Summary

• Last week, the Alberta Energy Regulator announced thousands of oil and gas wells and pipeline segments, belonging to Long Run Exploration Ltd., had officially become orphans, meaning they have no solvent owner.
• Long Run Exploration had tried to salvage its financial situation through a deal to sell all its shares to a Chinese company for $22 million, which fell through.
• Court documents show the total cost to safely seal and clean up all of Long Run’s wells and other infrastructure is estimated to be $476 million.

A beleaguered oil and gas company has left a multimillion-dollar cleanup bill in Alberta, The Narwhal has learned. Experts worry at least some of that bill could ultimately be passed on to taxpayers.

Last week, the Alberta Energy Regulator announced 4,031 wells, 383 facilities and 2,121 pipeline segments previously owned by Long Run Exploration Ltd. had officially become orphans, meaning they no longer have a legal or financial owner. The announcement did not specify a price tag for decommissioning or cleaning up any of the infrastructure.

But in a sworn affidavit filed early last year, the total liability of Long Run’s various assets was estimated at $476,834,036.95.

That means the Orphan Well Association, which is funded by an annual levy on industry and spent just under $130 million decommissioning and cleaning up old oil and gas infrastructure last year, now has a huge new liability on its hands. 

In one court document, they’re described as “mammoth environmental liabilities.”

According to the affidavit, Long Run’s oil and gas infrastructure ended up as orphans after a 2024 deal with a Chinese company fell through. That deal would have seen all of Long Run’s shares purchased for $22 million.

It wasn’t the first time the company had looked to Chinese investors when it faced financial troubles. In 2016, a financially struggling Long Run was purchased by Calgary Sinoenergy Investment Corp., its sole voting shareholder.

David Chem, reached by phone at Calgary Sinoenergy Investment Corp., told The Narwhal that Calgary Sinoenergy is a holding company and most of its shareholders are in China. “Actually, nobody calls,” he said. “I was surprised somebody called.”

Chem, who declined to share his title, said the company’s investors in China were not familiar with the concept of environmental liability regulation when they invested in Alberta oil and gas, as much of China’s oil and gas industry is state owned and private companies are not responsible for cleanup.

“A lot of Chinese investors put money into Alberta before they fully understood environmental liability because there’s no environmental liabilities in China,” he said. “They are trapped by environmental liability.”

He said the Chinese shareholders have paid for their mistake, and the blame rests on the original owners of Long Run. 

“How can you blame the Chinese owner? How can you say, ‘Oh, you guys didn’t take care of the orphan wells?’ ”

“They’re the guys who lost the most,” Chem said. “They’re the guys who lost all the money.”

Bill Andrew, who was the chairman and chief executive of Long Run Exploration at the time of that sale, pushed back on Chem’s assessment. 

“They came in with their eyes wide open,” he said by phone. “They went through a two-to-three month due diligence process,” he said, adding Long Run supplied well lists and information about all the company’s working interests. 

“We didn’t sell them a pig in a poke.”

‘The result of regulatory failure’: law professor

Meanwhile, even before Long Run’s assets were added to its inventory, the Orphan Well Association already had 4,200 wells on its list for decommissioning in Alberta. 

“In one swoop, it’s a huge jump,” University of Calgary law professor Shaun Fluker said in an interview. “It increasingly looks very likely these bets, these liabilities, will only ever be addressed with public money.”

Alberta’s Orphan Well Association is a not-for-profit organization that is theoretically funded by industry in the form of an annual levy, but has received government grants in the past and gets an annual interest-free loan from taxpayers.

“All of these problems are the result of regulatory failure,” Fluker said, describing the Orphan Well Association as an “industry-funded insurance system never designed to handle anything close to the size of these sorts of assignments.” Funding for the association, set by the regulator and paid by industry in the form of an annual levy, he said, is “wholly inadequate.”

Lars De Pauw, president and CEO of the Orphan Well Association, referred questions about the current cost of Long Run’s environmental liabilities to the Alberta Energy Regulator. “We have a multi-year plan to deal with all orphan assets including those from Long Run,” De Pauw said by email. “The plan is based on the amount provided from the orphan fund levy and other sources of revenue.”

In response to questions from The Narwhal, the Alberta Energy Regulator said by email it “does not have any further information to provide regarding Long Run’s total estimated liability.”

An unnamed spokesperson said the regulator uses tools within its liability management framework to ensure a company that takes over wells can eventually clean them up, and said it may “impose terms and conditions to mitigate any ongoing risks” and ensure regulatory obligations are met.

Andrew, who has been in the oil and gas industry for 52 years, points to the increasing number of wells falling to the Orphan Well Association. “You have to wonder who the hell was on top of them from a regulatory point of view,” he said. Andrew says when he ran Long Run, he made sure the company stayed on top of sealing old wells every year, ensuring a percentage of older wells were decommissioned each year.

Chinese investors lost millions in deal to save Long Run from financial ruin

Andrew oversaw Long Run back when it was called Galleon Energy and the company had a “nasty reputation on Bay Street and with public investors,” he said. Under his watch, the company was refinanced and its name was changed to Long Run in 2012.

In 2016, Long Run narrowly avoided financial ruin. That year, under Andrew’s leadership, the company was sold to China-based Sinoenergy Investment Corp. in a $780-million deal that included a $100-million purchase price and an agreement to take on hundreds of millions of the company’s debt, according to the Calgary Herald. 

“The deal was dubbed a Christmas miracle, reflecting Long Run’s precarious finances,” according to the Globe and Mail at the time.

Andrew told the Herald the sale was the best option for the heavily indebted company. “The alternative was grim,” he said then. The Canadian Press reported at the time that Long Run had faced a net earnings loss of $305 million in the most recent third quarter. 

“The banks were all over us. It was receivership or sell,” Andrew told The Narwhal, adding the bank facilitated an introduction with the investors.

Chem, with Calgary Sinoenergy Investment Corp., said the Chinese investors “bought from a local guy, right from the local owner.” 

“Who’s laughing? The previous owner,” he said. “They take the money and walk away.”

Andrew pushed back on that assessment. “We didn’t walk away, we sold the company,” he said.

“I did it the best I could do. I did it as fair as I could be,” he said. “When we sold Long Run, we didn’t sell it with a whole bunch of unpaid bills,” he said, adding the company was up to date on what it owed to landowners and counties.

To Chem, the big loser is the investors.

“They lost all their investment,” Chem said of shareholders in China, who he said he meets with annually. “All their investment, $800 million, is all gone.” 

“Their mistake is they should learn more about the system.”

According to Insolvency Insider Canada, “Calgary Sinoenergy is a holding company with no operation or assets other than its investment in Long Run.” All of its shares are held by another company, Sinoenergy Oil, which is based in the British Virgin Islands.

Chem said the Chinese investors he works with are less interested in investing in Alberta oil and gas after seeing how it has played out with Long Run. “A lot of people lose money in Alberta. So I think they just say ‘no more.’ They walk away,” he said.

The Narwhal could not independently verify Chem’s assertions.

Fluker points to the massive 2015 oil price drop that saw a mad scramble for companies, many of them backed with foreign investment, to pick up Alberta oil and gas assets. “There were a number of these transactions at that time,” he said, pointing the finger at the Alberta Energy Regulator which would have approved the transfer of wells. “The regulator doesn’t appear to have scrutinized those transactions sufficiently.”

“That was really the beginning of the problem now we’re watching before our eyes.”

A last-ditch attempt to sell Long Run for $22 million in 2024 falls apart

In 2024, Long Run faced significant financial troubles again. It attempted to secure its financial footing with an agreement with a Chinese-based company, Hiking Group Shandon Jinyue Int’l Trading Corporation. That would have seen Long Run’s shares purchased for $22 million, but the company “faced challenges … transferring money out of China due to regulations of the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange.”

In March 2025, Long Run entered into receivership. This is when a court-appointed third party acts as a custodian for a company facing serious financial troubles.

Attempts to reach Long Run Exploration Ltd. went unanswered. PricewaterhouseCoopers, which is its receiver, confirmed it is acting as “manager of all current and future assets, undertakings and properties of Long Run Exploration Ltd” but declined to comment further. “The receivership proceedings are ongoing and as such, [PricewaterhouseCoopers] does not publicly comment on aspects of active receivership proceedings in the media,” spokesperson Anuja Kale-Agarwal said by email.

