Just over a month after Mark Dorin publicly tore up his lease agreement with MAGA Energy and blocked access to the oil and gas company’s pumpjack on his property near Edmonton, Alberta’s energy regulator issued an order suspending all of MAGA’s operations “to protect the public and environment.”  

On April 22, Jon Keeler, director of field operations for the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), ordered MAGA to shut down [pdf] 581 wells, 108 facilities, and 801 pipeline segments over the Calgary-based company’s “unpaid taxes, debts, and failure to meet its regulatory and liability obligations.”

“This is the right thing to do,” Dorin wrote on social media. “Better late than never,” he said, citing three years of unpaid rent from the delinquent company. Dorin said he blocked the company’s access because he was “pushed to his limit” dealing with inaction on the part of the AER.

Keeler’s 52-page suspension order for MAGA details a long list of activities and incidents of non-compliance investigated by the AER, dating back to March of 2024. The company did not reply to The Energy Mix’s request for comment.

Alberta Energy Minister Brian Jean said in a statement to CBC News the order “shows Alberta’s policies and regulations work,” vowing that companies will be “shut down” if they don’t meet their environmental or taxpayer responsibilities.

But in March, Jean had dismissed Dorin’s dispute with MAGA, calling him an “activist,” telling The Canadian Press that no system was perfect, “especially when it’s run by the government.”

The provincial government worked with the Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) for months on the issue of deadbeat fossils failing to pay their property taxes. While announcing a strategy in March, the province also admitted it likely won’t ever recover the $250 million owed to Alberta towns that hosted oil and gas facilities.

“We can’t go back and collect from companies that don’t exist anymore,” Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams said at the time.

RMA President Kara Westerlund said communities have been trying to draw attention to the problem, as well as a $25-billion infrastructure deficit, for years, adding “every penny” is needed for things like “roads, bridges, culverts, wastewater, and water.”

The new plan calls for better communication and stricter enforcement in the future. But Drew Yewchuk, a public interest lawyer and PhD student at the University of British Columbia, told the Investigative Journalism Foundation (IJF) the AER and municipalities have “differing interests that put them in conflict when an oil and gas company is failing.”

“The AER’s priority is to use the company’s remaining funds to cover closure liabilities, whereas municipalities want the funds to cover their back taxes,” said Yewchuk.

The AER is 100% funded by the energy and minerals industry it regulates, a model used by other agencies including the Alberta Utilities Commission and British Columbia’s energy regulator. The board of directors of the AER is composed solely of members from industry, and the regulator labels itself as “oil and gas” on LinkedIn, which is distinct from the BC regulator, which selected the “government administration” category for its profile.

Despite creating rules in 2023 allowing the AER to block the transfer of new well licences to insolvent or struggling companies, the regulator granted new licences to 21 companies that met that definition, the Investigative Journalism Foundation (IJF) reported in February. MAGA was one of those companies, acquiring 191 new well licences between 2021 and 2024 while doubling the amount it owed in overdue taxes.

The AER order gives MAGA 14 days to shut down safely and includes a list of other requirements with various timelines for reporting back to the regulator on compliance.

Polling shows Albertans overwhelmingly want oil and gas companies held responsible for cleaning up their own messes, and for paying overdue taxes and rent owed to landowners.

“Albertans have a pretty strong consensus,” veteran pollster Janet Brown told The Mix in October, with 84% saying the government should require companies to cover their unpaid property taxes and 84% wanting them to settle unpaid land rent. Brown said she rarely sees research with numbers this high.

Respondents were nearly unanimous on the question of site cleanup, with 92% of respondents saying the oil and gas companies should pay. Brown conducted the poll for the Coalition for Responsible Energy, an alliance of individuals and groups calling for regulatory reform in Alberta.