"Struggling" Alberta Oil Companies Owe $173 Million In Taxes; Premier Urges Cities To Work With Them

[hatrack]

Premier Jason Kenney urged rural municipalities to work with the province to help struggling oil and gas companies Tuesday, adding they can't get "money from a stone." He made the comments following a survey that said the oil and gas sector owes $173 million in unpaid taxes to rural municipalities — more than double since a similar report was done last spring.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Kenney said the sector has seen a few bankruptcies in the past year while other companies are barely hanging on. "You can't wring money from a stone," Kenney said, suggesting that could be the case for a number of smaller natural gas producers who are having trouble right now. "The best solution, in our view, is to create a future for those companies that are struggling." Rural Municipalities Alberta (RMA) distributed a survey of its members Monday that showed the amount of unpaid taxes from oil and gas companies had grown by 114 per cent since a similar survey last March.

EDIT

On Monday, Ponoka County Reeve Paul McLauchlin said about 40 per cent of unpaid taxes are from severely distressed companies in an industry hard and widely hit by lower resource prices. The rest of the shortfall is from companies that continue to operate but don't pay.

"My personal opinion is that this is a tax revolt," McLauchlin told Canadian Press. "They are using this as a lever to decrease their
assessment and change those costs." A group concerned about the unpaid taxes, the Alberta Liabilities Disclosure Project, is planning a protest outside the McDougall Centre in downtown Calgary on Wednesday.

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/kenney-oil-and-gas-taxes-1.5435254

[empedocles]

1. Oil Execs owed how much?

[Finishline42]

2. While the Right tries to make a point

While the Right tries to make a point about what to do with solar panels at the end of their useful cycle (maybe 50 yrs - warranty 80% of rated output after 25 yrs).

The rest of us are left with thousands of fracked wells that hit the wall in less than 10.

It doesn't take much effort to find industrial waste left behind by simply filling bankruptcy. Brownfields in every city, in every state in the country.