Geriatric orphan wells, boomtowns going bust and the fate of coal-mining towns in the age of renewables. In a four-part series, FP visits Alberta’s forgotten small communities to see how they are struggling with changes in the broader economy.
“It was a fight at the start,” said Hofer, adding that his colony near Grande Prairie has 80 such lease agreements. “They tried to reduce and it was difficult getting more money.” More than 2,500 applications were made in the first nine months of 2019 compared to 505 motions in all of 2014. The number of applications so far in 2019 has already surpassed the entire 2018 total of 2,410.“The board is swamped,” said Daryl Bennett, a farmer and advocate for landowners in the Municipal District of Taber, just east of Lethbridge.
The agriculture sector is also competing for space on railway lines to move their grain to ports, because oil companies are shipping more of their product on rail cars due to the shortage of pipelines. County reeves and representatives for rural districts report that companies, particularly natural gas producers that have struggled with low commodity prices in recent years, are either late or delinquent in paying their municipal taxes.
The financial statements show that counties and rural municipalities in active oil and gas hotspots have accumulated large surpluses. For example, Wood Buffalo is home to the oilsands and reported a $5-billion surplus in 2018. The County of Grande Prairie, at the heart of the Montney and Duvernay formations, has a surplus of $543 million.
Cypress County is home to older natural gas infrastructure around Medicine Hat, but areas in the south, which are no longer beehives of oil and gas activity, have average cash reserves of $143 million. Kemmere said some energy companies that are still active are citing the accumulated surpluses of well-to-do counties as a pretext to ask for municipal tax reductions.
“It’s not like we have a pile of cash down in the basement that we’re using for a slush fund,” Hoven said. “It’s all designated for a purpose for the good of our residents.” “This is not a happy place for Albertans or the industry,” said Ben Brunnen, vice-president, oilsands, at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers , adding the industry has been talking with municipalities about reducing taxes since the oil price collapse in 2014.
On May 1, Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta Justice Nancy Dilts ruled that privately held Karve Energy Ltd. is legally able to use a rent-reduction clause in its 25-year-old lease with Drylander Ranch Ltd. to drop its payments to the central Alberta ranch.
The straw that broke our patience.Ku Klux Justin and the Liberal climate cult Klan.AGWFraud Wexit cndpoli
has anyone seen a response from Trudeau and his min of finance on this ? just as I thought me either the silence is deafening
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