During his failed bid for the Prime Minister’s job in the last federal election, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre promised to fast-track approvals for transmission lines, railways, pipelines, and other critical infrastructure across Canada.
The so-called ‘Canada First’ National Energy Corridor would deliver Canadians out of the “Lost Liberal decade” into the hands of prosperity.
It would provide great jobs, in beautiful communities, with affordable homes, Poilievre told voters.
Tax cheats
He failed to mention how the oil industry has hurt rural Alberta municipalities. Tax-evading oil and gas companies have put the communities in which they operate into financial binds.
As widely reported, rural Alberta counties and municipalities are now owed more than $250 million in property taxes from companies that have claimed bankruptcy. Some of these cheats shut down operations and are still drilling and making profit in other jurisdictions under new business names.
The battle for Battle River-Crowfoot
Not only did the Conservatives lose the election, Poilievre failed to retake his seat in Ottawa.
In early May, easily re-elected Conservative MP Damien Kurk announced that he’d vacate his Battle River-Crowfoot seat to allow Poilievre to run for it in a byelection.
A date has yet to be set for the byelection.
However it’s safe to say that Poilievre will get the nod from voters in this large riding east of Edmonton and Calgary and bordering Saskatchewan.
Poilievre’s soon-to-be new backyard is a showcase of Alberta’s toothless oversight of the oil and gas sector and how companies are being allowed to get away with not paying property taxes.
That’s special treatment that regular Albertans simply don’t get.
Left holding the bag
A Rockies.Life investigation revealed that six counties and two municipal districts in the Battle River-Crowfoot riding have collectively written off at least $16.5 million in unpaid property taxes deemed uncollectible. However they are owed much more in overdue taxes.
Since 2019, Flagstaff County alone has written off $5 million in unpaid taxes and is sitting on another $15 million in taxes in arrears, that is, outstanding property taxes plus penalties and interest.
The tax shortfall is having a huge impact on the county’s ability to provide essential services and infrastructure for the 3,700 tax paying Albertans who live there.
“A significant challenge is collection of taxes from a small group of oil and gas producers. The Province of Alberta, due to lack of industry regulation and accountability, has left us without options to recover property taxes,” said Don Kroetch, Reeve of Flagstaff County, in the 2023 Annual Report. “This tax burden is unfairly placed upon other sectors in the municipality, such as the residential and farmland sectors. In addition, this is unfairly impacting landowners who also have not received lease payments.”
The Trident tale
In 2019 Trident Exploration Company shut down. The Calgary-based natural gas company walked away from an estimated $329 million in debt and reclamation costs for almost 4,400 well sites.
At the same time Trident stiffed Starland County for $3 million in property taxes.
The Mephams were one of many farming families who were left hanging. Suddenly, the family was looking at a bunch of abandoned and polluting Trident pump jacks on their farm.
“They’re not paying the taxes, they’re not paying the rent. All these wells here, we’re not getting paid for,” Anita Mepham said in a 2020 interview.
This is a chronic and well-known problem.
In March 2019, the Rural Municipalities of Alberta estimated unpaid oil and gas property taxes at $81 million. In 2020, it more than doubled to $173 million.
Today it’s $253.9 million and counting.
MP Damien Kurk gave Pierre Poilievre a lifeline to revive his leadership by resigning from his Battle River-Crowfoot seat.
Poilievre should give rural Alberta communities a lifeline and help put a stop to property tax-cheating oil and gas companies.
If he leaned on his provincial Conservative counterparts to fix the problem with the same enthusiasm that he serves the bottom line interests of oil and gas and pipeline companies, something might actually get done about it.
