myths of vote-splitting – TWO PLUS TWO EQUALS THREE… THREE-AND-AHALF IF ALL GOES WELL
August 14, 2017 By Admin
Lethbridge Herald 12 Aug 2017 Faron Ellis and George Rigaux Much was said about vote splitting during the run-up to Wildrose and PC members’ endorsement of the United Conservative Party. Since then, more speculation about how many former PC and Wildrose voters the UCP will attract has ensued. Unfortunately, the simple math most often used […]
Political entrepreneurship and UCP
August 8, 2017 By Admin
GUEST COLUMN Lethbridge Herald 5 Aug 2017 Faron Ellis and George Rigaux First of four parts Following the decisive votes by both Wildrose and Progressive Conservative members in support of merging their parties into the new United Conservative Party (UCP), many headlines have posed the quite reasonable question: what comes next? Beginning today, and over […]
Party merger sparks unrest Splinter groups forming in province
August 8, 2017 By Admin
Lethbridge Herald 5 Aug 2017 Bill Graveland THE CANADIAN PRESS — CALGARY The merger of Alberta’s two conservative parties is prompting some disaffected members to form splinter parties of their own despite warnings from experts that the move is unlikely to affect the next provincial election. Members of the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta and […]
Can Alberta get land use right?
July 29, 2017 By Admin
By Lethbridge Herald Opinion on July 29, 2017. Lorne Fitch and Kevin Van Tighem The best of planning anticipates and prepares for future excellence. The worst simply perpetuates past failures. Recreation planning currently underway for the spectacular public lands of Alberta’s Oldman drainage and Porcupine Hills appears aimed at the muddy middle. We can do […]
Merger just first step – POLITICAL ANALYSTS SAY PLENTY OF WORK REMAINS FOR UNITED CONSERVATIVE PARTY
July 26, 2017 By Admin
Lethbridge Herald 25 Jul 2017 Dave Mabell With his “unite the right” campaign successful, Jason Kenney is now expected to run for the leadership of the new United Conservative Party. But his victory is not inevitable, says political scientist Faron Ellis. Wildrose leader Brian Jean will be running against Kenney. And Ellis, political science instructor […]
End of the line DAY AFTER HISTORIC MERGER VOTE, SOME LAMENT DEATH OF ALBERTA’S HISTORIC PC PARTY
July 24, 2017 By Admin
Lethbridge Herald 24 Jul 2017 Dean Bennett The former president of Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives says some members feel adrift after a majority voted to embrace a new party, effectively consigning one of Canada’s great political brands to the ash heap of history. Katherine O’Neill, in an interview Sunday, said she’s been hearing from many PC […]
Albertans need to be kept informed about electricity system
July 24, 2017 By Admin
Lethbridge Herald 23 Jul 2017 It is good to see that The Herald has undertaken a review of Alberta’s electricity supply system (“Power demand not taxing system,” by Dave Mabell, on July 14.) Mr. Mabell provides some useful generating capacity statistics from the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) and concludes our existing electrical system is […]
Alta. right united again – PCs and Wildrose approve merger of two parties
July 24, 2017 By Admin
Lethbridge Herald 23 Jul 2017 Dean Bennett Alberta’s political landscape profoundly shifted Saturday as its two main conservative parties — enemies for a decade — overwhelmingly agreed to end their feud and work as one to defeat Premier Rachel Notley’s NDP. In separate votes, members of the Wildrose party and the Progressive Conservatives voted […]
Trump to reveal his hopes for NAFTA renegotiation
July 17, 2017 By Admin
CTV News Channel: Protecting U.S. dairy priority Alexander Panetta, The Canadian Press Published Monday, July 17, 2017 4:11AM EDT WASHINGTON – After campaigning and complaining about NAFTA for two years, Donald Trump is about to start doing some explaining: the U.S. president is poised to release a list as early as today revealing how he […]
Future of Family Farms at Risk – AGING FARMERS, LACK OF SUCCESSION PLANS PUT FUTURE IN DOUBT
July 17, 2017 By Admin
Lethbridge Herald 17 Jul 2017 Jessica Smith Cross THE CANADIAN PRESS Canadian Press photoBryan Maynard, a co-owner of Farmboys Inc., along with his brother Kyle, is seen in one of their potato fields in Richmond, Prince Edward Island. Maynard is calling on families to talk about the future of their farms. A growing number of […]
Aging farmers with no succession plans put future of Canadian family farms at risk 92 per cent of Canadian farms have no transition plan ready, Stats Can says
July 17, 2017 By Admin
