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Pump Jacks - The Canadian Press
SITE REHABILITATION PROGRAM

$400M available in next round of funding to clean up inactive Alberta oil & gas sites

Feb 12, 2021 | 10:56 PM

EDMONTON, AB. – Alberta and the federal government say another $400 million in funding is available to help clean up inactive oil and gas sites in the province.

The money includes $100 million for clean up in Indigenous and Metis communities.

The rest of the money is to go to oil and gas producers who paid for closure work in 2019 or 2020.

“This approach supports producers who have been good corporate and environmental citizens, by actively working to clean up sites, despite the tough economic times,” said Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage.

Savage says the money will help preserve the environment while creating jobs.

The cash is part of a federally funded site rehabilitation program announced last May to direct up to $1 billion toward reclamation projects in Alberta.

Federal Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan adds its important to include Alberta’s oil and gas sector workers as the federal government works toward its Paris Climate Agreement goals.

“Because we need them, we need these workers,” said O’Regan. “They are the ones who are going to build Canada’s energy future, they’re the ones who figured out how to get oil out of sand.

They are the ones who are going to lower our emissions, they are the ones who are going to get us to net zero by 2050.”

Just over $300 million has been delivered to 633 Alberta-based companies so far.