Liabilities may have skyrocketed but oil companies have added just a single dollar into the province’s cleanup coffers, says data from the Alberta Energy Regulator. An oilsands facility is reflected in a tailings pond near Fort McMurray, Alta., on July 10, 2012.mining companies won’t be forced to pay more to ensure money will be available to eventually clean up sites under changes to Alberta’s security-payment rules, according to documents obtained by The Globe and Mail.
The Mine Financial Security Program is administered by the regulator using policy guidance from the environment ministry. The AER collects financial security from oil-sands and coal-mine owners to ensure that the companies can cover the cost of cleaning up their messes, rather than foisting the bill onto taxpayers.Auditor-General identified a ream of potential problems with its program. The documents that The Globe obtained outline government changes to the program.
Six years ago, the AER held $1.46-billion in security to cover the eventual cost of mine cleanup, compared with estimated reclamation liabilities hovering just over $28-billion. Numbers released by the AER this week show that it now holds about $1.71-billion in security, compared with estimated liabilities of $57.3-billion.So even though the estimated cost of mine cleanup has jumped more than 100 per cent since 2018, the money being held to cover the bill has grown by only 17 per cent.
Martin Olszynski, the chair in energy resources and sustainability at the University of Calgary’s faculty of law, is a consultant for the MFSP review on behalf of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in northern Alberta. Prof. Olszynski was also critical of a change that will allow mine operators to reduce the value of their mine’s probable reserves by 15 per cent under the program’s asset calculation, because it builds too much discretion and delays into the program.