As is noted in documents filed by PricewaterhouseCoopers, any funds left over in Long Run’s accounts must be put toward cleaning up its mess. This requirement stems from the Redwater decision in 2019, when the Supreme Court ruled the money left over from a bankrupt oil and gas company must be used to clean up the wells it left behind before other debts, including bank loans, were prioritized.

As of February, the receiver noted it held approximately $26 million in its Long Run accounts, compared to the hundreds of millions in estimated costs to clean up its mess.

In March, it put $10 million of those funds toward clean-up.

Fewer than 500 wells were decommissioned by the Orphan Well Association last year

In 2025, Alberta’s industry-funded Orphan Well Association estimated the total cost to properly seal and clean up oil and gas on sites under its watch to be about $1.12 billion.

As of the end of March, the Orphan Well Association reported its inventory included 4,200 orphan wells that need to be safely sealed and more than 8,000 sites that need to be reclaimed.

These numbers have increased substantially. In 2013, the Orphan Well Association had just 387 orphan sites in its inventory of sites that needed to be reclaimed.

Susanne Calabrese, managing lawyer at the Alberta office of Ecojustice, is concerned what the increase means for the future. “Increasingly, profits are privatized, but cleanup is left behind — burdening landowners, municipalities and taxpayers. Companies are more than willing to take Albertan resources for profit, only to avoid the cost of cleaning up their contaminated sites through bankruptcy. This isn’t an anomaly — at this point, it seems to be their business model,” she said in an emailed statement.

“Long Run Exploration Ltd. … is not the first case of an oil and gas company walking away unscathed from costly cleanup obligations, nor will it be the last,” she added.

According to the association’s most recent annual report, fewer than 500 wells were decommissioned — meaning safely sealed — in the fiscal year ending in March 2025, while more than 2,000 new wells were added to its inventory during that time.

Andrew says it’s bad actors that contribute to the problem. He doesn’t think he’s one of them. “The properly run oil and gas companies are conscientious. They have staff and the resources to identify what needs to be done,” he said. “We don’t want to finish our lives and our careers thinking we make a mess of our country.”

“If you’re not putting a portion of your cash flow towards cleaning up your wells and cleaning up your properties, you should be lined up against the wall and shot,” he said. “Who has that sense of disregard to their country, that they leave a mess like that behind?”

According to the Government of Alberta, there are an estimated 466,000 oil and gas wells in the province. More than half of those are no longer producing, some of which have been properly plugged, while others are in a state of temporary suspension.

“It’s a bit scary when you think about it,” Fluker said. “It makes you wonder what else is out there. What’s next?”

Updated Friday, April 17, 2026, at 11:29 a.m. MT: This story was updated to include comment from the Alberta Energy Regulator that was received after publication.

Methodology

The Narwhal spoke by phone with David Chem, who responded to a voicemail left for Calgary Sinoenergy Investment Corp., which is based in Calgary and is the sole voting shareholder of Long Run. He declined to share his job title. The Narwhal also spoke by phone with Bill Andrew, former chairman and chief executive of Long Run Exploration Ltd.

The Narwhal emailed Long Run Exploration Ltd. but did not receive a response. The Narwhal also phoned Long Run’s emergency line, and was told to call Long Run’s main office. A message left at that number did not receive a response by publication time. An email sent to Wendy Barber, listed in court documents from March 2025 as Long Run’s interim chief executive officer, also did not receive a reply.

The law firm Dentons, listed in court documents as legal counsel for Long Run, replied by email to say it no longer represents Long Run and that questions should be directed to the court-appointed receiver, PricewaterhouseCoopers. 

PricewaterhouseCoopers declined to respond to specific questions, citing ongoing receivership proceedings.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

Summary

• The Alberta Energy Regulator announced Thursday that more than 4,000 additional wells will be added to the inventory of the Orphan Well Association.
• The association currently has 4,200 wells on its list to be properly sealed.
• The number of orphan wells in the province has increased dramatically in the last decade. Orphan wells are those left behind by bankrupt companies.

On Thursday, the Alberta Energy Regulator announced more than 4,000 additional oil and gas wells are now officially orphans, meaning the industry-funded Orphan Well Association’s list of old wells to properly seal has nearly doubled.

According to the regulator, 4,031 wells, 383 facilities, 2,121 pipeline segments and 38 pipeline installations belonging to Calgary-based Long Run Exploration Ltd. have now been turned over to the Orphan Well Association.

Before Long Run’s assets were added to its inventory, 4,200 wells were already on the Orphan Well Association’s list of wells that needed to be decommissioned.

According to the association’s most recent annual report, fewer than 500 wells were decommissioned — meaning safely sealed — in the fiscal year ending in March 2025, while more than 2,000 new wells were added to its inventory during that time.

Lars De Pauw, the president of the Orphan Well Association, said by email not all the Long Run wells need to be sealed. “Our initial review indicates that about one-third of the wells are already decommissioned but we are anticipating close to 3,000 new wells in addition to our current 4,200,” he said by email.

Organizations had already been ringing alarm bells about the issue earlier this month. At the end of March, the Alberta Energy Regulator announced it was increasing the orphan well levy — a fee charged on oil and gas licences to cover the costs of cleaning up orphan wells — by seven per cent. But as watchdogs were quick to point out, the orphan count increased 29 per cent last year.

“This is not good enough, plain and simple,” Ecojustice lawyer Susanne Calabrese said in a statement at the time. “The shortfall is already being felt in the province, and taxpayers are paying the price for the gap — all while the risks and costs continue to climb.” 

A spokesperson for the Alberta Energy Regulator said by email the new levy amount was endorsed by the Government of Alberta, adding it “will support the Orphan Well Association’s operating budget for the 2026/27 fiscal year.”

As of 2025, the Orphan Well Association estimated total costs to properly seal and reclaim orphan oil and gas sites in Alberta that were on the inventory at the time was approximately $1.12 billion.

That doesn’t include the thousands more on the list now.

“This is the largest single transfer in history, and it almost doubles the [Orphan Well Association’s] inventory overnight,” Janetta McKenzie, director of the oil and gas program at the Pembina Institute, told The Narwhal by email.

“While this single insolvency means the number of orphan wells will spike by nearly 100 per cent this year, the amount of industry funding required by the provincial government to clean these wells up has risen by only seven per cent. This is clearly inadequate for the scale of the problem,” she added. “It leaves Albertans to bear the harms associated with unremediated wells near their homes and businesses.”

So what’s this all about? Here’s what you need to know.

What is an orphan well anyway?

An orphan well is one that no longer has a legal or financial owner. 

Most often, an oil and gas company that has gone bankrupt has left behind a long list of wells that were never properly decommissioned or cleaned up — and someone has to pay for that. In the meantime, the well, or pipeline or other related facility, becomes an “orphan.” 

But even without an owner, it still needs to be properly plugged and reclaimed, according to provincial rules.

How many orphan wells are there in Alberta?

As of the end of March, Alberta’s Orphan Well Association reported its inventory included 4,200 orphan wells that need to be safely sealed and more than 8,000 sites that need to be reclaimed.

These numbers have increased substantially in recent years. In 2013, the Orphan Well Association had just 387 orphan sites in its inventory of sites that needed to be reclaimed. 

But a lot of the concern about orphan wells comes not just from the current inventory, but from the potential for thousands more to be added to the list. 

According to the Government of Alberta, there are an estimated 466,000 oil and gas wells in the province. More than half of those are no longer producing, some of which have been properly plugged, while others are in a state of temporary suspension.

Either way, once a well is no longer active, it’s no longer making a company any money.

In fact, it does the opposite. Oil and gas companies have to pay costs associated with sites they’re no longer using. 

For example, they’re supposed to pay rent to the owner of the land where the well is located, as well as taxes to the local government. That said, it has been more and more common in recent years that companies don’t pay landowners or their tax bills.

All of this means an inactive well can be a costly burden to a company, especially one that’s already struggling financially.

What is the Orphan Well Association?

Alberta’s Orphan Well Association is a not-for-profit organization that is theoretically funded by industry, but actually has received government grants in the past and gets an annual interest-free loan from taxpayers.

It takes over responsibility for cleanup when no company is legally or financially responsible for a well or related pipeline or facility.