By Jessica Smith Cross, The Canadian Press Posted: Jul 16, 2017 12:49 PM ET Last Updated: Jul 16, 2017 12:54 PM ET Statistics Canada reports that 92 per cent of Canadian farms have no written transition plan ready for when the current operator retires. Statistics Canada reports that 92 per cent of Canadian farms have […]
Energy regulator to appeal – AER TURNS TO SUPREME COURT ON WELL ABANDONMENT RULING
July 6, 2017 By Admin
6 Jul 2017 Lethbridge Herald THE CANADIAN PRESS — CALGARY ’’ The entire provincial scheme for protecting Albertans from the abandonment costs in relation to non-productive wells is seriously compromised. – Nigel Bankes – University of Calgary Alberta’s energy regulator has asked the Supreme Court of Canada to review a ruling that could allow energy […]
Watchdog must be impartial
June 14, 2017 By Admin
14 Jun 2017 Lethbridge Herald OUR EDITORIAL: WHAT WE THINK One of the most important qualifications in adjudicating matters of any kind is impartiality. Whether it involves a judge in a court case, a referee officiating a game, an arbitrator handling a labour mediation or a volunteer judging jams at a local fair, it’s vital […]
Alberta new poster child for deficits – PROVINCE’S RUN OF DEFICITS TOWERS OVER ONTARIO’S WORST GUEST COLUMN
June 14, 2017 By Admin
14 Jun 2017 Lethbridge Herald Ben Eisen and Steve Lafleur THE FRASER INSTITUTE – VANCOUVER Over the past decade, Ontario emerged as the poster child for poor fiscal management in Canada, due largely to the province’s deep run of deficits. However, thanks to a decade of rapid spending growth and painful decline in oil prices, […]
Quebec mayors make case for ‘win-win agreement’ in softwood lumber dispute
May 17, 2017 By Admin
Union of Quebec Municipalities holds meetings in Washington, D.C. CBC News Posted: May 16, 2017 10:37 AM ETLast Updated: May 16, 2017 11:52 AM ET A truck carrying wood goes through the customs checkpointin Champlain, N.Y. Canadian lumber imports into the United States face new duties ranging from three to 24 per cent. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian […]
Facing Trump’s tariffs, Quebec launches campaign to promote softwood lumber
May 17, 2017 By Admin
Presse Canadienne Published on: May 15, 2017 | Last Updated: May 15, 2017 4:29 PM EDT Still from a promotional video for the campaign “Une forêt de possibilités” funded by the Quebec government and Quebec Forest Industry Council. Une forêt de possibilités / YouTube Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard doesn’t expect the federal government to loan […]
Alberta’s electricity future blowin’ in the wind
May 9, 2017 By Admin
Conference on wind energy told Alberta has great potential for more wind power By Nola Keeler, CBC News Posted: May 09, 2017 1:44 PM MTLast Updated: May 09, 2017 1:44 PM MT Alberta could see up to nearly a third of its energy coming from wind generation and other renewable energy sources in the next 15 […]
Canada weighing multiple trade actions against U.S. over softwood lumber dispute
May 5, 2017 By Admin
Federal government considering retaliatory duties on goods from Oregon, ban on coal exports through B.C. By Alexander Panetta The Canadian Press Posted: May 05, 2017 3:36 PM ET Last Updated: May 05, 2017 3:49 PM ET Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has written B.C premier Clark to tell her he is considering request for a ban […]
Tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber will hurt jobs, US companies warn
May 4, 2017 By Admin
By Ross Marowits The Canadian Press Stacks of lumber are shown at NMV Lumber in Merritt, B.C., Tuesday, May 2, 2017. Several American companies that rely on Canadian softwood say thousands of American jobs are at risk unless the U.S. Department of Commerce exempts them from hefty duties imposed on imported softwood lumber. Stacks of […]
Why Trump is fighting Canada on softwood lumber and dairy
May 2, 2017 By Admin
By Vicki Needham 05/02/17 06:00 AM EDT The Hill © Getty Images © Getty Images Two arcane and long-standing fights are at the center of President Trump’s trade war with Canada. The U.S. has been battling with Canada over softwood lumber since the 1980s, and disputes over dairy protections have been a persistent irritant in […]
LEGER: Dairy and softwood bluster is pure Trump posturing
May 2, 2017 By Admin
DAN LEGER Published May 1, 2017 – 5:00am Last Updated May 1, 2017 – 8:49am Herald Opinions U.S. President Donald Trump’s bluster regarding softwood lumber and dairy products is his latest grasping attempt to seem tough while, in actuality, his style leads to nothing but pure chaos. (Jacques Boissinot/CP) All that is old becomes new […]
‘Everything is on the table’: Alberta communities react to U.S. softwood lumber tariffs
