ᓇᓇᑕᐏᑭᐦᒋᑫᐏᐣ · ᐊᓯᒋᒥᑐᐏᓂᐠ 6, 7, 8 · ᐱᒥᐦᑲᐣ ᐁᑯ ᑳᐱᐦᑲᐣ
[cr] An interactive investigation into the mechanics of regulatory capture, dereliction, and the wells Canada can no longer afford to clean up — on land the Crown promised to share.
ᐊᐍᓇ ᐅᑦ ᐊᐢᑭᐦᐠ ᐆᒪ ᐁ ᐃᔮᐤ
[cr] The wells in this investigation are overwhelmingly on Indigenous land.
[cr] The treaties are not dead letters.
[cr] When "taxpayers pay for cleanup" gets said in the rest of this piece, remember whose taxpayers, and whose land.
[cr] Affected Nations named in this investigation
[cr] More than three decades ago, Canadian regulators were warned: a contracting oil industry was creating a ticking environmental liability. Today, Alberta and Saskatchewan together have more than 700,000 wells...
[cr] Canada's oil patch is increasingly split...
ᐊᐢᑭᐦᐠ ᐅᐦᒋ ᐯᐦᑕᑯᓯᐏᓇ
“Too many oil and gas companies have simply walked away from their obligation to remediate their well sites on First Nation lands.”
[cr] On the 2020 federal Site Rehabilitation Program and its failure to reach wells on First Nations land.
[cr] Source: CBC News — First Nations and the Site Rehabilitation Program“More than 88 percent of Beaver Lake Cree Nation traditional territory has been taken up for industrial development — over 35,000 oil and gas sites, 21,700 kilometres of seismic lines, and 4,028 kilometres of pipeline on land the Crown promised to share.”
[cr] BLCN has pursued a constitutional challenge against Alberta and Canada.
[cr] Source: Beaver Lake Cree Nation — Defend the Treaties campaign“Alberta returned $137 million in federal orphan well cleanup funds unspent, while at least 900 wells on First Nations land still qualified for cleanup.”
[cr] Of the $1.72 billion federal Site Rehabilitation Program, $85 million was allocated for First Nations cleanup.
[cr] Source: CBC News — Alberta gives back $137M to Ottawa in unspent funds to clean up inactive wells[cr] Flow-through shares, royalty holidays, federal incentives. Lock in profits while the well is productive. The public helped pay to put the hole in the ground; the public will also pay to fill it back in.
[cr] KNOWLEDGE CHECK
[cr] Roughly what share of oil & gas capital costs has been offset by subsidies?
[cr] Numbered Alberta LPs and corporations. Each layer is a firewall between personal wealth and environmental liability.
[cr] KNOWLEDGE CHECK
[cr] What type of corporation holds well licences as a liability firewall?
[cr] Off to scavenger companies operating on thin margins. Cleanup obligations transfer with the deed.
[cr] KNOWLEDGE CHECK
[cr] When a declining well is sold, who is legally responsible for cleanup?
[cr] Alberta rules allow wells to sit idle for years with no plugging requirement.
[cr] KNOWLEDGE CHECK
[cr] How many tonnes of CO₂-equivalent do inactive wells emit per year?
[cr] Municipal taxes: $173M unpaid in Alberta in 2019 alone.
[cr] KNOWLEDGE CHECK
[cr] How much did taxpayers pay landowners in 2024 for unpaid rent?
[cr] If they push too hard, warn that enforcement will tip you into insolvency.
[cr] KNOWLEDGE CHECK
[cr] What does the regulator do when threatened with bankruptcy?
[cr] File under Canada's Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. Forfeit the security deposit.
[cr] KNOWLEDGE CHECK
[cr] What percentage of cleanup costs are covered by security bonds?
[cr] The OWA, funded by a levy on the remaining industry, takes over.
[cr] KNOWLEDGE CHECK
[cr] When will the OWA complete cleanup of its inventory?
ᐊᑭᐦᒋᑫᐏᓇ
01 — [cr] The well inventory
01
[cr] Active wells are at their lowest share in recorded Alberta history.
02
[cr] Alberta orphan wells: 700 in 2010 to 8,600+ by 2020.
03
[cr] Industry has posted $237M in security bonds.
04
[cr] Of the $1.7B COVID-era federal cleanup program, roughly half went to viable companies.
