Landowners endured years of losses due to late payments made by delinquent oil companies

Some landowners in Edmonton are taking a stand with blockades against what they say are delinquent oil and gas companies.

The group said MAGA Energy has not paid rent for three years, so the company is no longer allowed to occupy their land.

On Thursday, landowners Mark Dorin and Dale Braun installed wooden barriers on their farm southwest of Edmonton, where MAGA Energy operates a pumpjack.

“If I own the land and don’t pay the bills, I lose the land, I lose the house,” Dorin told reporters in front of one of the company’s active wells.

“But look behind me, we have (a) pumpjack active here… many more pumpjacks there, on our property, all operating and they haven’t paid their bills.”

Braun, who with his family owns a 75 percent stake in the land, said he is not anti-oil and gas and he believes Premier Danielle Smith’s government is on the right track when it comes to the oil and gas industry. But he said he just wants his company to “grow.”

“The law has been broken here. The law is violated every day and ignored,” Braun said.

Dorin said that now that the group has terminated the lease over the missing payments, MAGA Energy is not allowed on the land unless its employees are there to decommission the well.

“That’s Alberta law and we will enforce it here,” he said.

He added that the company usually has staff on site at least once a day.

MAGA Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Dorin said the company took over the lease about a decade ago and initially had no problems making the payments, which he said amounted to $12,000 a year.

Last year the Narwhal – an independent environmental news outlet – reported that MAGA Energy’s main refinery was closing in 2023, cutting off a major revenue stream.

Dorin said he and other landowners with shares in the site have tried to get the provincial energy regulator to take action, but those efforts have been unsuccessful.

“They should be balancing the rights of industry with the rights of the people who own this land. This is not happening,” he said.

“We are losing the social license of the industry that built this province, and thousands of landowners across this province are absolutely fed up with this lawlessness and double standards.”

The failure of oil and gas companies to pay landowners or pay property taxes to municipalities is a long-standing problem in Alberta, and MAGA Energy is just one of the companies in arrears.

Landowners like Dorin and Braun and associations representing rural towns in the province have been calling on the government for years to fix the problem, leading to several policy changes.

But Dorin said the province doesn’t need new laws to address the issue; instead he said existing laws just need to be enforced.

In 2023, the provincial government implemented new regulations requiring the Alberta Energy Regulator to block the transfer of oil and gas leases to companies that were more than $20,000 in arrears. The Foundation for Investigative Journalism reported last month that despite the rule, some companies, including MAGA Energy, have been successful in acquiring new wells.

When asked for comment on the blockade on Thursday, the regulator said in a statement that the agreement was private between the landowner and the company.

“The AER cannot enforce commitments between landowners and companies that are not included in the written agreement,” he said.

Energy Secretary Brian Jean called Dorin and Braun “activists,” but he also said that no system is perfect, “especially if it’s run by the government.”

“But I will tell you that this government is focused like a laser on this particular issue,” Jean told reporters at the legislature in Edmonton.

“For the first time the government is really looking at the current process and trying to make the process much better.”

Jean, in a statement late Thursday, added that landowners who haven’t been paid by energy companies can file claims with the province’s property rights tribunal, which could order the government to compensate landowners, not private companies.

Dorin said it was “a complete joke” that taxpayers’ money would be handed out when a company refuses to pay.

“It’s roads, hospitals, libraries (and) other services that are not funded,” he said.

Opposition NDP energy critic Nagwan Al-Guneid said Dorin and Braun are not alone in their fight against oil companies not paying rent or taxes, calling it a “crisis in liability management” in the province.

“Companies have promises to fulfill to landowners, and the question is how regulators apply the law to ensure that companies fulfill those commitments to landowners,” he said.

“Regular need to regulate, governments need to start regulating and ensuring that companies meet their commitments.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 12, 2026.

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