Mark Dorin, a landowner and landowner advocate, gathered the media in southwest Edmonton on March 12, to raise awareness of an oil company that isn’t bothering to pay its bills.
The 103-acre parcel is part of a syndicate also owned by Dale Braun, who owns a 75 per cent stake in the land.
Read Also
CUSMA review 2026: What agriculture needs to know about trade negotiations
Experts doubt the U.S., Canada and Mexico will maintain tariff-free trade under CUSMA when the review begins July 1.
WHY IT MATTERS: When oil companies don’t pay landowners, taxpayers pick up the tab through Alberta’s land rights tribunal.
Dorin said there seem to be two sets of laws in Alberta. One is for everyday people that own land. The other laws are for oil companies, and they can’t seem to follow the rules, he said.
“If I’m a landowner and I don’t pay my bills, I lose my land, I lose my house. It’s that simple. But look behind me, we’ve got an active pumpjack and have more pumpjacks on our land and they haven’t paid their bills,” he said.
MAGA Energy hasn’t paid rent since 2022
Wells were initially drilled on the land in 1951. Make Alberta Great Again (MAGA) Energy, based in Calgary, took over the lease about a decade ago in 2016. The land is currently being rented out for farming.
MAGA has not paid rent on the land in three years, and there have been no consequences. In 2023, MAGA Energy’s main refinery closed, which cut off a major revenue stream.
“Today things are going to change,” said Dorin. “There are landowners in Alberta, all over the province, in the same situation.”
MAGA is not the first oil and gas company to fail to pay landowners.
There are many concerned groups involved in the landowner rights issue, such as the newly formed Coalition for Responsible Energy, the Alberta Wilderness Association, the Seniors Climate Action Network, the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment and the Council of Canadians.
Dorin said the land rights tribunal has 6,000 applications filed a year, and landowners are owed $40 million, up from $30 million last year.
Unpaid leases shift financial burden to Alberta taxpayers
When companies like MAGA refuse to pay their bills, many landowners go to the Land and Property Rights tribunal to get compensation. This money is taken out of taxpayer funds.
“Those wells, the taxpayer is paying for those jacks on that site right now, and as you can see, they’re still operating,” he said.
“This creates a situation where companies feel they don’t have to pay, because someone is going to have to pick up that bill on their behalf,” said Dorin.
Dorin said the province loses money when oil companies don’t pay their bills, and that money could be used for public services.
One of the tanks on his land lets out poisonous gas emissions. The emissions have occasionally enveloped a nearby freeway. There is also a flare on the land that has flared continuously since 2019, even though it is supposed to be for emergencies. The compressor is broken and hasn’t been fixed.
When an oil company defaults, the Alberta Energy Regulator is supposed to act.
“They’re supposed to make sure the company doesn’t get more licences,” he said.
MAGA Energy has skirted this issue and is still acquiring new wells.
Dorin said the Investigative Journalism Foundation discovered MAGA has acquired 191 well licences in 2024 and 2025, despite the fact they have unpaid bills all over the province.
Landowner terminates lease, erects physical barrier
“I believe in the rule of law. I’ve reported it to the company. I’ve reported it to the regulator. I’ve spent hundreds of hours and tens of thousands on this and gotten nowhere,” he said.
“I filed a formal report to the Alberta Energy Regulator to shut all these wells down,” he said.
The Alberta Energy Regulator has refused to reply to the complaints, Dorin explained.
In January, he sent a letter to MAGA with a demand for the company to pay their three years of rent.
He received no reply, so he terminated the lease, since the oil company has not complied.
“Terminating that lease means they don’t have the right to be here anymore. I’m going to make it official right now,” he said, and tore up the lease in front of the audience.
Dorin said he wants MAGA Energy to pay their bills, shut down the wells, clean up and get off the land. He wants the regulator to step in and do their job.
Dorin has not hired lawyers yet and hopes he doesn’t have to go that route.
Braun and Dorin set out a wooden barrier on their land, preventing the oil company employees from entering. MAGA Energy isn’t allowed on the land unless its employees are there to decommission wells. MAGA usually has staff on site at least once a day.