According to the association’s most recent annual report, it spent nearly $130 million on cleaning up and sealing orphan wells, pipelines and related facilities in the fiscal year that ended in 2025. 

The Orphan Well Association is overseen by a board of directors made up of industry representatives from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Cenovus, Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL) and others, as well one representative of the Alberta Energy Regulator.

Who’s supposed to pay to clean up orphaned wells?

The short answer: industry.

The idea is that all companies pay into the orphan well fund, to make a pool of money available for when companies go bankrupt, or otherwise walk away from their liabilities. Last year, the orphan well levy added up to $144.45 million.

In theory, this fund should be enough money to fund orphan well cleanup in the province. But as clean-up bills have ballooned, the auditor general and other critics have warned this may not be the reality.

“Every year that we underfund this cleanup is another year contaminants remain in the ground, water and air — putting landowners’ health, property values and livelihoods at risk. Meanwhile, taxpayers are left picking up the tab,” Ecojustice said in a statement earlier this month.

Updated at Friday, April 10, at 4:12 p.m. MT: This story was updated to include information received by email after publication time from the Orphan Well Association.

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Canola is making headlines again. It’s been the centre of trade negotiations with China since last year, when that country instituted 100 per cent tariffs on canola oil and meal in retaliation for Canadian tariffs on  electric vehicles, instituted at the behest of the United States.

Now, as Prime Minister Mark Carney wraps up his trip to China, there’s a new canola deal, which would see canola seed tariffs drop to 15 per cent (from nearly 76 per cent) by March, and tariffs on canola meal removed completely. The preliminary agreement makes no mention of tariffs on canola oil.

With the U.S. and Canada now frenemies, Carney is trying to expand our trade network, including rejuvenating a long-icy Canada-China relationship. But even if dropping vehicle tariffs to restart the flow of canola makes sense geopolitically, it could be a problem nationally, with Ontario’s auto industry and Prairies canola growers at total disagreement about which trade stream is more important.  

It appears, for the time being at least, the Prairies got their way. The deal for lower canola tariffs also allows close to 50,000 Chinese electric vehicles into the Canadian market — not great news for Ontario’s auto sector.

“Make no mistake: China now has a foothold in the Canadian market and will use it to their full advantage at the expense of Canadian workers,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in response to the news.

But it’s sweet relief in the Prairies, especially for the 40,000 farmers whose crops contribute part of the $43.7 billion the Canola Council of Canada said the industry generated in 2024. 

All this over a — seed? What is canola, exactly? Here’s what you need to know.

What is canola?

Put simply, canola is a plant that produces yellow flowers and oil-rich seeds.

If you’re old enough, you might remember a time when canola was called rapeseed. And if you’re really old enough, you’d remember that rapeseed was first grown in earnest in Canada during the Second World War, for its oil to be used as an emergency replacement for lubricants in naval ships.

Then, at some point along the line, we decided to start eating it. 

But there was one hurdle: rapeseed in its naval engine lubricant form wasn’t all that desirable to ingest.

So, according to a federal government report called “Canola: a Canadian success story,” plant breeders in the Prairies did some tweaking, and in the 1960s, voilà, canola (that’s CAN-ola, short for Canadian oil) was born.

If you’ve ever flown over the Prairies, canola crops are among the most distinct sights. In the patchwork quilt of massive fields, canola is the bold, bright yellow patch — a burst of colour among more subdued fields of wheat or oats.

What is canola used for?

Canola is a versatile crop. You’re likely most familiar with it as an oil used for deep-frying and other cooking, but it can also be used in not-so-tasty-treats including fungicides, sunscreen and something called “mold releasers.”

A canola education website run by the Alberta Canola Producers Commission lists many uses. The same oil used in margarine, cooking sprays, mayonnaise, crackers and cookies (and, of course, a lot of fried stuff) can also be found in plastic wrap, biodiesel, printing inks, lipstick and other cosmetics and as a softening agent for applying plastic casings on window panes.

How big is the canola industry in Canada?

Canola was harvested on more than 21 million acres of Canadian Prairie last year — far exceeding many other well-known crops like oats, barley and soybeans, according to Statistics Canada. Wheat, in all its forms, is the only crop that takes up (slightly) more space on the Prairies landscape. 

The conversion of native grasslands and wetlands into cropland, including for canola, has contributed to much wildlife habitat loss on the Prairies, according to the federal government, and “many areas are of concern.” This threatens animals including the burrowing owl, ferruginous hawk, swift fox, greater sage grouse and long-billed curlew, according to the Canadian Wildlife Federation.   

How much glyphosate is used on canola crops?

Modern canola is a product of what’s known as agricultural technology or agri-tech — the big business of maximizing yields (and profits) in farming. By some estimates, 40 per cent of canola grown in Canada is what’s known as “Roundup Ready,” meaning it is genetically engineered to survive the spraying of the popular glyphosate-containing herbicide Roundup.

Roundup is a weedkiller, which made news recently when a 25-year-old report — dubbed a “landmark study” that deemed glyphosate to be safe for human health — was retracted by the scientific journal that published it over concerns that scientists from the company that manufactures Roundup, Monsanto, had played a key role in the study’s conclusions. 

According to The New York Times, that study was “for decades cited by other researchers as evidence of Roundup’s safety. It became the cornerstone of regulations that deemed the weedkiller safe.”

In 2015, the World Health Organization said glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans.”

Roundup is still applied on a wide variety of crops using ground sprayers or airplanes that cover an entire field with the herbicide to ensure no other plants can compete. Data on the exact amounts of Roundup used on Canadian canola crops don’t exist, but CBC reported in December that 50 million kilograms of it are sold in Canada each year.

How is canola’s sustainability being improved?

There are ways to decrease the environmental impact of bringing tens of millions of acres of Prairies land into cultivation. One big one is what’s called “zero-till.”

In essence, instead of tilling the soil every year to prepare for seeding a new crop as farmers have done for centuries, farmers opt to leave the remnants of the previous crop in place. Rather than a freshly cultivated field of exposed dirt, the “stubble” of the last crop is left in the soil, along with its roots. Minimizing soil disturbance improves its carbon storage potential.

So, about all this tariff talk. What’s the gist?

Last March, China imposed a 100 per cent tariff on Canadian canola oil and canola meal, as well as tariffs on other products. Then, a few months later, it imposed a 75.8 per cent duty on Canadian canola seed shipments.

Canadian canola farmers — and Prairie governments — were mad. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe called for “immediate action” and, along with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, called on Prime Minister Carney to make a deal with China, including dropping our tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles. But on Jan. 12, as Carney and Moe got set to head to China, Ontario Premier Ford said he was “100 per cent dead set against” any easing of the electric vehicle tariffs.

Meanwhile, Canadians haven’t forgotten China’s nearly three-year detention of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig between 2018 and 2021, a significant blow to diplomatic relations between the two countries.

This week at least, the tension could be easing. 

“What we heard loud and clear is China is looking for reliable trading partners, trading partners that don’t use energy for coercion,” federal Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson, who is also in China, said according to The Globe and Mail.

And for Carney, that’s an opportunity, not only to reduce canola tariffs.

“It is expected that within three years, this agreement will drive considerable Chinese investment into Canada’s auto-sector, create good careers in Canada and accelerate our progress towards a net zero future,” he said.

Updated Jan. 16, 2026, at 10:44 MT: This story was updated to include the latest developments in Canada’s trade deal with China.

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Please, please, please. Among reporters at The Narwhal, it’s a common refrain. 

Please provide all internal communications regarding increased cougar hunting quotas in Alberta. Please provide a copy of all briefing documents prepared for DM Lori Halls and/or Minister Neill related to the tripartite nature agreement. Please provide copies of all communications, including but not limited to emails, attachments, text messages, instant messages, briefing notes, meeting notes or agendas, and any other forms of written communication, regarding the Red Chris Mine incident.

Yes, we’re polite. But let’s be clear: we’re not begging governments to play nice. We’re demanding documents that the public has a legal right to see.

The more roadblocks we face, the harder we push for transparency and accountability. This year alone, Narwhal reporters filed 218 freedom of information (FOI) requests to access public records.

It takes loads of money and time to uncover facts that politicians might prefer to keep hidden. And 653 readers have already stepped up to help us raise $200,000 to keep at it — will you join them? Every dollar you give this month will be matched by a group of special donors.

