The provincial government launched a review of the rules surrounding urban drilling back in 2012, in response to the Royal Oak situation. “But I also think municipalities should have veto rights when an application does occur.”
“I think it’s mandatory that the province has specific rules and safety standards in place and those can’t be compromised,” Sutherland said.
Goldenkey oil inc calgary update#
He believes Alberta’s decades-old energy development policy dates from a time when oil wells were in the middle of wheat fields, and is in desperate need of an update that reflects the realities of urban growth. Ward Sutherland was president of the Rocky Ridge Royal Oak Community Association at the time of the Kaiser Exploration controversy, and is now the City of Calgary’s point person on urban drilling. In Lethbridge, the proposed drilling project conflicted with the city’s 25-year development plan for the area, and yet council had no ability to reject it.Ĭity of Calgary Ward 1 Coun. Municipalities can register their concerns with the Alberta Energy Regulator, but they can’t say no to a drilling project, force it into an area zoned for industrial activity, or demand certain setbacks from existing development. In that situation, just as happened in Lethbridge, the prospect of oil and gas activity within a stone’s throw of a residential neighbourhood fuelled fears about property values, traffic patterns, odour, health, and safety.īoth cases highlighted a reality which seemed to come as a surprise to some urban dwellers: in Alberta, municipalities have no ability to evaluate oil and gas proposals the same way they do other industries within their boundaries. The company involved, Kaiser Exploration Ltd., eventually gave in to public pressure and moved the well more than two kilometres away.
In 2012, residents of the northwest Calgary neighbourhood of Royal Oak protested plans to drill an oil well just behind a shopping centre. It was an unusual turn of events, but not the first time an energy company has come face-to-face with an urban drilling controversy in Alberta. “The community here is elated with the results.” “There’s a lot of excitement here,” said Dave McCaffrey, a spokesman for the community group No Drilling Lethbridge. Forfeiting the $500,000 it had paid for the mineral rights and hundreds of thousands more spent to get the project to this point, the company announced on April 30 that it would abandon its plans. A petition against the project garnered 13,000 signatures, but it seemed likely the final decision would ultimately rest with the Alberta Energy Regulator - unless the provincial government could be convinced to implement new rules governing oil and gas drilling in urban areas.Īnd then, amid the public furor and the ongoing government deliberations, Goldenkey pulled out. Lethbridge’s mayor and council, both local school boards and the city’s realtor association were united in vocal opposition to the proposal. to drill three exploratory wells in an empty field inside city limits, about one kilometre from the backyards and fences of a fast-growing housing development. The southern Alberta city, population 90,000, had spent two years opposing a plan by Calgary-based Goldenkey Oil Inc. It was the news Lethbridge residents had been hoping for.
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