Alberta Chiefs calling on Ottawa to fulfill commitment to clean abandoned oil and gas wells

Alberta may have to return $137 million in leftover funding to the federal government after not spending the money to clean up abandoned oil and gas wells on First Nations land.

Alberta chiefs are now calling on the feds to allow the province to manage the funds.

In 2020, Ottawa committed about $1 billion in funding to Alberta to clean up abandoned oil and gas infrastructure. Alberta says the federal government is now requesting all unused funds to be returned to Ottawa.

“There’s just only so many oil wells you can clean up because obviously seasons, and the available crews. It timed out and we’re just asking them to extend that, leave it here, and allow us to repurpose it for what it was meant to be,” explained Brian Jean, Alberta’s minister of energy and minerals.”

The federal government tells CityNews it’s already granted the province an extension.

“Given that they failed to invest a large portion of the $1 billion we provided them, even with an extension of timelines, and that the economy is well into its recovery, we expect the Government of Alberta to abide by the agreement that they signed, and return all unspent funds, as other provinces have,” said Katherine Cuplinskas, press secretary for Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland.

Jean suggests asking for the leftover funds shows Ottawa is not “serious about reconciliation.

“These are federal lands and the Site Rehabilitation Program provided dedicated federal funding for an economic relief program,” he said.

“We encourage them to release the funds so this important work can continue. We look forward to finding more opportunities to continue our collaboration with Indigenous communities.”

However Cuplinskas says “any allegation that the federal government is not helping Indigenous Peoples share in Canada’s economic prosperity, including from the energy industry, is false.”

The province of Alberta says closure work was completed on 1,824 inactive well sites during the Indigenous community grant program. 

Alberta Chiefs say there are over 2,000 abandoned sites on First Nations Land, and there needs to be changes to legislation, and collaboration between First Nations and government is needed.

“Work isn’t done, it just doesn’t make sense for the money to be shifted back to the feds,” said Chief Isaac Laboucan-Avirom, Woodland Cree First Nation.

Chief Ivan Sawan of Loon River First Nation added: “We don’t want to keep repeating history. It has to be dealt with, and collaboration is the first key to iron out some of these differences that we have as First Nations.”

Alberta Chiefs say the leftover funding would allow for more land to be reclaimed and used for housing, hunting, and other purposes.

“Our reserves are not getting any bigger, our population is growing, we’re still needing housing and cleaner water,” said Stephen Buffalo, president and CEO of Indian Resource Council of Canada.

The province says of 34,963 applications approved and completed grant agreements, 1,567 Indigenous company applications were approved and 103 Indigenous contractors participated in the program.

“We are doing what we can to keep that program going to maintain the success of the initial Site Rehabilitation Program. About 350 community members received jobs and skills training. By removing the aging wells and pipelines, we can free up land to use for housing and other purposes. This is why we need the surplus funds,” said Buffalo.