There isn't one issue in this province that makes me angrier at the complete lack of corporate understanding than this one. We cut and cap thousands of decs of gas that could be used as a resource in this province.

TLDR; rather than using the oil/gas of wells that are uneconomic in the current resource price climate for its own purposes, the government throws them away.

You can go out tomorrow with some funding and drill a gas well. Let's say you have 700,000 to drill a big one up north somewhere. Now let's say there's a complication while drilling - you get stuck in the hole. You go back to your investors for a cash call, now you're 1 million dollars into the well - but things are going well, resource prices are steady and you're paying down your debt in a timely fashion.

Now you grow your company by drilling 9 more wells, they all have a similar profile except one - it's a real boomer producing more than 5 times as much as the others.

Now let's say the price of gas drops precipitously, and you only have one gas well out of your ten that is making you money - the others aren't even covering their own operating costs and the gas plant you're pumping into isn't playing ball and lowering rates.

You look for buyers for your company, but nobody will take it because your Limited Liability Rating (all companies in Alberta must maintain a ratio of wells that are operating of 20% of total well count or higher, recently doubled by the NDP from 10%) is far to high.

So, you go bankrupt. Bankruptcy court sells your one good well to cover some of your debts, the other 9 are turned over to the orphan well fund. Remember though, those wells produce gas - it just wasn't economic to do it anymore.

Rather than cut and cap should we not make use of the resource? Take taxes and royalty payments out of the equation and maybe dig a few pipelines in for government purposes and these wells could be used for the public good - power generation, test geothermal ideas, practice good science, etc - they aren't all wastelands, and we're spending good money throwing them away.