FOI reporting is the backbone of much of The Narwhal’s investigative journalism — and it can have a big impact. How else would we know that B.C.’s energy regulator quietly allowed an oil and gas giant to sidestep the rules for more than 4,300 pipelines, as Matt Simmons and Zak Vescera revealed this year.

Or that industry lobbyists got the lion’s share of Mark Carney’s attention over his first few months in office, as Xavi Richer Vis revealed.

Or that the Alberta Energy Regulator apparently acted in “direct violation” of its own rules when it allowed an oil and gas company to take over nearly 200 wells, despite hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes, as Drew Anderson reported this week.

The list goes on. And nothing lights a fire under a government’s butt quite like airing out its dirty laundry.

After Matt and Zak’s investigation, for example, the BC Energy Regulator started publicly posting the exemptions it grants to companies. The regulator also plans to improve how it inspects facilities and ensures compliance, including by making full inspection reports available on its website. (How do we know? Because Matt filed an FOI request to access internal records related to the regulator’s response to his investigations — of course!)

This kind of work takes time, money and a lot of grit. This year alone, we were asked to pay $4,000 in fees to obtain government records, with more bills on the way. 

We can’t do it without your support. Nearly 10,000 readers donate to The Narwhal every year, making it possible to uncover each big story, one opaque government document at a time.

If you want to help us keep it up in the year ahead, there’s no time like the present: all donations to The Narwhal will be matched through Dec. 31 — and qualify for a 2025 charitable tax receipt.

Editor’s note: the version of this article that was sent to subscribers to The Narwhal’s newsletter incorrectly identified the author of the story about the industry lobbyists who had Mark Carney’s ear. It was reported by Xavi Richer Vis, not Carl Meyer.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

As a young boy growing up near the Bow River in Calgary, Kevin Van Tighem followed his father into the woods for hunting and fishing expeditions. Those trips — undertaken in all manner of weather — provided Van Tighem with “early and intimate connections” to the natural world, creating memories he treasures decades later.

It was the beginning of a life dedicated to learning from the landscapes of southern Alberta. A biologist by training, Van Tighem worked at several of Alberta’s national parks during his career, eventually becoming superintendent of Banff National Park before retiring in 2011.

Since then, Van Tighem has turned to writing as a way to share his love for the native prairies, Rocky Mountain foothills and other ecosystems that matter most to him. He’s penned hundreds of essays, articles and stories, some of which have been collected into books such as Wild Roses Are Worth It and Our Place: Changing the Nature of Alberta.

Van Tighem told us his writing is part of an effort to “re-story” our culture and help readers to feel their way back into a healthier relationship with nature. “Most of us have a very dysfunctional relationship with place,” he said. “We have built our culture around the othering of our relatives – reducing them to resources, reducing ourselves to consumers, reducing every relationship to a transaction.”

“We all need help with how we know and value our relations.”

As his latest book, Understory: An Ecologist’s Memoir of Loss and Hope, hits bookshelves across the country this fall, we asked Van Tighem to take The Narwhal’s Moose Questionnaire.

This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity — all opinions are the subject’s own.

What’s the most awe-inspiring natural sight you’ve witnessed between the Pacific, Atlantic, 49th parallel and Hudson Bay, i.e. Canada?

That is such a hard question, but I finally settled on a golden eagle I once saw in Banff. It was on the Panther River, a couple long days into the backcountry. It came in high, and I could see that it was carrying something, and then it dropped its load. Probably a marmot or something about that size. Whatever it was just dropped like a shot, and then the eagle tucked into a long, curving dive and, just when it should have crashed into the trees, swept up, grabbed its prey out of midair, and continued the same curve up to land on the side of its nest. 

I’ve never seen such a display of perfect athleticism and skill. And it seemed clear that the eagle had done it for the sheer pleasure of it. It certainly inspired awe in me.

What’s the most awe-inspiring natural sight you’ve witnessed outside of Canada?

White-throated swifts skimming along the edge of the Grand Canyon. They’re one of the fastest birds in the world, with long pointed wings and a little chittering call. The sunset light turned them pink as they went skimming past, with those layers of ancient earth memory fading into shadow below. Turn around, and it’s just a quiet evening in the ponderosa pine forest; turn back and there is that aerial dance over an enormity of time and space too immense to possibly comprehend. It was magic.

Think of three iconic Canadian animals. Choose one each to kiss, marry and kill.

Kiss: a cutthroat trout, underwater, in a mountain creek. No tongue involvement, though. There have to be boundaries.

Marry: a wolf. The places we would go together! And it would be nice to have a mate who’s also a hunting companion, and better at it than me. But then there’s those guns and snares, I suppose. Still: lovers in a dangerous time. It could be one of those tragic, doomed loves. A Boris Pasternak kind of thing.

Kill: horseflies. I know they have their place on this planet. But they’re such ruthless little thugs. Sometimes the death penalty just seems warranted.

Name a person or group doing something meaningful for the environment that everyone should know about.

At this stage of my life it’s almost impossible to name just one. I’ve been privileged to know and work with so many. 

But I think I’d name Nikki Jean and Patrick Tanner. They were inspired, after scrambling some peaks in Waterton Lakes National Park, to climb up and put smudge boxes on as many of those summits as they could in order to demonstrate the sacredness of those places to other visitors who were leaving less appropriate mementos behind. Given the importance of Ninaistako (Chief Mountain) in the Blackfoot way of being, they then went on to organize a series of hikes to its summits for other Kainai and Piikani people who had never been there. They didn’t do it as part of some grand initiative, but just because it was something they could do and it felt necessary and important. And I believe it was.

You don’t need to be some famous scientist or passionate political activist to do something meaningful for the environment; you just need to step up and step out.

Name one person who could significantly help mitigate the climate crisis if they really wanted to.

The temptation is to say Elon Musk or King Charles or Pope Leo or even (heaven help us) Gina Rinehart. But I think the one person who is most critical at helping to mitigate the climate crisis is the one we see in the mirror each morning. Each of us chooses daily how to spend our money, how to transport ourselves around, who to talk with and what to talk about. Each of us votes, and each of us has the capacity to tell politicians what they need to do to earn our votes and retain our support. 

Right now, it’s hard to have any faith in democracy — certainly here in Alberta where we have a government that seems determined to open our mountain headwaters to coal mining regardless of the opposition, and even more so when we see the tragedy unfolding on the other side of the 49th parallel. But all power, ultimately, comes from people, and when people organize their lives around matters of principle, they become unstoppable. Ignore Trump; remember Ghandi.

Outdoor cats: yes or no?

No. For crying out loud. There are three billion fewer birds on this continent than when I was a kid. Why turn pampered, well-fed predators loose on those that remain when we can choose not to?

Tell us about a time you changed your mind about something, environmental or otherwise.

I’ve mostly changed my mind about domestic cattle. 

The more I look around at the ecosystems that most matter to me: native prairie and the montane foothills of southern Alberta, the more I realize that my simplistic “beef yummy; cows bad” position was in conflict with what the land was telling me. The last, best surviving tracts of healthy prairie are those that are being managed for cattle production, by ranchers. The rest have been lost to crop monocultures, urban sprawl, gravel mining and a host of other insults. Native temperate grasslands are among the most threatened ecosystems on the planet and where they survive it’s almost always because ranchers have managed to keep everyone else’s economic ambitions at bay. 

Having said that, I have no love for the intensive livestock production systems that produce much of our beef. A lot of cows are raised wrong and treated horribly. But I’ve become a strong advocate for policies that perpetuate cattle grazing as an economic use of native grasslands. These habitats survive in no small part because of cattle ranching. It would be easier if things were more binary, more black and white, but they rarely are.

Tell us about a time you tried to change someone else’s mind about something, environmental or otherwise.

One time I remember trying, and failing, was when three of us got a meeting with the Alberta government’s environment minister, maybe fifteen years ago or so. We were asking for land use changes that would reduce the devastation being wrought by motorized recreation and industrial clear-cutting in the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains. She brought a deputy minister with her. The minister leaned forward, asked questions, tried to look really engaged, because of course she was a politician and that was her job. And maybe she even was interested. But the deputy minister leaned back, out of her line of sight, and sneered at us through the whole meeting. I left knowing that my fifteen minutes with her wasn’t going to carry as much weight as that deputy minister’s four hours with her on their drive back to Edmonton.