May 2, 2017 By Admin
Stuart Thomson Published on: May 1, 2017 | Last Updated: May 1, 2017 6:00 AM MDT Edmonton Journal High Level Mayor Crystal McAteer worries the lumber industry will be paralyzed by the uncertainty caused by recent tariffs imposed by the U.S. Ed Kaiser / Edmonton Journal Alberta’s forestry communities are in an impossible spot after new […]
Corporate Canada warns of Trump’s tax-cut plan
April 27, 2017 By Admin
27 Apr 2017 Lethbridge Herald Andy Blatchford THE CANADIAN PRESS — OTTAWA TRUMP TAX CUTS WOULD HURT CANADA: INDUSTRY Corporate Canada is bracing for the latest economic challenge out of Washington: a tax cutting plan for U.S. businesses that many fear would pose a considerable threat to Canadian competitiveness as well as Ottawa’s bottom line. […]
China may be new market
April 27, 2017 By Admin
26 Apr 2017 Lethbridge Herald THE CANADIAN PRESS — OTTAWA Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says selling more Canadian softwood lumber to China is one answer to the latest trade dispute with the U.S. Speaking from Beijing, Champagne says Canada’s pitch is resonating in China because softwood is an environmentally friendly building material that can satisfy […]
Clark warns of knee-jerk response to softwood fight
April 27, 2017 By Admin
26 Apr 2017 Lethbridge Herald THE CANADIAN PRESS — VANCOUVER British Columbia Premier Christy Clark is warning against knee-jerk reactions to duties imposed on Canadian softwood lumber by the United States. The lumber tariffs come into effect May 1 but Clark says Canada should be careful not to do anything that would jeopardize negotiations. The […]
Trump team signals desire of a new look for NAFTA
April 27, 2017 By Admin
26 Apr 2017 Lethbridge Herald Alexander Panetta THE CANADIAN PRESS — WASHINGTON President Donald Trump’s surprisingly caustic complaints about trade with Canada in recent days could be setting the stage for a broader renegotiation than previously signalled of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The administration is suddenly suggesting that irritants like dairy and softwood […]
MOVING BEYOND CHINA AND MEXICO, TRUMP TARGETS CANADA TRADE
April 27, 2017 By Admin
26 Apr 2017 Lethbridge Herald Paul Wiseman THE ASSOCIATED PRESS — WASHINGTON President Donald Trump has long railed about unfair trade practices of China and Mexico. Now he’s drawn a new target — Canada. The two countries are suddenly sparring openly over inexpensive Canadian timber and Canada’s barriers to U.S. dairy products — disputes that […]
Education the focus of Bill 6 so far
April 7, 2017 By Admin
7 Apr 2017 Lethbridge Herald J.W. Schnarr [email protected] Early implementation of the NDP’s farm safety bill has been focused on education, says an investigator involved in the process. Mike Rappel is an Occupational Health and Safety investigations manager who has been part of organizing the farm and ranch team responsible for inspecting farm, ranch and […]
Alta. gov’t earmarks money for watersheds – Grants to total $12M
March 24, 2017 By Admin
23 Mar 2017 Lethbridge Herald THE CANADIAN PRESS — EDMONTON The NDP government is working towards protecting Alberta’s watersheds with a series of multiyear grants totalling $12 million. Officials say the announcement coincides with World Water Day, a date devoted to tackling the world’s water crisis. The plan will see $3.2 million for each of […]
Budget gives $30M for Alta. orphan wells
March 24, 2017 By Admin
23 Mar 2017 Lethbridge Herald THE CANADIAN PRESS — EDMONTON Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says $30 million the federal government is giving to the province for the oil and gas industry is good news. She says her government will use the money to focus on reclaiming orphan oil wells and getting oilfield workers back to […]
Phillips answers critics of Alta. energy plan
March 22, 2017 By Admin
20 Mar 2017 Lethbridge Herald J.W. Schnarr [email protected] MINISTER SAYS SELECTION OF ONTARIO BUSINESS STEMMED FROM PREVIOUS GOV’T’S LACK OF PLAN The Wildrose wants Albertans to pay more for their energy, and the Progressive Conservative party wants the province to do nothing when it comes to improving energy efficiency, says Alberta’s environment minister. Speaking at […]
PC leader still faces hurdles
March 22, 2017 By Admin
20 Mar 2017 Lethbridge Herald Dave Mabell LETHBRIDGE HERALD [email protected] POLL SUGGESTS JEAN IS PREFERRED CHOICE AS LEADER OF RIGHT Former federal cabinet minister Jason Kenney dominated the vote in his bid to take over the provincial Tories on Saturday. But Lethbridge political scientist Faron Ellis says what’s expected to follow — steps to merge […]
Kenney pushes unity concept
March 22, 2017 By Admin
20 Mar 2017 Lethbridge Herald Dean Bennett THE CANADIAN PRESS — CALGARY NEWLY ELECTED PC LEADER TO MEET WITH BRIAN JEAN OF WILDROSE PARTY TODAY Alberta Progressive Conservative Leader Jason Kenney says the wheels are in motion on his unite-the-right plan, with the goal of a new party and an elected leader in place a […]
Jason Kenney new PC leader – Conservative wants to unite the right
March 22, 2017 By Admin
19 Mar 2017 Lethbridge Herald Dean Bennett THE CANADIAN PRESS — CALGARY Jason Kenney is the new leader of Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives. Kenney, 48, captured 1,113 of 1,476 votes cast in the party’s first delegated convention since 1985. Richard Starke, a sitting PC legislature member, was second with 323 votes. Longtime party member Byron Nelson […]
Save planet by keeping coal-fired power plants
February 27, 2017 By Admin
26 Feb 2017 Lethbridge Herald LETTERS Re: “Green incentive program ready by March.” My goodness, Shannon! How nice of you to help us save month. You plan to spend $648 million over the next five years. That’s over $171 million a year. Money you don’t got. How’s that for saving us money? All that borrowed […]
Alberta carbon tax a divisive issue
February 27, 2017 By Admin
25 Feb 2017 Lethbridge Herald Dave Mabell POLLS SHOWS MOST CITY RESIDENTS OPPOSED TO PROVINCIAL LEVY If you vote NDP, you likely support Alberta’s new carbon levy. If not, you’re probably among more than 64 per cent of Lethbridge citizens who say they’re opposed to the carbon tax and rebate program launched by the government […]
- Action Surface Rights updates members on work over past few months
- Proposed substation connector power line under scrutiny from landowners
- Study finds abandoned oil and gas wells place unfair burden on landowners, taxpayers
- Farmers taking oil company to court
- Alberta picked up $8 million tab for land rent left unpaid by oil and gas companies in 2019
Alberta launchs talks on proposed tax breaks
Alberta launches talks on proposed tax breaks for oil companies that clean up old wells
Project would issue $100M in credits companies could use to apply against royalties earned from new production
Bob Weber
The Canadian Press
Posted: Feb 08, 2023 11:17 AM MST | Last Updated: February 8
The Alberta government is moving ahead with a plan that would give oil and gas companies a tax break for meeting their legal obligations to clean up old well sites, inviting a select group of landowner organizations to a meeting to discuss a pilot project.
On Thursday, Alberta Energy Minister Peter Guthrie is scheduled to host those groups to discuss “a concept for a royalty credit program to incent accelerated oil and gas site closure,” indicates a government document that outlines the proposed pilot program, obtained by The Canadian Press.
That pilot program, previously known as RStar and now called the Liability Management Incentive Program, would issue $100 million in credits that qualified companies could use to apply against royalties earned from new production.
Credits would be earned by cleaning up well sites that have been inactive for at least 20 years.
Opposition New Democrat energy critic Kathleen Ganley said there should be a conversation about the pilot project happening with the public.
“They’re taking public money and giving it to oil companies to do work they are already legally obligated to do and they’re doing it at a time of high oil prices,” Ganley said.
The idea has been widely panned by economists, environmentalists, rural municipalities and analysts within Alberta Energy. Critics call the program risky, opaque and a violation of the polluter-pay principle.
“For some reason, we’re incentivizing future royalties to eliminate liabilities when profits are high,” said Paul McLauchlin of Rural Municipalities Alberta. “It’s very confusing to a lot of people.”
Alberta landowners dealing with the 170,000 unreclaimed sites on their properties aren’t crazy about the idea but need to get those wells cleaned up, said Daryl Bennett of Action Surface Rights, which will attend the meeting.
“It’s somewhat regrettable that the taxpayer is left to fund these programs and that royalties will be reduced,” Bennett said. “However, landowners are dealing with lots of abandoned wells. It’s kind of a catch-22 situation that was never in the social contract.”
Not all landowners groups have been invited to the meeting with Guthrie.
Dwight Popowich of the Polluter Pay Federation said his group made repeated requests to attend the session, but have instead been told to meet with department officials.
“If you happen to be a dissenter of any kind, you definitely won’t be invited,” he said.
