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By Chris Brown

Energy sector support

Kenney announces new help for oil and gas sector

Apr 24, 2020 | 11:39 AM

Premier Jason Kenney announced today Alberta’s Site Rehabilitation Plan, an initiative that will put 5,300 Albertans to work remediating wells, pipelines, and oil and gas sites.

The program will launch on May 1.

“We will be moving as quickly as we possibly can to turn that money into jobs in communities across Alberta,” said Kenney. “Particularly putting back to work great oilfield service workers who have been laid off and throwing a critical lifeline to the service sector those small companies up and down this province who in many areas are the lifeblood of the economy of rural Alberta.”

The $1 billion initiative comes from the announcement made a week ago today by the national government, Kenney said. That program offered a total of $1.7 billion to provinces for well site cleanup.

The first round of $100 million available for grants will be available next week, said Energy Minister Sonya Savage. Companies will be able to apply for grants on province’s website.

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Savage said companies that can help pay for the cleanup will.

“This program will create much needed jobs,” said Savage, adding it should lead to the cleanup of thousands of sites.

“The funding will ensure that Albertans can go to work and that our energy sector is support as we begin to recover from the effects of COVID-19.”

Hotels, restaurants and business supply stores will see spin-off benefits from the program, Savage said.

Asked about a transition away from fossil fuels and talk in the U.S. of a “Green New Deal,” Kenney said the government’s focus is on “getting people back to work in Alberta, not pie-in-the-sky ideological schemes.”

“We are trying to fight back against the political agenda of the green left that has been trying to landlock Alberta energy.”

Kenney said that kind of question from a Calgary-based reporter “throws me for a loop.”

This program is in addition to both levels of government investing a combined $300 million into the Alberta Orphan Well Association, which will run its own program.

Kenney gave more details on the province’s role in the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The province will invest up to $67.2 million, the maximum possible, and the federal government will invest $267 million.

The program, to be run by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, is expected to be running by the middle of next month.

Kenney said more details will follow.

The premier added the province will also participate in the temporary salary top-up for low-income essential workers, another cost-share program between federal and provincial governments.

Jason Nixon, Minister of Environment and Parks, gave more details on the emissions reduction money announced by the federal government last week. Of the total of $750 million announced, $675 is earmarked for on-shore, of which the majority are in Alberta.

Kenney also spoke about the work being done with energy and government officials in the U.S. about a co-ordinated efforts to develop a North American energy strategy.

He said the discussions underscore the central importance of Alberta’s relationship with the United States.

“We export over $100 billion of goods to the U.S. every year. Nearly 90 per cent of Alberta’s global exports go to one country, the United States.”

Kenney also announced that James Rajotte will be Alberta’s new senior representative in Washington, D.C.