Resolution

WHEREAS increasingly, oil and gas companies are defaulting on their tax payment obligations for municipal and education purposes, thus forcing both governing bodies to lower the level of service to their ratepayers;

WHEREAS oil and gas companies use municipal infrastructure to access their facilities that provide revenue;

WHEREAS by defaulting on their tax obligations, oil and gas companies are not providing the necessary funds to municipalities for the upkeep/repair and upgrades to the same municipal infrastructure they use to produce their revenue which is also used by all RM residents;

WHEREAS an increasing number of oil and gas companies are having their assets sold through court orders that often contain “vesting orders” that not only protect purchasers from paying both municipal and education tax arrears, but also include direction from the Courts to have these tax arrears written off;

WHEREAS the amount of oil and gas taxes in the RM of Manitou Lake has had to write off over $1.5 million in municipal taxes between 2015 – 2021; WHEREAS the arrears of oil and gas taxes as of December 31, 2021 is $863,514,.31;

WHEREAS these outstanding tax arrears reduce the amount of funding available for maintaining infrastructure and services within RMs;

BE IT RESOLVED that APAS lobby the Province of Saskatchewan to support the RMs and landowners to change legislation to hold oil and gas companies responsible for the municipal taxes they owe.