The Tyee's Mitchell Anderson explains how quickly Kenney has betrayed rural Alberta.
[Kenney's] United Conservative Party won every single seat in communities smaller than Lethbridge when they swept to power last April. Kenney helped accomplish this by carefully crafting his public persona as a pickup-driving regular guy, battling the Ottawa elite on behalf of everyday Albertans.
But actions speak louder than words, and rural Albertans have good reason to question who exactly their pugnacious premier is really fighting for.
Last week Kenney told towns they may have to eat $173 million in unpaid taxes from oil and gas companies — an amount doubled since last year — because they can’t expect to get “money from a stone.”
What does it mean when the premier says companies who’ve made billions off Albertans’ resources have turned to stone?You play ball with me and I'll stick the bat straight up your backside.
Consider the ballooning problem of abandoned wells, which grows worse every year. Oil companies are washing their hands of formerly profitable drill sites and leaving landowners and municipalities holding the bag. Almost 100,000 orphaned or inactive oil and gas wells require reclamation at an estimated cost of $30 billion.
The “world-class” Alberta Energy Regulator — funded by the very industry they are tasked with overseeing — have secured less than one per cent of this amount. Instead of getting on with this important cleanup work, many of the companies responsible for the growing mess are now choosing not to pay their local taxes — with the apparent blessing of the premier.
Cash-strapped local governments are frustrated by the lack of legal mechanisms to go after delinquent oil and gas companies, most of which are still in business. Ponoka County Reeve Paul McLauchlin told the Canadian Press, “My personal opinion is that this is a tax revolt. [Oil and gas companies] are using this as a lever to decrease their assessment and change those costs.”
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Unlike higher branches of government that can run rolling deficits, local governments in Alberta are required by law to balance the books, no matter what budgetary indignities are imposed by the province.
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It is not just municipalities being screwed by the Kenney government and the oil and gas sector, but local landowners as well. Farmers and ranchers with pump jacks and pipelines on their properties are increasingly complaining that companies are failing to honour the terms of lease agreements.
Daryl Bennett of the Action Surface Rights Association, representing about 200 landowners in southern Alberta recently told City News, “I get calls every day from landowners saying, ‘Hey, I got a notice. They’re cutting the compensation.’ There’s thousands of landowners in this situation.”
...Oh well, the bill for remediating those Tar Sands tailing ponds won't be in the mail for another decade or two, probably hot on the heels of some bursting of the carbon bubble. It's not clear whether all Canadians will be left holding the bag for that clean up but it's all but guaranteed we'll be on the hook for the write off costs of Mr. Trudeau's trans mountain pipeline.
Even when abandoned well sites are remediated, landowners have good reason to doubt whether this work will be done properly. An internal government report accessed by the Narwhal found less than three per cent of sites issued a reclamation certificate by the AER ever had a field inspection. Many of these former installations showed long-term degradation — one farmer described his recently reclaimed well site, “the spot where nothing grows.”
As the problem of abandoned wells and unpaid debts mounts in rural Alberta, the premier indicated he will continue to keep fighting — for the oil and gas industry.
It's like the snake said to the dog half way across the river. "You knew I was a snake when you took me onboard ".
ReplyDeleteI believe that's the fable of the frog and the scorpion but, yes, I was thinking the same thing. With so many people in difficulties these days it can be hard to sympathize with those who are the authors of their own misfortune.
ReplyDeleteThe story may cross societal lines . There are some who say the real truth of human behaviour is in the fables, stories, folktales .
ReplyDeleteBut, but, I have a truck with a 6" lift and a turbo!!
ReplyDeleteI owe it to tarsands, oops, oil sands.
Alberta hs been sucker punched but still feels that they are holding up Canada's economy and that we , non Abertans, should be eternally grateful.
TB
ReplyDeleteAlberta has a curious law to grease its people through their 'engineered' boom and bust cycles. Debtors can't be sued on personal covenants.
Here's how it works. You buy a big house when you're flush during an oil boom and mortgage it to the hilt. Then, when the bust hits you default on your payments. Unlike other jurisdictions, Alberta law allows you to just go into your friendly banker's office, hand him the keys, and go on your way until the next boom. You can't be sued for the deficiency. You're never on the hook.
Same, same for that fancy truck or your 4-wheeler, skidoo or ski boat. Just hand'em back. Slam, bam, thank you ma'am.
And the very best part. When the next boom arrives you can do it all over again.
Now, some people still wind up insolvent in other ways. There's still good news. Each province specifies certain properties that are exempt from seizure if you go bankrupt. Tools of your trade, etc. Alberta exempts feed lots. That's right. You can sink your remaining cash into a feed lot - land, operation, even cattle - and your creditors can't touch it.
It's governmental scams like this that keep the plebs from taking to the streets with pitchforks and torches. The business community learns they have to make their money while the sun shines - everything is so damned expensive during a boom - to offset the hit they take in the inevitable bust to follow.
When the last bust hit the oil patch I went online to view the bargains available in lightly used trucks, recreational vehicles, etc. Stuff was going for a steal.