Skip to content

LETTER: Oil companies should pay for well clean up

It is fiscally irresponsible to pay oil companies to do the work they are legally obligated to do on their own dime.
AssessmentChangeWeb
The Alberta government is considering a program to incentivize oil companies to clean up about 170,000 inactive well sites in the province.

Dear Editor, 

There have been a few articles in the Western Wheel recently from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation about questionable spending by the federal government to which I say, “Good – hold them accountable and demand answers to non-partisan questions on behalf of Joe/Jane Taxpayer.” 

But shouldn’t the same rigorous oversight apply to all federal – and provincial – public money spent here in Alberta? 

A report from the federal Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) released in January shows that more than half a billion federal dollars for orphan and inactive well cleanup has gone to large (active and viable) energy companies. The PBO stated that none of the $556 million grant money was used to clean up even one single – not one – orphan well.  

The federal government allocated $1.7 billion for the cleanup of inactive and orphan wells in 2020, with $1 billion going to Alberta. The money is being allocated through the province's Site Rehabilitation Program (SRP) in stages. 

The Alberta government is considering a program to incentivize oil companies to clean up about 170,000 inactive well sites in Alberta. The Liability Management Incentive Program would make $100 million available for companies to credit against royalties for cleaning up these sites. 

The program was previously called RStar which Premier Danielle Smith promoted when she was a lobbyist with Alberta Enterprise Group. Smith says the program has its genesis in the federal SRP which is coming to an end and the province is looking to maintain that momentum. She states the province as regulators have a responsibility to deal with this mismanaged historical problem. 

And whose fault would that be? 

Now if, for example, a contractor was on my property to paint my house and made a mess in the process, perhaps even spilling paint down the town’s storm sewer and thus into the Sheep River, would I expect Okotoks council to foot the bill for the clean-up? Certainly not! The polluter must pay. 

Again, I come back to accountability, transparency and the proper use of public funds. It is fiscally irresponsible to pay oil companies to do the work they are legally obligated to do on their own dime; in essence these programs amount to a massive transfer of wealth from Alberta (and other Canadian) families to companies who are not entitled to nor need it, given their record 2022 profits. How is that fair or wise fiscal policy?  

Gord Petersen 

Okotoks 

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks