By Aaron Mahoney (@Mahones93 on Twitter)

Resolution passed by City Council in response to urban drilling in city limits

Feb 5, 2019 | 11:29 AM

LETHBRIDGE – Lethbridge City Council unanimously passed a resolution on Monday, Feb. 5, to immediately respond to an urban drilling site within city limits, upon learning of its operations.

The resolution outlines that the Mayor and City Manager will respond to Tamarack Acquisitions Corp. through the Alberta Energy Regulator to make their opposition and concerns known.

Additionally, the Mayor and City Manager will also write to the province’s Energy Minister, Marg McCuaig-Boyd, to advise her of council’s position.

Mayor Chris Spearman says at every opportunity, City Council has notified the provincial regulator and company representatives that they’re opposed to any new oil and gas drilling within city limits.

“We believe now, as we did then, that such activity would effectively sterilize developable urban land and burden the City with additional costs by creating the need for setbacks to separate wells and underground pipelines from future neighbourhoods,” Spearman added.

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Although Council has taken a formal public stance, as a municipality, they have no legal authority to stand in the way of the Alberta Energy Regulator who ultimately grants approval to this or any other company to drill within city limits.

City Council has emphasized that they are not opposed to oil and gas exploration, generally, and specific concerns are about the negative impacts for urban municipalities and their residents if oil and gas drilling is allowed to proceed inside their boundaries.

A release states council originally took this stance on urban drilling because they see it as an ongoing issue in Alberta, and one where there are already other cases elsewhere in the province where drilling rights have been sought and awarded within urban boundaries.