Surface Rights Board

The amount of unpaid taxes energy companies owe to small-town Alberta is growing despite high oil prices, the province's rural municipalities said on Tuesday, March 8, 2022.

The Alberta government has introduced legislation that it says would help municipalities recoup some of the millions of dollars in unpaid property taxes they're owed by energy companies.

A new report from the University of Calgary says inactive wells increased by more than 50 per cent between 2015 and 2020. The Alberta Energy Regulator expects another 6,014 of them in 2021.