Yes, you have to choose: Rocky Mountains or Great Lakes?

Rocky Mountains. I grew up with them on the western edge of my world. They inspired my imagination of the wild from before I can even remember and, later, became the places where I lived some of my best days. Nothing against the Great Lakes, but they’re outside my home range. Others, no doubt, have been inspired by them. And that’s good, too.

Researchers at Yale University, the France-based Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society and other institutions have found women tend to be more concerned about climate change than men. Why do you think that is?

I don’t know, but I do believe it’s true. Certainly in Alberta, where the oil industry has spent half a century doing all it can to divert young men into oil jobs where they become addicted to big paycheques. A lot of men — and it’s mostly men in those oil jobs, even today — become stubborn defenders of that industry. 

I think a lot of gender roles and gender perspectives are still hard-wired into our culture, so there may be a tendency for women to worry about family and community health and well-being more, and men to feel they have to be cool and just tough it out. Whatever the reason, it’s one reason why I think it’s a hopeful sign that more women are in decision-making roles and active in political life than in the past. 

But again, I’m from Alberta: we currently have some unfortunate exceptions here.

If you could dip a toe off Canada’s coastline, which ocean would it be in?

The Pacific. Those waters lap against the shores of Haida Gwaii, Kamchatka, the Philippines, all those places that are most unlike the places from which my ancestors came. There are five species of salmon in those waters, and in their annual spawning runs they marry the sea to the mountains behind me in ways that really fire the imagination.

What’s a beautiful or useful thing you’ve owned for a really long time?

My senses. And my health.

What’s the farthest north you’ve ever been and what did you do there?

When I retired, my nephew Graham called me from Whitehorse and said that, after all the years that he had spent tagging along on hunting trips with me in southern Canada, he’d like to treat me to a caribou hunt. We ended up at a small lake near the head of the Pelly River. Only thing is, there were no caribou there. We ended up with a moose instead, and I drove almost non-stop back from Whitehorse, through unseasonably warm weather, to get my two quarters of that animal home so that we could get it into the freezer before it spoiled. We ate Yukon memories for a couple years, and they were all good.

What’s one way you interact with the natural world on a daily basis?

Of late, I find myself either walking along the Highwood River floodplain through cottonwood forests or sitting beside the Oldman River listening to what it has to say. It has a great deal more to say than I can understand, but I believe it’s worth listening anyway.

If you could ask one person, alive or dead, about their thoughts on climate change, who would it be?

It might be interesting to get Mark Twain’s opinion. It might not be well-informed, but it would certainly be colourful.

Yes, you have to choose: smoked salmon or maple syrup?

Smoked salmon, if I really have to choose. Salmon are like bison or northern caribou – they are sacred beings that feed our souls and our relationship with the world as much as they feed our bodies. But fortunately, I don’t have to choose: we can get smoked, maple syrup-cured, wild sockeye salmon here. Canada, eh?

Who, in your life, has had the greatest impact on your connection to nature?

I would have to say my father, Jack Van Tighem. Dad was an introvert, a man of rigid principles, who allowed himself and his family few indulgences. He worked hard, and he worked long hours, because of his value system. And on weekends, or during his vacation time in summer, he fished and hunted. In his view, that’s what Saturdays and holidays were for, regardless of the weather. I think a couple times I came close to serious hypothermia while fishing in sleet storms or hunting during prairie blizzards. 

But that regimen of getting out into nature, in all her moods, at all seasons, was what brought me into early and intimate connections with the places and fellow beings that now pretty much form my identity. I still find myself dwelling on memories from those brief childhood years tagging along behind Dad.

Whose relationship with the natural world would you most like to have an impact on?

Everyone’s, I guess. We are such a disconnected culture; most of us have a very dysfunctional relationship with place, with other beings, with the real world. We have built our culture around the othering of our relatives — reducing them to resources, reducing ourselves to consumers, reducing every relationship to a transaction. I overstate it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fundamentally true. My latest book, Understory, goes into this more deeply.

In my writing, I try to do my part in re-storying our culture, in hopes that some readers at least will start to rethink and re-feel the way we live. We are not in a good place these days, and we may be heading for some very dark times. I don’t have any particular demographic or target I would like to have an impact on; our problem is cultural and so it involves almost all of us. We all need help with how we know and value our relations. So I suppose the answer is: everyone’s. I’m still working on myself, frankly.

Would you rather be invited to Victoria and David Beckham’s Muskoka cottage, or Harry and Meghan Sussex’s B.C. escape?

I think I’d choose the Beckhams’ Muskoka cottage, mostly out of curiosity. I don’t know Ontario’s landscapes very well. First thing I’d do is ditch both of them, and head off into the woods with my binoculars and a sandwich. There’d be some things worth meeting there, I’m sure. Trilliums, maybe. Prothonotary warblers, perhaps. Beckhams and Sussexes, though? Meh.

Camping: yes or no?

Yes. But at my age that comes with new issues. Like getting up and down off the ground: it’s not as straightforward as it was back in the day. And those dark night visits to the outhouse, of which aging increases the frequency. But the patter of rain on a tent fly, the sound of birdsong through canvas, the smell of morning coffee mixed with woodsmoke — of course it’s yes.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

It’s not every day that Drew Anderson, Prairies reporter for The Narwhal, gets the ear of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. 

But this week, Drew didn’t just talk to the premier, he got to talk sh*% with her. Literally.

“This is a direct quote so forgive my salty language,” he said to her at a press conference on Tuesday. “[Your special advisor] called the current state of oil and gas regulations a ‘giant stinking pile of shit.’ I’m just curious if you agree with that assessment?”

This stemmed from a doozie of a news story Drew wrote that sent waves across the Alberta political scene. (“I read it,” Smith interjected, before Drew could finish his question.)

Two top political staffers in Smith’s government were at a meeting last week in rural Alberta to try to assuage landowners angry about the province’s long-simmering oil and gas well problem — and they didn’t mince words as the crowd argued with them.

Meanwhile, Drew and photographer Isabella Falsetti, on assignment for The Narwhal, were the only journalists in the room. That’s because it’s not cheap to send two talented journalists out in the field. More and more often, reporters work from their desks. Which means more and more often, we miss out on what’s going on behind the scenes.

But we were there, thanks to people like you who make our independent journalism possible. We’re just 50 members away from meeting our September goal to meet our budget. Will you join more than 7,000 readers who give what they can every month or year? Bonus: join today and we’ll send you a Narwhal tote bag to say thanks!

If Drew and Isabella hadn’t been at that meeting, we’d have no way of knowing what’s being said when senior officials roll up their sleeves and talk directly to Albertans. 

We knew. And we are holding politicians accountable. And we need your help to do more, because we know they’re paying attention.

Drew’s reporting on oil and gas in Alberta simply can’t — and won’t — be ignored.

“It is a bit of a mess — I’ll use less colourful language,” Smith said in her public response to Drew. “Enough is enough, we’ve got to address this issue.”

We still need to add 50 new members this month to make our budget work. Will you help us hold our elected officials accountable by giving whatever monthly or yearly amount you can afford today?

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

Every good reporter needs a good editor. And we’re all better off when it’s not just one editor … but a whole team of them. That’s why we’ve been adding to our editorial team lately, recently bringing — not one, but two — new assistant editors on board to help make sure our stories are factually accurate, enjoyable to read and beautiful to look at.

Will Pearson is one of them. Will joins The Narwhal after co-founding Peterborough Currents, an independent local news outlet focusing on in-depth and community-centred journalism. That experience got him really thinking about audiences — that’s you, our readers. As the internet continuously changes, Will stays focused on the relationship between journalism and the people it’s meant to serve. He’ll be one of the people answering emails from readers (and yes, we read every single one).

Based in Peterborough, Ont., he knocked our socks off with his obvious passion for non-profit journalism and local news. He’s also something of a renaissance man when it comes to polishing stories and getting them out the door. He’s only a few weeks in and he’s already saved us from many a typo.

Oh, and he can solve a Rubik’s Cube faster than probably anyone you’ve met. Yes, that’s a challenge.

Read on to hear Will’s takes on how to work in a world increasingly muddled by artificial intelligence (AI) — and a portrait of his hometown so heartfelt you might just up and move to Peterborough.

