Alberta NDP alleges corruption, conflict of interest in Premier Danielle Smith’s office
Global News
The NDP say there's a conflict of interest in the premier's office as it hired Kris Kinnear, who like Smith lobbied for the Liability Management Incentive Program (formerly RStar).
Allegations of corruption are swirling at the Alberta legislature, but the premier is dismissing them.
The NDP says there is a clear conflict of interest in the premier’s office as Danielle Smith hired Kris Kinnear — director of Sustaining Alberta’s Energy Network (SAEN) — as a special project manager.
Kinnear — like Smith — lobbied for the controversial Liability Management Incentive Program (formerly known as RStar) and was one of the minds behind the oil well clean-up program.
Program proponents say the government should incentivize oil companies to clean up their own decommissioned wells by providing them with a break on royalties, which is the price Alberta charges a company to develop a resource.
The program would encourage the cleanup of old wells and drilling of new ones by granting royalty credits on new production based on remediation spending. That credit could be sold or applied against revenue earned from new production to reduce provincial royalties.
Proponents say RStar or something like it would encourage new drilling, help clean up Alberta’s 170,000 abandoned wells and create jobs.
Environmentalists, landowners and analysts within Alberta Energy and even the Rural Municipalities of Alberta have all opposed the program.
RStar has also been widely criticized by energy economists, who say it would transfer money to companies who don’t need it to do work that most are doing anyway. They say energy companies are already legally obliged to clean up their mess.