For decades, conservative governments in Alberta allowed oil and gas companies to pump profits into their pockets before dumping the mess on others. The Orphan Well Association is primarily funded by the Alberta oil and gas industry and is a nonprofit organization that cleans up wells abandoned by companies that go insolvent or become bankrupt. Second, any federal loan to the OWA should be short-term: three years at most, to minimize both interest costs and default risk. This could make the OWA loan a vehicle for Indigenous entrepreneurship and UNDRIP principles. Dining on the profits of public resources, then dashing on your dues to society is not a business model worth rescuing.

Source: CBC News April 12, 2020 15:46 UTC