Site Rehabilitation Program – Grant funding status

Overview

The Site Rehabilitation Program – which provides grant funding to oil field service companies to do closure work on oil and gas sites in Alberta – launched on May 1, 2020. It is vital in achieving one of government’s top priorities, by helping get thousands of Albertans back to work. This program is expected to generate almost 5,300 direct jobs and lead to indirect employment – and economic benefits – across the province, as other businesses will benefit from the increased closure work occurring in many rural areas across the province.

Funding Allocation Report

The Site Rehabilitation Program (SRP) is now closed to new applications. The program overall is a resounding success, with federal oil and gas relief funding helping put Albertans back to work by speeding up well, pipeline, and site closure efforts across the province. The program has, and continues to help workers and families. It’s also building businesses and creating economic benefits in Indigenous communities through showcasing Indigenous talent in environmental clean up across the province.

Approximately $1 billion in grant funding has been approved for more than 500 Alberta-based companies, creating more than 4,700 jobs so far. More than 20,500 wells have been approved for abandonment and more than 12,300 have been approved for reclamation.

• Site Rehabilitation Program: Summary of funding process

You can reach the program by phone at 780-641-9083, toll-free at 1-833-680-9083, or email at [email protected].

Program Funding Allocation Summary

Throughout the program, 37,589 applications were approved. This provided $1 billion in funding available for closure work on sites across Alberta.

The Government of Alberta contributed $3.6 million in administration costs in the program’s first 2 years, and has budgeted $2.2 million in 2022-23. None of the $1 billion provided by the Government of Canada was directed towards administration of the SRP.

The SRP was able to reach the goal of attaining approximately $1 billion in grants committed because applicants, stakeholders and Indigenous communities worked hard and provided valuable improvements to government throughout this program.

At the time of the decision to increase allocations for Periods 5 and 6, early analysis indicated that the program would be significantly underutilized. The revised allocations represented the maximum available to applicants, but were not guarantees of funding. As set out in program documents, grant applications were still required to align with program guidelines in order to be approved.

Despite requests to do so, the Government of Alberta did not claw back allocations that had not yet been used before March 31, 2022.  Through conversations with industry, it was determined that increasing allocations would provide incentives for licensees to accelerate the application process to help maximize program funding.

The funding agreement with the Government of Canada included deadlines that were required to be met as a condition of the funding. The deadline for government to make all program funding commitments was originally March 31, 2022 at 4:30 p.m.

To maximize program benefits, the Government of Alberta requested an extension on the program deadlines from the Government of Canada.

This extension required that Alberta make all SRP funding commitments by May 15, 2022. Any funding not committed to approved applications is to be returned to the Government of Canada.

Final Review Period

All decisions for allocating funds were based on the business rules for the program as outlined in the program guidelines and supplemental guidelines for each period on the site rehabilitation program page. Applications that did not meet the criteria were not approved for program funding.

To ensure fairness to all applicants, resources were focused on ensuring all applications submitted were reviewed and processed prior to May 15, 2022 as required in the federal funding agreement. Many of the applications were reviewed after the close of the official application submission deadline of March 31, 2022. Applications were reviewed and processed as they were received.

The full $1 billion was committed before some maximum licensee/community allocations were reached. However, no applications were declined because of lack of remaining funding for the program. Applications were declined in accordance with program guidelines, and while additional required information could be obtained from applicants during the application periods, that was not possible after the final application deadline and the $1 billion fund limit was reached.

Resubmissions of applications, even to amend minor errors, were not accepted after 4:30 p.m. on March 31, 2022. This excludes Period 6 applications tied to allocation trackers submitted by March 31, 2022. These applications could be submitted up until May 2, 2022. Requirements in the federal funding agreement prohibit the re-evaluation or resubmission of applications after the May 15, 2022 deadline.

Application and project status

April 28, 2023:

• 34,636 approved applications have all work completed
  • 17,514 approved applications completed for abandonment
  • 3,522 approved applications completed for phase 1 environmental site assessments
  • 4,571 approved applications completed for phase 2 environmental site assessments
  • 8,165 approved applications completed for reclamation
  • 1,794 approved applications completed for remediation

May 15, 2022:

• 67,630 applications have been submitted
• 67,630 applications have been processed (covering grant periods 1 through 8)
  • 10,471 applications were re-assessed under reassessment period 1B
• 37,589 applications have been approved
  • 55.2% of approved applications are for abandonment work, representing $550.8 million in funding
  • 44.8% of approved applications are for remediation and reclamation work (including Phase 1 and 2 environmental site assessments), representing $448.8 million in funding
• 11,952 Indigenous contractor’s applications have been approved
• Approximately $1 billion in grant funding has been approved and is being allocated to more than 500 Alberta-based companies
  • This funding will lead to the creation of approximately 4,787 jobs, as estimated by oil field services companies in their applications.
• 20,501 wells have been approved for abandonment funding
• 14,926 well sites have been approved for phase 1 environmental site assessment funding
• 5,456 well sites have been approved for phase 2 environmental site assessment funding
• 12,352 well sites have been approved for reclamation funding
• 1,281 well sites have been approved for remediation funding

These maps show all grant funded Site Rehabilitation abandonment projects and all grant funded Site Rehabilitation remediation/reclamation projects in Alberta to date.

*These statistics will be updated every Friday.

Contact

Connect with the Site Rehabilitation Program, Program Design Implementation and Monitoring Section:

Email: [email protected]

Address:
Alberta Energy and Minerals
9945 108 Street NW
Edmonton, Alberta  T5K 2G6