Province announces initial plans for a royalty review

The head of Alberta’s Crown-owned bank has been appointed chairman of a panel that will lead the NDP government’s promised review of energy royalties.

Anyone hoping for some quick answers though, may have to wait.

ATB Financial boss Dave Mowat will chair an advisory panel and has been tasked with finding the appropriate members to look into the royalty structure.

Mowat calls it a daunting challenge but also a great opportunity.

“My commitment to everyone is to present the facts and to create a discussion with all stakeholders,” he said. “A discussion that builds on understanding and creating on the common ground that we all must reach.”

He’s planning on working with the Minister to discuss what outcomes the government would like them to reach; results aren’t expected until the end of the year.

Any recommendations made by the panel will also be non-binding.

The Energy Minister says the panel’s role will be to listen to everyone, including average Albertans.

When asked by a reporter about how this be different than the last energy review conducted under the Stelmach government, Marg McCuaig-Boyd admitted she wasn’t familiar with the last review’s scope.

She promised this review will look into all aspects of the industry.

Wildrose Finance Shadow Minister and Strathmore-Brooks MLA Derek Fildebrandt says from what he’s heard, this review provides little to no confidence, to an already nervous energy sector.

“I don’t think many investors are going to want to put hundreds of millions or billions of dollars down right now for capital projects if they don’t know what the variables are going to be going forward,” he said.

Fildebrandt tells 660News a hike in royalties isn’t necessary, Alberta has a competitive regime and adds we risk losing capital to Saskatchewan.

“As tempting as it might be for populace reasons to try and pluck the golden goose for a few more feathers, it’s bad economic policy and I think many of the people who are excited for it right now might unfortunately regret their decision,” he said.

Alberta Party leader and Calgary-Elbow MLA Greg Clark took it one step further and called for McCuaig-Boyd to resign.

Clark says he was shocked to see there were no firm deadlines in place.

“The job of the minister is to come up with terms of reference for a royalty review, that is her job,” he said. “The fact that those terms of reference aren’t in place or even in her news conference, how she didn’t seem to know that was her job, that’s a real concern.”

“Getting a review done quickly is important, but getting it done right is even more important,” said Clark. “The economic viability of our province is at stake.”

McCuaig-Boyd is hoping to have some results from the panel by the end of the year.