By Ian Gustafson

Unable to collect unpaid taxes

Penhold town council approves write-off of oil well accounts

Feb 13, 2026 | 4:13 PM

Penhold town council has unanimously approved the write-off of uncollectable oil well accounts for Marksmen Energy Inc. and Canadian Oil & Gas Inc.

The write-offs came in the amounts of $11,485.89 and $1,835.88 for Marksmen Energy Inc. and $5,460.98 for Canadian Oil & Gas Inc.

The request for a decision came to council because, as explained in administration’s report, the town made multiple attempts to collect outstanding taxes from these companies but were unsuccessful.

Despite multiple follow-up attempts, town administration said these accounts remain unpaid.

Canadian Oil and Gas have apparently gone insolvent, according to administration, and Marksmen Energy remain in business but has told the town the wells are considered orphan wells and will not be compensating the town for the costs.

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“Our office has pursued the possible collection of these accounts through numerous mail options, telephone calls, and, as our last resort, we went through communications with Municipal Affairs Assessment Branch to obtain their communications that were done via assessments,” as stated by the Town’s CAO in the report. “We wish to remove this off our tax role for any future penalties and taxation. It is disappointing to see there does not appear to be any assistance from the province to hold these companies to the same standard as other businesses.”

Councillor Cameron Galisky said during deliberations that these companies’ ignoring their dues that are owed to the residents is rather saddening.

“I do hope eventually there’s some more teeth to this. It’s a small figure for us but this is a several hundred million dollar a year problem for a lot of rural Alberta,” he said.

Council raised questions on how long the town has been trying to collect the amounts, and administration said, since 2018-19.

“It was sort of towards the start of the problem as a province as a whole… It’s mostly the largest companies in Canada that operate several shells, and then they push all of their producing wells into that shell and bankrupt that company so they don’t have to pay taxes,” administration said.

President of Alberta Municipalities Dylan Bressey said in an interview with rdnewsNOW that this issue is a huge problem as municipalities across the province are out hundreds of millions of dollars.

“That is something that has an impact on both local ability to deliver services and maintain infrastructure, and local property taxes,” he said. “This isn’t appropriate, it’s not okay, and it needs to be fixed.”

He explained that the provincial government and the Alberta Energy Regulator should hold these companies accountable, but so far, they haven’t.

“Companies shouldn’t be able to transfer assets that have taxes owing, and they shouldn’t be allowed to operate if they’re not paying their municipal taxes. There is no other type of business in the province that’s allowed to not pay its property taxes. They shouldn’t get a pass,” he added.

“This is a longstanding issue in Alberta, and that’s why it’s time that it gets solved. It’s not in every municipality, but it is a problem that’s in every corner of the province.”

rdnewsNOW made multiple attempts by email and phone to reach the Ministry of Municipal Affairs for comment, but were unable to make contact.