Alberta and Ontario are drowning in toxic oilfield leftovers

Aging wells in Alberta and Ontario are leaking, and no one’s stepping up to fix them

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Alberta and Ontario are sitting on a growing environmental and financial time bomb—aging oil and gas infrastructure that’s leaking, dangerous and too expensive to clean up. Both provinces are struggling, and both need help. It’s time they teamed up and asked Ottawa to help fund a national fix.

While Canada frets about building new energy infrastructure, it must also confront the legacy of what’s already in the ground: decaying and, in many cases, abandoned. These “mature assets,” typically old, inactive oil and gas wells, are often left behind after production stops. When companies vanish or go bankrupt, the wells become “orphans,” with no one left to clean them up.

The scale of the problem is especially evident in Alberta, where industry veteran Dave Yager didn’t mince words. Hired to write Alberta’s Mature Assets Strategy, he called it a “big, stinking pile of shit” at a recent rural landowner meeting. It was a blunt summary of what many already know and smell.

Ontario has its own version: the “Big Stink” in Norfolk County. That’s the nickname locals use to describe the overpowering hydrogen sulfide odour—think rotten eggs—leaking from decades-old oil wells. An environmental firm called it the worst problem of its kind in the province.

As the crisis deepens, landowners in both provinces are bearing the brunt. They face health risks, unusable land and no clear answers.

Take Alberta’s Dwight Popowich. He farms near Two Hills and has an old well in his field that worries him. He’s been told, he says, it could take 12 years before industry gets around to looking at it. He’s pushing the Alberta Energy Regulator hard. “It’s a betrayal of every Albertan who trusted our government to do the right thing,” Popowich said in a press release announcing his latest advocacy effort.

In Ontario, Paul Jongerden has lived with the “Big Stink” for years, enduring the smell and fearing for her health. “It’s nauseating. Burning eyes, sore throat. Like rotten eggs, but with a burn to it.”

Beyond the personal toll, the central question is who pays to clean it all up. Some of these assets still have owners. Others are orphaned, left behind by bankrupt companies.

In Alberta, the Orphan Well Association handles cleanup, funded by an industry levy. But the list keeps growing, and the wait gets longer. In Ontario, the burden falls on the landowner, who must then turn to the province for help. There’s no clear rule ensuring polluters pay. In both provinces, the gap between what needs fixing and what money is available keeps widening.

Estimates vary, but “billions of dollars” isn’t off the mark. Public frustration is growing as more Canadians grasp the scale of the mess. Though the worst effects are rural, the cost of inaction could hit everyone through environmental damage, health risks and taxpayer-funded bailouts.

Smart politicians should get ahead of the possibility that affected landowners may soon begin organizing across provinces. Alberta and Ontario should combine their expertise and make a multibillion-dollar “Rebuild Canada” pitch to Prime Minister Mark Carney and his cabinet.

Bill C-5, recent federal legislation aimed at improving regulatory coordination across provinces, gives both provinces a legislative opening for a joint cleanup strategy.

It would be a compelling national unity story: two provinces collaborating to build a remediation and reclamation economy. One that creates jobs, restores land and holds industry accountable for what it left behind.

Cleanup is polarizing. It’s about money, public health, the environment and industrial actors who didn’t follow through. The longer it drags on, the more it pits landowners against companies and communities against government.

Yager’s report is a place to start. Its strength lies in tracing the root causes of the problem. That history offers a roadmap for what comes next. Neither province landed here overnight. Years of deferral, denial and decay brought us to this point. Yager outlines six pillars of action. The consultation wasn’t perfect—some say it was skewed—but it was engagement nonetheless.

Ontario could adapt the model, then partner with Alberta to make the case to Ottawa for long-term funding. A real energy superpower knows how to clean up after itself. Canada should prove it.

This isn’t just about two provinces with aging oilfields. It’s about how we handle what’s left behind—and who ends up paying the price.

Bill Whitelaw is a director and advisor to many industry boards, including the Canadian Society for Evolving Energy, which he chairs. He speaks and comments frequently on the subjects of social licence, innovation and technology, and energy supply networks.