Tell us a bit about yourself! Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Peterborough/Nogojiwanong, Ont., and I’ve continued to live here for most of my life. I like backcountry camping, photography, riding my bike and people of all sorts.

What drew you to journalism?

I started out doing public relations jobs and quickly realized I had made a big mistake — I wanted to serve readers instead of corporations! I am drawn to journalism because I’m curious about the world and I don’t always trust people who have power.

You co-founded your own local news outlet, Peterborough Currents, and recently transitioned it to become a non-profit. What are your main takeaways about non-profit journalism in Canada?

I learned so much running a local news outlet for five years. One of my biggest takeaways was that traditional practices of newsgathering — and even the news cycle itself — are actually a barrier to informing readers. So much journalism is written with other journalists in mind as the audience, and as a result, it doesn’t really meet audiences where they’re at or answer the questions they’re actually asking. I believe non-profit outlets like The Narwhal are well-positioned to continue innovating new ways of reaching audiences and helping them understand the world.

I also learned that there is a huge pent-up demand for authentic and reliable local storytelling. Especially as AI muddles our feeds and the internet becomes less user-friendly, people are desperate to connect with their communities through local news. So, there’s a big demand for news. There are still challenges involved in building a business model to sustainably meet that demand. Peterborough Currents hasn’t quite succeeded on that front yet, which is one reason why I’m at The Narwhal now. But I’m definitely bullish on the future of independent non-profit news!

What kind of journalism draws you in as a reader? Why?

When people talk about the importance of reliable news these days, they often talk about the importance of an informed citizenry to keep democracy healthy in the current moment. That’s totally true.

But I think there’s something else going on, too. Humans are storytelling creatures. I think that’s because we know our time here is fleeting, and we want to record our existence to make it feel more permanent. In our personal lives, we might do that with journals or family photo albums. In our community lives, we do it through journalism.

So, the stories I like best are the ones that feel like they’ll be worth reading 100 years from now. When we’re all gone, these stories will be a record of our time together and what we thought was worth fighting for.

“Humans are storytelling creatures. I think that’s because we know our time here is fleeting.”

You do so much in Peterborough, from sitting on the editorial board of The River, a local magazine serving the local low-income community, to spending endless hours archiving photos from the local newspaper and helping serve meals for people who are experiencing hunger. You clearly love Peterborough. What are your three favourite things about it?

I do love Peterborough! We haven’t been spared the social and economic challenges most cities are facing these days, but Peterborough still has a lot going for it. You asked for three things, so here they are:

The people. They’re always surprising me and making me chuckle. I especially appreciate the local arts community and all the people who are working in their own unique ways — big and small — to make the city more inclusive and just.

Second, the easy access to green space. There are many beautiful parks and bike trails and even a river to swim in. Forests, wetlands and farmer’s fields are never more than a 15-minute bike ride away. 

And third, since it’s summertime, the annual Peterborough Folk Festival! It’s a lovely free festival held next to the river.

Your educational background sounds fascinating —  a mix of philosophy and theology. Can you tell us about it?

You’re digging deep into my past now! Yes, I did my undergraduate degree in philosophy at Trent University and followed it up with a master of arts in theology and religious studies at the Atlantic School of Theology. My graduate work focused on post-colonial interpretations of the Old Testament’s exile narratives.

I’m still interested in those topics, but no longer from an academic perspective. When I was in my twenties, I was more likely to look for meaning in books and ideas. Now, I’m more likely to seek it in my relationships with people and the natural world.

What else do you do when you’re not saving us from typos and helping make stories beautiful at The Narwhal?

These days, I’m watering my garden, hanging out with my niece and nephew and making grand plans for when I can take vacation time!

To borrow a question from The Moose Questionnaire: what’s the most awe-inspiring natural sight you’ve witnessed between the Pacific, Atlantic, 49th parallel and Hudson Bay, i.e. Canada?

Algonquin Park. One spring a couple of years ago, I paddled the Tim River. My partner and I set our alarm for sunrise so we could exit the tent and quickly hop in the canoe, hopeful to see moose. We rounded a misty peninsula and there they were, up to their bellies in swamp water and serenely chomping on aquatic plants. They were disinterested in us, so we were able to paddle close and observe from a few metres away. They were eating breakfast, just like I eat breakfast!

I continue to visit Algonquin and other Ontario provincial parks fairly regularly. “Awe-inspiring” is a good word to describe the experience of encountering these animals just being themselves on the land. I haven’t seen a bear in the wild yet, but I’d like to.

What are three things people might not know about you?

I can solve a Rubik’s Cube in under a minute. I develop black-and-white photos in my home darkroom. I dream of opening an independent grocery store to challenge Peterborough’s chain retailers and give people a cheaper and more community-oriented way to buy food.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

If you’re a keen-eyed Narwhal reader, you might already recognize Paloma Pacheco’s name. Paloma has written some beautiful features for us about agriculture, which makes sense given her love of delicious things (she knows how to make olive oil!). Now, you’ll be seeing her work more often — though like so many good editors, she’ll be a mostly unsung hero.

Paloma is one of two new assistant editors that recently joined The Narwhal. We’ve brought them on board to help make sure our stories are factually accurate, enjoyable to read and beautiful to look at. Paloma has one heck of a keen eye for detail, a deep appreciation for human-centred storytelling and an obvious talent when it comes to the written word, all qualities that will help our work shine.

Based in Vancouver, Paloma brings a love of “immersive, sensory details and voice-driven storytelling” in journalism, and is now a crucial part of our team of editors working behind the scenes to bring exactly these types of stories — and more — to you, our readers. She is already bringing joy and diligence to The Narwhal, and you might soon hear from her yourself as our assistant editors are the ones that dive into our inbox and read every single one of our reader emails.

Read on to hear Paloma’s love of dance, what drew her to journalism and even a film recommendation (she’s worked at so many film festivals, so no pressure but we know it must be good!).

Tell us a bit about yourself! Where do you live?

I live in Vancouver, where I was born and raised, a 15-minute bike ride from the great Pacific Ocean. 

I’m a forever lover of language, aspiring hiker, art enthusiast and friend to all cats.

You came to journalism from an arts background. What drew you to journalism?

In Grade 3 we did a drawing exercise where we had to draw what we wanted to be when we grew up. My mother is a visual artist and I was raised surrounded by art, so I drew myself as an artist. As I got older, I reshaped that vision first into “writer,” which seemed to align more naturally with my abilities and interests, and then “journalist,” which seemed more practical. 

When I worked in the arts, what I loved most was the storytelling and connective element — bringing people together through shared culture and story. I was often called on for writing tasks and I loved working with words and communicating ideas effectively. Though I enjoyed being immersed in film and art, I felt like I wanted to be the one doing the storytelling.

What drew me to journalism was first and foremost the craft of nonfiction, but I was quickly won over by the public-interest component, the chance to talk to all kinds of people and hear their stories and how it satisfied my relentless curiosity about the world.

You’ve written for all sorts of publications — The Globe and Mail, Canadian Geographic, The Tyee, Maisonneuve and more (including great agriculture-focused work for us!). What’s the article you’re most proud of over the years?

I’m very proud of the first longform piece I ever wrote, for Maisonneuve, called “Saving Finn Slough.” It’s about a small historic Finnish fishing village in Richmond, B.C., and the fierce spirit of resilience that’s helped the community survive for over a century. I fell in love with Finn Slough and its residents while writing the piece, and the process was an enormous and gratifying learning curve for me as a writer and journalist — one that I hope paid off in the finished story.

What kind of journalism draws you in as a reader? Why?

I’m a sucker for longform, narrative journalism — what used to be called “literary journalism.” I love a great long piece that demands sustained attention and draws a reader in with immersive, sensory details and voice-driven storytelling. I also love a good investigative scoop that holds power to account, as well as a sharp profile. I like learning something new when it’s conveyed in a unique and compelling way.

You’ve worked with the DOXA Documentary Film Festival, the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival, the Vancouver International Film Festival and the National Film Board of Canada — you clearly love film! What should I watch this weekend?

Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language. It’s absolutely charming and eccentric and so very Canadian. It made me wish Winnipeg were indeed a second Tehran filled with turkeys and teahouses.