ᑲᑭᐢᑭᓄᐗᐦᐊᒧᐗᐠ
[cr] Sequoia Resources was a natural gas producer operating hundreds of wells across central Alberta.
[cr] The Orphan Well Association absorbed the Sequoia inventory on top of an already-growing backlog.
“The Sequoia impact is huge. I still think it might be a little bigger than I expected.”
[cr] AI-read from [cr] source [cr] — not the speaker's actual voice.
ᓲᓂᔮᐤ ᐗᐢᑲᐏᐏᐣ
[cr] Saskatchewan has no donation limits.
Elections Saskatchewan
[cr] Oil & gas companies can donate from outside the province.
Progress Alberta / CBC
[cr] Political donations get a 75% tax credit on the first $400.
SK Political Contributions Tax Credit Act
[cr] The SK Party has taken in 46% of all donations from corporations since 2006.
Press Progress
[cr] Since 2006: $3M+ from out-of-province corporate donors.
Progress Alberta
[cr] Cenovus donated $68,108; Encana $50,557; Crescent Point $126,924.
Elections Saskatchewan records
[cr] Saskatchewan is the only province with no cap on corporate political donations.
U of S Graduate School of Public Policy
[cr] TAX CREDIT CALCULATOR
[cr] Saskatchewan gives a tax credit on political donations.
[cr] SK Political Contributions Tax Credit Act: 75% on first $400, 50% on $400–750, 33% on $750–1,275. Max $650/yr.
“Saskatchewan is one of the worst — if not the worst — in Canada for its political finance system.”
[cr] AI-read from [cr] source [cr] — not the speaker's actual voice.
[cr] The playbook doesn't work without a sympathetic regulator.
Related Reporting
By Brandi Morin
Hillman Prize-winning journalist Brandi Morin sent the Province of Alberta thirteen on-the-record questions about a cancer crisis in Fort Chipewyan — children diagnosed, data withheld, a Chief Medical Officer who has never set foot in the community. Alberta has not replied.
Read the full investigationSame Playbook, Different Victims
The orphan-well crisis and the Fort Chipewyan cancer crisis aren't two separate scandals. They're the same arrangement, viewed from two angles. Pick a tile, post it, make Alberta's silence harder to ignore.
Denial
01 / 05Same playbook, different victims. In Alberta, companies declare wells "closed" while they leak methane. The province declares Fort Chipewyan's cancer rates "within normal range" while children are diagnosed. Both built on incomplete data.
Downstream Cost
02 / 05Cleanup costs flow to taxpayers. Toxic wastewater flows to Fort Chipewyan. The pattern is the same: profits stay private, harm gets socialized. Alberta cashes the royalty cheques. Everyone else gets the bill.
Treaty Land
03 / 05Most of Alberta's 466,000 wells sit on Treaty land. Most of its tailings ponds drain through Treaty waters. Indigenous communities aren't a footnote in the oil sands story — they're the ones paying first.
Regulators Don't Visit
04 / 05The AER backs down when companies threaten bankruptcy. Alberta's Chief Medical Officer issued a public health assessment of Fort Chipewyan without ever setting foot there. Two crises. One regulatory style: don't look.
Silence as Strategy
05 / 05Imperial Oil's Kearl Mine spilled 5.3M litres of toxic wastewater. Fort Chipewyan wasn't told for 9 months. Journalist Brandi Morin sent Alberta 13 questions about the cancer crisis. Radio silence. When governments go quiet, that's the answer.
ᑫᑯ ᑲ ᐃᐢᐸᓂᐠ ᑕ ᐊᐦᒋᐸᓂᐠ
[cr] Alberta's proposed Mature Asset Strategy is what the province calls its plan.
[cr] What would actually work is not mysterious.
[cr] None of this is radical.
ᑫᑯ ᑲ ᑭ ᑐᑕᒪᐣ
[cr] Every fact on this page was reported by someone.
FROM THE SAME DESK
A searchable archive of Canadian police disciplinary records, built for journalists and researchers.
How Canada's social contract — healthcare, housing, food security — eroded from 2015 to 2025.
Why every enterprise dashboard looks the same, and whose interests it actually serves.
The left/right line is a lie. Two axes, not one. Here's what the political map actually looks like.
How a set of polite emails raised prices across every major U.S. retailer. Read the unsealed FTC exhibits.