By Erika Chorostil

standing up for its residents

Brazeau County continuing to fight against proposed assessment model changes for oil and gas

Aug 27, 2020 | 1:37 PM

Brazeau County says it will continue standing up for its residents and fighting against proposed changes to the oil and gas assessment model.

When the province announced the proposed changes earlier this month, Brazeau County joined other municipalities in voicing their concerns. County officials said they could lose up to 20 percent of their revenue if any of the four proposed model scenarios are implemented.

Brazeau County Reeve Bart Guyon says the county made a commitment to continue fighting against the proposed changes and will do so even after if the government does proceed with a model scenario.

Guyon says the changes would be devastating to all Albertans, and he doesn’t understand how the province and the oil and gas companies could think the changes are a good idea. He pointed to the relationships rural municipalities have with their urban neighbours for the sharing of resources and funds. “I am hoping that the province has learned about the negative impact this will have on rural Alberta,” says Guyon. “Basically, it’s all Albertans that are going to have an impact because, without the rural municipalities and the revenue, they [the province] will have less and less money for social services that are out there, including helping our urban neighbours. We’ve been very generous to municipalities but that is now in a threatening situation.”

Guyon noted that he has more of an issue with the large oil companies asking for financial help than he does with the province for listening to them. He says the smaller companies are not going to benefit very much, if at all, from the changes, and he would like to see the money oil companies get be reinvested back into Alberta. “It’s a touchy subject, but this was a biased, one-sided report from the oil and gas companies. The full focus has to be on reinvestment, a strategy where the oil companies have to do something first and then they get a reward.”

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When looking ahead to the next steps, Guyon says it’s always a waiting game with different levels of government. They had a meeting with the now-former Minister of Municipal Affairs, Kaycee Madu, to discuss the proposals and were told that one of the four scenarios will be happening. Guyon argues that the assessment model proposal “came down so fast” they haven’t had a chance to think about solutions. He would like to know how the oil companies came up with their figures for the proposal and whether a different option can be presented by the municipalities. He is also hoping that the province gives things a second thought and reflect on the impacts this will have.

As for Brazeau County’s next steps, the Reeve says their mission has been to educate people on what the impacts could be and meet with businesses and the service sector. He says a meeting is set for September 4 to meet with the business community to discuss their options going forward. “I’m loyal to the people that hired me and I’ll do everything I can to fight for Brazeau County. It”s where I come from and I care about the businesses and the people who work for them and it’ll be devastating for our community.”