Alberta Energy spokesperson Gabrielle Symbalisty said further consultations are planned.
“Indigenous groups, municipalities, industry associations, oil and gas companies, landowners and other groups have been asked to provide feedback on the proposed criteria,” she said in an email.
The government document says the program is still in development and no final decisions have been made.
However, some feel the United Conservative Party government has already made up its mind.
“It’s moving a lot faster than we expected,” said McLauchlin, who has had what he described as “some engagement” on the pilot project.
The proposal has been pushed for years, including by Premier Danielle Smith when she was a business lobbyist. A former RStar lobbyist now works in Smith’s Calgary office. The program was part of Guthrie’s mandate letter when Smith named him to cabinet.
“I very much get the feeling the fix has been in on this program,” said Ganley. “It sounds to me like this (program) was always going to go forward.”
Other suggestions to address Alberta’s huge abandoned well program exist.
“They could say, ‘You’re not allowed to drill any more unless you clean up a well,”‘ Bennett said.
Timelines are another option, said Popowich.
“If a well is shut for 12 months, you’ve got 18 months to clean it up,” he said. “Most jurisdictions have that timeline. Alberta has none.”
McLauchlin said other taxes on oil patch activity have been lifted and wonders why further incentives are needed at a time of record industry profits.
“This is designed by industry,” he said. “The engagement with landowners is going to be a day, and then the pilot’s going to roll out.
“This (program) hasn’t been built from the ground up on what is the big picture liability conversation.”
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IN THE OIL AND TRANSPORT SECTORS, LANDOWNERS NEED A LITTLE LOVE
Written by CAEPLA |
In response to an article written by Monte Solberg for the Sun News Network, Dave Core, CAEPLA’s CEO and Director of Federally Regulated Projects, penned the following Letter to the Editor:IN THE OIL AND TRANSPORT SECTORS, LANDOWNERS NEED A LITTLE LOVE
Monte Solberg’s “Wish List for 2014” correctly identifies one of the biggest wishes Canadian farmers, ranchers, and other rural property owners have. Solberg says “millions of conservative-minded people have a connection with the land and could be allies if the government showed them some love.” Rarely do such insightful words on the subject of pipelines appear in news or opinion media. The first thing government could do to “show some love” to landowners would be to repeal the National Energy Board (NEB) power to expropriate private land for the profit of pipeline company shareholders. Landowners want in. In on the prosperity that development of Canada’s oil and gas industry and energy transport sector represents now and in the future. Landowners want to be responsible, proactive partners with resource and transport companies active in the Canadian economy. But we need responsible partners in the pipeline industry as opposed to reckless ones who will resort to government-sponsored expropriation. We need to negotiate business agreements governed by contract law, not regulations brandished by government bureaucrats. We believe the “conservative-minded people” Solberg rightly cites would agree. Dave Core CAEPLA CEO and Director of Federally Regulated Projects (Solberg always strikes a chord with conservative thinkers.) http://www.calgarysun.com/2014/01/12/letters-to-the-editor-for-jan-12-2014 To original article can be found here: http://www.torontosun.com/2014/01/03/my-wish-list-for-2014 |
Humboldt Broncos
We would like to send out our thoughts and prayers to the families, friends, teammates and all of those connected to members of the Humboldt Broncos. The Humboldt Broncos were on their way to a playoff game Friday in Nipawin when the crash occurred. Such a tragic accident has affected so many. Also, our thoughts go to the family and friends of Logan Boulet of Lethbridge, a member of the team who in his death, gave life through organ donation.
Posted on May 5, 2022By Cole ParkinsonWestwind Weekly News The Action Surface Rights board has been busy with a variety of different work over the past several months. With no Annual General Meeting due to COVID last year, this year the group was able to host one in March and members were updated on what […]
Lethbridge Herald 3 Nov 2021 Collin Gallant SOUTHERN ALBERTA NEWSPAPERS [email protected] Opposition is growing to a proposed power line route in Cypress County that would connect a new wind power project to substations near Medicine Hat. The Winnifred Wind project would be built north of the County of Forty Mile hamlet, located about 14 kilometres […]
U OF C STUDYCanadian PressMay 20, 2021 | 6:03 AM CALGARY — A report from the University of Calgary says the costs of Alberta’s growing stock of abandoned and inactive oil and gas wells are falling unfairly on landowners and taxpayers. Braeden Larson of the university’s School of Public Policy says the scope of the […]
The Alberta Energy Regulator in the Post-Information World: Best-in-Class?
Posted on January 18, 2017 by Shaun Fluker By:
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