To borrow a question from The Moose Questionnaire: what’s the most awe-inspiring natural sight you’ve witnessed between the Pacific, Atlantic, 49th parallel and Hudson Bay, i.e. Canada?

I haven’t travelled nearly as much as I’d like to within Canada and there’s still so much I’d love to see, but I’d have to say my first time hiking up Tunnel Mountain in Banff, Alta., a couple years ago. It was January, so the mountains were covered in snow. I was on my own and it was just before sunset. The light on the ground and trees was just exquisite. I got to the top and looked out over the Bow Valley and the surrounding mountains and it was all so still, yet so alive and perfect. It was a spiritual experience.

What do you do when you’re not proofreading stories in The Narwhal?

I spend most of my free time reading, watching films, sharing meals with friends, dreaming of future travels and, more recently, dancing salsa and bachata. I’m hooked. It’s so joyful.

What are three things people might not know about you?

For someone who’s written quite a bit about wine, I am in fact quite alcohol intolerant! Both my father and I will get flushed in our faces and chests when we drink alcohol. I learned it’s the result of a genetic intolerance found predominantly in people of East Asian heritage. Our bodies are missing the enzyme needed to properly break down alcohol. 

Which leads to point two: I come from a long line of immigrants on both my paternal and maternal sides. My father’s grandfather immigrated to Mexico from Japan at the turn of the century. I’m fascinated by his story and by that of the rest of my father’s family. I’m hoping to write about them one day. 

And, lastly, I became interested in agriculture, which has become one of my main journalistic interests, after volunteering on organic farms in Italy and France in my 20s. I milked goats to make cheese, weeded many rows of lettuce, learned how olive oil is made and developed a deep respect for farmers and their labour. Food is everything.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

The Alberta government paid more than $30 million on behalf of delinquent oil and gas companies in 2024, The Narwhal has learned. The companies failed to pay rent owed to landowners for the use of their property for oil and gas activities. 

This represents a 4,500 per cent increase in the amount of money the government is paying for these missed payments since 2010. 

Companies are required to pay rents to landowners for oil and gas activity, whether to drill a well or install another related facility. When they don’t pay, landowners can apply to a tribunal to have those rents paid for by the province.

The payout is supposed to be a stopgap to make sure landowners aren’t out of pocket, with the government going after delinquent oil and gas companies to get them to repay the money.

In reality, that rarely happens.

Data obtained via a freedom of information request shows just $167,000 — less than half a per cent of the total paid out in 2024 — was recovered from oil and gas companies. 

“The bottom line is … these companies don’t have any money,” Shaun Fluker, a law professor and executive director of the Public Interest Law Clinic at the University of Calgary, said in an interview. “The money has been pulled out of the ground,” he said, explaining that many of these sites are older and produce very little in the way of oil or gas.

“The Crown is not going to recover these funds,” he added.

The total paid by the government on behalf of delinquent companies since 2010 is nearly $150 million, according to data from the province’s Land and Property Rights Tribunal, an independent, non-partisan tribunal that handles landowner claims for land rent. The annual figure has risen almost every year since 2010.

“This number is rising fast now,” Fluker said. “We can now see in the distance [that we’ll reach] half a billion dollars paid by the government — and up we go.”

When asked by The Narwhal about whether the data indicated an issue with the system, Mike Hartfield, the executive director of the Land and Property Rights Tribunal said by email, “That’s a question best answered by Albertans. The tribunal is focused on doing what it’s here to do — making fair and timely decisions for Albertans following the legislated process set out in the Surface Rights Act.”

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Environment and Protected Areas did not respond to emailed questions from The Narwhal.

Landowners can’t deny oil and gas companies access to their land, so the government promises compensation

There are currently more than 150,000 inactive and marginal oil and gas wells across Alberta. Inactive wells have not produced any oil or gas for months (or years). Marginal wells have a very low production. Taken together, they make up more than a third of all the wells in Alberta.

“There’s a huge number of so-called marginal sites out there that are inactive, but they haven’t been designated as such,” Fluker said. “The company’s not insolvent, but it’s just simply not doing anything with the facilities.”

Landowners bear the burden of oil and gas activity on their land, including disturbances to agricultural crops. Weeds, spills, leaks and soil compaction as a result of the wells can also cause issues.Land rent — also referred to as surface lease payments — is a critical way farmers and landowners are compensated for the loss of their land when it is occupied by oil and gas infrastructure. Ultimately, landowners do not have the power to refuse an oil and gas company access to their land.

As part of this arrangement, when an oil and gas company cannot — or will not — make its land rental payments, landowners can apply to the Alberta government to have the government pay rent on the company’s behalf. 

Once a landowner’s claim is verified by the tribunal, the minister of environment and protected areas issues payments to landowners from the government’s general revenue stream. The government is then supposed to try to recoup that amount from companies.

The tribunal itself has no ability to enforce repayment at that point. It can, however, terminate access rights for companies, which Hartfield noted “can serve as a strong incentive for operators to pay.” 

Fluker says the issue of unpaid land rents is “intertwined” with a number of issues when it comes to the liabilities of oil and gas companies, including an inability or unwillingness to cover the cost to clean up an old well, as well as outstanding municipal property taxes.

Unpaid land rent is in addition to unpaid municipal taxes

Land rents aren’t the only way oil and gas companies are costing individual landowners and small communities — many also owe unpaid property taxes to rural municipalities. In March, Rural Municipalities of Alberta announced that its members, made up of rural counties and municipal districts across the province, faced $68 million in unpaid taxes from oil and gas companies in 2024 alone. 

In the seven years the organization has been tracking the issue, at least $253.9 million of municipal property taxes have gone unpaid by oil and gas companies.

“The problem continues to worsen,” Kara Westerlund, the president of Rural Municipalities of Alberta, said in a statement at the time. 

“Oil and gas companies are willfully avoiding their property tax responsibilities. Yet, year after year, this issue persists due to a lack of proper industry regulation and accountability.”

Tribunal working to reduce wait times in the face of ‘exceptionally high’ landowner requests

In response to questions sent via email, Hartfield said the tribunal did not analyze trends in amounts paid out, but did note increased awareness around the compensation process, which he said was in part the result of increased engagement efforts.

Hartfield noted the tribunal has been involved in community information sessions — along with the Alberta Energy Regulator, Orphan Well Association and the Farmers’ Advocate Office — in the Alberta communities of Vegreville, Lac Ste. Anne, Delia, Stettler, Consort and Wheatland County, with more planned in the months ahead.

He also noted “advancements in technology, streamlined processes and red-tape reduction” mean the tribunal is “better equipped to manage high application volumes and continue reducing decision timelines.”

“The results speak for itself: back in 2022-23 decision timelines on these applications took as long as 12 months, whereas today we’re down to five months,” he added.

Still, Hartfield said the tribunal expects the total number of requests next year to be “similar.”

He added the tribunal has adapted “to handle exceptionally high volumes of applications — over 35,000 under the Surface Rights Act since 2016.”

‘Trying to squeeze whatever extra economic juice’ is left in wells

The Alberta government is currently developing what it is calling the Mature Assets Strategy, which “aims to maximize value and optimize resource recovery from mature oil and gas assets while effectively managing the closure of inactive sites.” Critics say this means the government is trying to prolong the life of old oil and gas wells.

“This government is interested in trying to squeeze whatever extra economic juice there is to squeeze out of these assets,” Fluker said.

But, he added, the approach so far has not dealt with the root causes of the unpaid rents and taxes problem.

“The unpaid surface lease issue is sort of like the bubbles percolating to the surface,” he said. 

“When marginal sites become even less economic than they were, companies stop paying: they stop paying the landowner, stop paying the contractors, they stop paying the property taxes,” he said. “And these are the things that percolate up.”— With files from Drew Anderson

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We’re chuffed to see photojournalist Amber Bracken’s work for The Narwhal has been nominated for a National Magazine Award!

Bracken’s work features a series of intimate portraits of residents of Fort Chipewyan, Alta. and was nominated in the photo essay and photojournalism category.

In Fort Chip, as locals call it, residents have long been worried about their water. Over two years ago, Imperial Oil discovered industrial wastewater leaks that were infiltrating groundwater from a mining site, and failed to tell residents about it for months.

In the wake of these revelations, Bracken travelled to Fort Chip to speak to residents about their relationship to water. She brought back an emotional and visually compelling photo essay in which people shared, in their own words, how the situation impacts them.

