Albertans Pay More Than Big Oil in Royalties as Cleanup Costs Mount

Alberta taxpayers are footing the bill for public services, contributing more to the provincial budget than big oil and gas companies in royalties.

In fact, according to the Government of Alberta, personal income taxes from Albertans are expected to exceed $2.7 billion this year, outpacing the province's royalty revenue from the industry by that same amount.

Last year was no different, with taxpayers paying $2 billion more in royalties than they received.

This means ordinary working Albertans are shouldering a bigger burden for public services than their corporate counterparts, including companies like CNRL, Suncor, Cenovus, and Imperial Oil, which collectively raked in over $20 billion in profits in 2025.

The situation gets even more stark when accounting for unpaid cleanup costs, estimated to be around $320 billion by the University of Calgary's Public Interest Law Clinic.

This figure is staggering, representing nearly two-thirds of all historic royalties received by Alberta from the oil and gas industry since 1970. If these cleanup costs are passed on to taxpayers, it would effectively erase most of the province's resource revenue.