Question Period Note: Orphaned and Abandoned Wells

• Our government is supporting Canada’s transition to a low carbon economy by investing in innovation and delivering economic growth, competitive industries and clean jobs, while protecting the environment.
• Our Government supports the polluter pays principle to ensure that companies are accountable and that Canadians are not on the hook.
• As the resource owners, provinces are responsible for regulating resource development related to upstream oil and gas, including potential environmental liabilities.
• The Supreme Court of Canada – in its recent decision on the Redwater case – affirms this. Companies cannot walk away from environmental obligations when facing bankruptcy.
Responsive:
• We recognize the challenges the oil and gas sector has experienced.
• Through Budget 2017, our government provided a one-time grant of $30 million to the Government of Alberta to support provincial actions in the resource sector.

Driven in large part by oil price declines and competitiveness challenges, a significant number of wells in Alberta, and to a lesser extent Saskatchewan and British Columbia, have been orphaned, creating substantial provincial liabilities.

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