Chiefs, province publicly call out feds for taking back unspent oil and gas clean up dollars

 By Shari Narine  Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Alberta chiefs are asking the Liberal government to allow them to keep millions in unspent federal dollars and dedicate that money to oil and gas site rehabilitation on reserves. As an economic driver for the energy industry that had work shut down due to COVID-19 pandemic health measures, the federal government in 2020 allotted $1.7 billion to the three prairie provinces through the Site Rehabilitation Program (SRP) to perform well,  pipeline and oil and gas site closure and reclamation work. Of the $1 billion received by Alberta, the Indian Resources Council (IRC) and Indigenous leaders were successful in lobbying the Alberta government to allocate 10 per cent to be used for work in Indigenous communities. The SRP fund was administered by the province….

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