By Canadian Press

Alberta moves to force oilpatch to pay owed taxes above ‘threshold’ amount

Mar 20, 2023 | 11:28 AM

The Alberta government says it’s moving to force oilpatch companies to make good on their unpaid municipal taxes.

Energy Minister Peter Guthrie says he’s issued an order that blocks companies from acquiring or transferring licences on wells or other assets if their unpaid taxes exceed a threshold amount.

That threshold is yet to be determined and will be set by the Alberta Energy Regulator and Alberta Municipal Affairs.

Alberta Energy says in a release that once the threshold has been established, companies that don’t meet it will be targeted for collection.

Rural Municipalities Alberta has said energy companies owe the municipal districts in which they operate a total of $268 million.

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Paul McLauchlin of the group says the order will help reduce the unpaid tax burden on its members.

Alberta NDP Municipal Affairs Critic Joe Ceci issued the following statement in response:

“We know it’s only a small number of bad actors who have not paid their taxes, but the impact has been harmful to many communities and has even threatened their viability.

“For years, the UCP let the issue of unpaid municipal taxes grow and ignored calls from rural municipal leaders and the Alberta NDP to use the power of the AER to withhold licenses from these bad actors.

“However, this directive only addresses part of Alberta’s growing oil and gas liabilities and exposes Danielle Smith’s hypocrisy on this issue. The government could withhold licenses to incentivize the cleanup of wells, and in fact, rural municipal leaders have been calling for this tool to be used. Instead, Danielle Smith wants to give away $20 billion of Albertans’ money to delinquent companies for something they are already obligated to do.

“Once again, today’s announcement is an attempt by Danielle Smith and the UCP to paper over their disastrous record on this issue on the eve of an election and shows they can’t be trusted.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 20, 2023.

The Canadian Press

(With files from rdnewsNOW)