Corporations should pay to clean up oil and gas wells
Write your MLA and Premier to stop the multi-billion dollar giveaway.
Across Alberta, 300,000+ aging and inactive wells, pipelines, and storage tanks are sitting on farms, ranches, and in urban areas.
Aging wells leak toxins into the air, soil, and groundwater, threatening the health of farms, drinking water, livestock, and families.
The Alberta government and industry CEOs want to saddle everyday Albertans with the clean up costs, through a new plan called the “Mature Asset Strategy” (MAS).
MAS would be a disaster for everyday Albertans, leaving families with toxic wells on their land, and taxpayers with the multi-billion dollar cleanup bill.
But It’s Not Too Late — We Can Stop the MAS plan and make sure the oil and gas sector pays for its own cleanup.
Tell your elected official this is important to you. Send a message and encourage others to do the same. There’s no time to waste–the window of opportunity on this is right now.
Across Alberta, 300,000+ aging and inactive wells, pipelines, and storage tanks are sitting on farms, ranches, and in urban areas.
Aging wells leak toxins into the air, soil, and groundwater, threatening the health of farms, drinking water, livestock, and families.
The Alberta government and industry CEOs want to saddle everyday Albertans with the clean up costs, through a new plan called the “Mature Asset Strategy” (MAS).
MAS would be a disaster for everyday Albertans, leaving families with toxic wells on their land, and taxpayers with the multi-billion dollar cleanup bill.
But It’s Not Too Late — We Can Stop the MAS plan and make sure the oil and gas sector pays for its own cleanup.
Tell your elected official this is important to you. Send a message and encourage others to do the same. There’s no time to waste–the window of opportunity on this is right now.
How This Works
Sending a postcard is easy, fast, and completely free! Just use our handy postcard builder to:
- Write a message to your MLA and Premier Danielle Smith
- Share the campaign on social media (optional, of course)
- That’s it!
We’ll handle the printing and delivery.
If you would rather design, print, and send a postcard yourself, check out our printable postcards below.
Send a Postcard
Send a postcard to your MLA and Premier Smith to tell them to stop the Alberta government’s Mature Asset Strategy (MAS)! Submit your postcard below.
- Write your message. Option: Use the writing tips.
- Add your contact info, then submit!
Customize your message. A personal message has the most impact. We suggest this outline for your letter. Pick the lines you like, or write your own.
Who you are:
- I am a (grandparent, student, farmer, Albertan, Cree woman, electrician, scientist) living in (your city, town, province)
Why stopping the MAS matters to you:
“I oppose the MAS because…
- Public money should go towards schools, hospitals, and things people need, not a handout for companies that broke their promises.
- Instead of forcing the industry to pay up, MAS puts taxpayers on the hook for well cleanup costs.
- Despite strong corporate profits, the oil and gas industry isn’t setting aside money for the cleanup of 300,000 unreclaimed wells across the province.
- Companies are also increasingly skipping out on municipal taxes, with over $250M in unpaid bills in 2024, leading to service cuts across our communities.
- MAS is a deliberate plan to transfer cleanup costs from a profitable sector to Alberta taxpayers and rural communities.
If you make a mess, you clean it up: this “Polluter Pay” principle is a core tenet of Canadian law.
The real impact on Alberta
“Leaking and aging wells mean…”
- Water contamination: Wells, creeks, and groundwater poisoned by leaking infrastructure. Damages drinking water and livestock. Crop yields and grazing land harmed for decades.
- Lost income: Can’t farm contaminated land. Can’t sell devalued property. Cleanup costs you can’t afford. Landowners face costly legal fights.
- Health problems: Headaches, breathing issues, and illnesses from exposure to toxins like hydrogen sulfide and benzene.
- Broken promises: Over $250 million in unpaid municipal taxes. Companies promise cleanup, then disappear. Regulators say they’ll help, then don’t.
- Neighbour conflicts: Aging wells create tension between landowners, municipalities, and remaining oil companies.
- Kids can’t take over: Young farmers don’t want to inherit land with massive environmental liabilities.
What you want your MLA / the Premier to do:
- Please stop the Mature Asset Strategy, as it puts taxpayers on the hook for oil company cleanup. Rural Albertans deserve better than being left with contaminated land and unpaid bills. Please raise this as an important issue in caucus and in the Legislature.
Thank them:
- Please put the interests of Albertans ahead of the profits of a few oil and gas corporations.
- Let’s do the right thing by scrapping the MAS.
- Thank you for your time and attention on this issue.
Customize your message. A personal message has the most impact. We suggest this outline for your letter. Pick the lines you like, or write your own.
Who you are:
- I am a (grandparent, student, farmer, Albertan, Cree woman, electrician, scientist) living in (your city, town, province)
Why stopping the MAS matters to you:
“I oppose the MAS because…
- Public money should go towards schools, hospitals, and things people need, not a handout for companies that broke their promises.
- Instead of forcing the industry to pay up, MAS puts taxpayers on the hook for well cleanup costs.
- Despite strong corporate profits, the oil and gas industry isn’t setting aside money for the cleanup of 300,000 unreclaimed wells across the province.
- Companies are also increasingly skipping out on municipal taxes, with over $250M in unpaid bills in 2024, leading to service cuts across our communities.
- MAS is a deliberate plan to transfer cleanup costs from a profitable sector to Alberta taxpayers and rural communities.
If you make a mess, you clean it up: this “Polluter Pay” principle is a core tenet of Canadian law.
The real impact on Alberta
“Leaking and aging wells mean…”
- Water contamination: Wells, creeks, and groundwater poisoned by leaking infrastructure. Damages drinking water and livestock. Crop yields and grazing land harmed for decades.
- Lost income: Can’t farm contaminated land. Can’t sell devalued property. Cleanup costs you can’t afford. Landowners face costly legal fights.
Health problems: Headaches, breathing issues, and illnesses from exposure to toxins like hydrogen sulfide and benzene. - Broken promises: Over $250 million in unpaid municipal taxes. Companies promise cleanup, then disappear. Regulators say they’ll help, then don’t.
- Neighbour conflicts: Aging wells create tension between landowners, municipalities, and remaining oil companies.
- Kids can’t take over: Young farmers don’t want to inherit land with massive environmental liabilities.
What you want your MLA / the Premier to do:
- Please stop the Mature Asset Strategy, as it puts taxpayers on the hook for oil company cleanup. Rural Albertans deserve better than being left with contaminated land and unpaid bills. Please raise this as an important issue in caucus and in the Legislature.
Thank them:
- Please put the interests of Albertans ahead of the profits of a few oil and gas corporations.
- Let’s do the right thing by scrapping the MAS.
- Thank you for your time and attention on this issue.
Printable Postcards
Want to create your own postcard design? Download and print these postcards and send them to your MLA and Premier Smith. Don’t forget to add a stamp, and names and addresses for your MLA and the Premier!
Find addresses: your MLA office here and the Premier’s office here.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You must print on card stock (extra heavy paper) to send a postcard in the mail.
Be sure to print double-sided so that the front and back are printed on the same piece of card stock! Cut them to size, then mail.
Who We Are
C4RE is a coalition of landowners, scientists, surface rights advocates, and Indigenous, environmental, human health and civil society organizations. The coalition formed around a shared concern about the AER’s failure to function as a credible regulator of energy development in Alberta, and its inability to meet its own stated mandate to “provide safe, orderly, and environmentally responsible energy development.”