“Amber’s ability to put a human face on the effects of industry is always impressive and evocative,” executive editor Denise Balkissoon said. “The combination of these portraits and the soaring aerial views of the oilsands alongside really intimate, personal details is pure Bracken — and something every Canadian should read and see.” 

Bracken has travelled to Fort Chipewyan four times in recent years, including as part of feature reporting for The Narwhal about the initial reaction to the leak. 

During a 2024 trip to the region, Bracken invited various community members to meet with her at an Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation house she had permission to use, asking them to share what feelings the meeting brought up about their connection to water and their right to a healthy environment. 

“This story represents some of the things that I value most in journalism, including working with a talented, caring and invested team — and also having sustained interest and sustained coverage of issues that affect people’s everyday lives,” Bracken said.

“It’s not always easy to get to the community of Fort Chipewyan, and it means a lot to me that The Narwhal stood behind me to make a repeat visit and to try to tell these stories.”

Bracken heard from other community members about someone else they thought would want to talk — Claire Cardinal, who had been spending time in Edmonton for cancer treatment. Bracken met with her just months before she passed away from her illness.

“I’m fighting for my life,” Cardinal told Bracken. “Hopefully I can beat this,” Cardinal said of the cancer she believed was tied to the oilsands. “I want to be on this earth for another at least 10 years — just to see my grandson when they graduate and the two younger ones. Yeah. Fighting, fighting, fighting.” 

Cardinal passed away last summer from her illness.

The region has been found to have “higher than expected” cases of rare cancers, and it wasn’t until last year that the federal government finally agreed to assess the toxicity of compounds found in oilsands tailings.

“It was truly an honor to have Claire, Kenneth, Janelle, Jason, Lionel, Jean and Roy put their trust in me, and I’m really grateful to see their stories getting some of the attention that they’ve always deserved,” Bracken said. “I find myself thinking about Claire and her husband, Kenneth, and I do wish that Claire could be here to see the attention that her story has received.”

“Claire wanted her story to be told, and also for other women to read it,” Whiteknife said after the photo essay was published. “You just gotta think positive and pray and just go on with your life, but don’t think negative. Live life till the last day on earth. And that’s what my wife did.”

A story produced as part of a collaborative series between The Local and The Narwhal was also nominated in the investigative reporting category. The Local’s Wency Leung was recognized for her investigation into GFL, the Ontario-based waste management company that says it’s “Green For Life” — but its neighbours disagree.

The winners of the National Magazine Awards will be announced Friday, June 13, in Toronto.

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Will there be tariffs? Will they be 10 per cent, 25, 50? In a dizzying cycle of unrelenting news, you’d be excused for not being sure anymore.

But the latest round of tariffs could have real implications for an industry they don’t intend to target. 

U.S. President Donald Trump has recently taken aim at steel (and aluminum). These new tariffs will have huge implications for the Canadian steel industry — which sends as much as 99 per cent of its exports to the U.S. — as well as a wide array of Canadian products, far beyond steel itself.

But you don’t (usually) get steel without coal. It’s all part of the complicated web of impacts of a trade war. 

Here’s what you need to know as more Canadian commodities — potash made headlines last week! — get caught up in tariff impacts.

What’s the latest on Trump’s steel tariffs?

The United States has implemented 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminum. This is a different executive order from the one targeting all Canadian and Mexican goods that has captured Canadian’s attention for weeks. This metal-focused order was signed Feb. 10, and set the stage for tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to the U.S. beginning March 12.

In a flurry of threats this week, Trump abruptly promised to double the tariffs, meaning there would be 50 per cent tariffs on Canadian steel imported into the country. Then, just as abruptly, he backed down. 

Still, as of Wednesday, 25 per cent tariffs are now in place on steel and aluminum from Canada and the rest of the world. Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, calling Trump’s tariffs “completely unjustified, unfair and unreasonable,” announced dollar-for-dollar counter-tariffs in response.

This is not the first time Trump has brought in tariffs like these. Tariffs on Canadian steel also went into effect in 2018 during his first administration (also 25 per cent) and were lifted in 2019.

Back to basics: what’s steel used for?

Steel is one of the world’s most ubiquitous and important building materials, used in nearly every building, vehicle, machine, plane, ship, public transit system and bridge on the planet. 

The International Energy Agency has projected global demand for steel will increase by more than a third by 2050. Steel will, in part, help build new infrastructure such as wind turbines, electric vehicles and high-speed trains in the cleaner, greener global economy envisioned to facilitate the push to net-zero carbon emissions.

But all that production comes with an enormous environmental footprint. According to the International Energy Agency, the steel and iron industry produces more carbon pollution than any other heavy industry. 

The industry is responsible for between seven and nine per cent of the global emissions created from the burning of fossil fuels, according to the World Steel Association.

As much as 99 per cent of Canada’s steel exports head to the U.S., according to the International Trade Administration.

What does coal have to do with steel tariffs?

Coal — known as metallurgical coal — has long been used to manufacture steel.

The steel industry is the world’s largest industrial consumer of coal, according to the International Energy Agency.

Estimates vary, but generally one tonne of steel requires about 0.7 tonnes of coal.

Wait, where does steel come from, exactly?

Steel is an alloy — a mixture of iron and other metals. Coal is used to get pure iron, which is hard to find naturally.

No need to get your chemistry textbooks out, here’s the gist of a very technical process: coal is heated to super-high temperatures (more than 1,000 degrees celsius) to make a carbon-dense substance called coke. The coke is combined with iron ore — iron and oxygen — in what’s known as a blast furnace. So, basic heating, and then a chemical reaction that strips oxygen off the iron ore (which is way more energy intensive) — leaves you with the pure iron needed for steel. 

The majority of steel is produced this way, but some companies have been experimenting with less energy-intensive techniques, like hydrogen.

How much coal in Canada is used to make steel?

Coal mines in Canada produce tens of millions of tonnes of coal annually.

More than half of that is used to make steel — 59 per cent, according to Natural Resources Canada. The remainder is what’s known as thermal coal: coal used to generate electricity. 

The federal and provincial governments have moved quickly to phase out the use of thermal coal to generate electricity, signing on to agreements to phase out coal-fired electricity by 2030. Many coal-fired electricity plants have quickly switched to natural gas. But that hasn’t stopped thermal coal from being mined and shipped overseas.

Where is Canadian steel-making coal produced?

Coal is primarily a western product. According to Natural Resources Canada, British Columbia is the hotbed, home to 59 per cent of Canadian coal production. It’s followed by Alberta at just over a quarter of production. Saskatchewan contributes 13 per cent of Canadian coal production.

In B.C., the vast majority of coal — 95 per cent — is used to make steel.

According to the B.C. government, the coal industry in the province employs thousands of people and generates billions of dollars of revenue each year. The province notes that “coal production currently represents over half of the total mineral production revenues in the province.”

Does Canadian coal stay in Canada?

The B.C. government says most of its coal is shipped internationally via coal ports on the West Coast, while a smaller percentage gets shipped to steel mills in eastern Canada.

But since Trump has targeted all of Canada’s metallurgical coal customers around the world with new tariffs on steel, it remains to be seen whether their market could soon dry up.

That could leave the industry — especially in coal-reliant regions — rather exposed to a trade war.

What are the potential impacts of U.S. steel tariffs?

The Canadian Steel Producers Association has recently emphasized how interconnected the U.S. and Canada steel industries are, saying there is $20 billion in annual steel trade between the two countries.

As The Globe and Mail has reported, last time Trump imposed 25 per cent steel tariffs, back in May 2018, Canadian steel exports fell by around 20 per cent (they later rebounded when the tariffs were lifted). And if steel production is decreasing, it follows that the steel industry’s consumption of coal is decreasing, too.

What will happen this time? Only time will tell. But industry advocates are ringing alarm bells. 

“If we can’t get out of the tariffs, we need to hit back hard,” Catherine Cobden, president of the Canadian Steel Producers Association, told the Financial Post last month, adding the tariffs could quickly lead to a decrease in production at Canadian steel plants — and job losses.

And a decrease in steel production would almost surely impact the Canadian coal industry.

For more coverage on how tariffs are impacting natural resources and the environment around you, check out our page on Canada-U.S. relations.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.