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Thinking Like an Owner
Help Premier Stelmach Make the Right Decision About Royalty Reform

You can help Premier Ed Stelmach make the right decision on energy royalties.

It's is easy as 1 - 2 - 3:

1.) Get informed.

2.) Think like an owner.

3.) Let the Premier know where you stand.

Download a primer with the information you need below.

This report describes several options that Albertans, when thinking like owners, can consider for reforming the oil sands royalty regime. The reforms are designed to ensure better value to Albertans while maintaining a reasonable profit for oil sands companies.

This technical background paper accompanies a report entitled Royalty Reform Solutions: Options for Delivering a Fair Share of Oil Sands Revenues to Albertans and Resource Developers.

This fact sheet presents three options for oil sands royalty reform. All three options strike a balance between ensuring reasonable return for companies and maximizing earnings for Albertans, who own the resource, for this non-renewable resource. Solutions and recommendations are also described.

Presentation delivered to the Alberta Royalty Review Panel on May 22, 2007, which outlines three options for reforming the oil sands royalty regime.

The Pembina Institute commissioned Probe Research Inc., a professional research and survey organization based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to conduct a study to gauge public attitudes toward the environmental and economic impacts of oil sands development in Alberta.

Blueprint for Conducting Sound Royalty Reform in Alberta sets the bar for reviewing and reforming Alberta's oil sands, oil and natural gas royalties. It describes the Pembina Institutes vision of how such a review should be conducted in a way that is for Albertans and by Albertans. The ultimate objective is to establish a royalty regime that maximizes value to Albertans as owners of the oil sands, oil and natural gas resources in the province.

This four page summary takes a critical look at the tax and royalty treatment of Alberta's oil sands. An outdated royalty regime and federal tax breaks are costing Albertans and Canadians money in the form of forgone tax and royalty revenues. Between 1996 and 2005, royalty revenue per barrel of oil from oil sands   declined 32% and the federal government lost up to $1.65 billion in tax revenue. Albertans as owners of the oil sands need to demand that their resource manager, the Minister of Energy get them a better deal for oil sands developments. And Canadians need to demand that the Federal Minister of Finance eliminate subsidies to a very profitable industry.

Between 1996 and 2005, world oil prices more than doubled and production of the oil sands, spurred on by federal subsidies and low provincial royalty rates, increased by 123%. Amazingly, during the same time period, Albertans, the owners of the oil sand resource, saw their share of this economic boom in the form of royalty revenue decline for each barrel of oil from the oil sands. Albertans received $3.39 in royalties for each barrel of oil sands oil in 1996 and only $2.29 in 2005. At the same time, a federal tax break resulted in up to billions in deferred tax revenue. This report demonstrates that the current tax and royalty treatment of the oil sands is a bad deal for Albertans - the owners of the resource, and Canadians.

Amy Taylor, an economist speaking on behalf of the Pembina Institute makes the case for reforming the oil sands royalty regime to ensure Albertans are fairly compensated for the development of oil sands resources that they own.

Oil sands mining and steam injection, to produce oil from bitumen that is too deep to mine, currently use vast amounts of water from rivers and groundwater. Rapid expansion in tar sands production means new technology and policies described in the report must be implemented to reduce water use.

Oil sands mining and steam injection, to produce oil from bitumen that is too deep to mine, currently use vast amounts of water from rivers and groundwater. Rapid expansion in tar sands production means new technology and policies described in the report must be implemented to reduce water use.