'Money for free': Critics warn proposed Alberta well cleanup plan a royalty giveaway
CTV
Critics fear Alberta's new United Conservative premier is preparing to bring in a program that would use billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded royalty breaks to subsidize energy companies to fulfil their legal duty and clean up old wells.
EDMONTON - Critics fear Alberta's new United Conservative premier is preparing to bring in a program that would use billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded royalty breaks to subsidize energy companies to fulfil their legal duty and clean up old wells.
The so-called RStar proposal, developed by an industry group, has been criticized by legal experts, energy economists and the province's own internal analysts.
But for more than a year, Danielle Smith and newly appointed members of her cabinet have been outspoken advocates of the plan, which would enable companies to use reclamation spending to gain credits against royalty payments.
“I love it,” Smith said on a 2021 YouTube broadcast, when she was a lobbyist for the pro-business Alberta Enterprise Group. She also wrote a supportive letter that July as group president to then-energy minister Sonya Savage.
Peter Guthrie, now Smith's energy minister, has expressed his support in the legislature.
“I'm encouraging all members of this house and the community at large to support RStar,” he said in April 2021.
On Oct. 22, the day after joining cabinet, Guthrie told the Airdrie Today newspaper that RStar was one of his top priorities.
With the number of homeless people in Saskatoon at an unprecedented high, it’s no surprise people are looking for places to warm up.
The next chapter of the Lemay Forest saga has unfolded as the sounds of trees coming down could be heard Monday.
The stormy weather in the forecast for B.C.'s South Coast is already disrupting many Christmas Day travel plans.
A break in, theft, and continued property damage has led to the boarding up of the Palace Theatre over the Christmas holidays.
Police in Nova Scotia are investigating after two deaths in Truro, N.S., over the weekend have been ruled homicides.
Calgary police shut down Glenmore Trail overnight following a crash between a car and a crane truck.
Ontario's Human Rights Tribunal has awarded members of an Indigenous family in North Bay $15,000 each after it ruled they were victims of discrimination.
A heavy snowfall has guaranteed much of Quebec a white Christmas, but it has also sent cars skidding off the province's roads during the busy holiday travel period.
For many of the women attending My Sister’s Place (MSP) in London, Ont. the holidays are a difficult time.
RCMP in New Brunswick are investigating after a business in Janeville was broken into and a number of items were stolen.
Canada appears to be barrelling toward a spring election now that the NDP is vowing to vote down the government early next year -- whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stays on or not.