First publihsed on April 28, 2026 at The Narwhal. Full story available here.

Some ranchers leasing public land from the Alberta government are receiving windfalls from oil and gas wells drilled on that land, according to a new analysis from The Narwhal. In some cases, taxpayers are on the hook for those payments. 

Though successive governments have long known of the multi-million dollar issue, none have acted to stop it. 

An auditor general report in 2015 castigated the province for allowing ranchers to earn undue profit off of public land. “Personal financial benefits are being derived from public assets,” the auditor general wrote. The auditor general pointed to examples at the time where ranchers were receiving five times in oil and gas compensation compared to what they paid in rent.

In other jurisdictions, like Saskatchewan, compensation from oil and gas companies does not go to ranchers using public land to graze cattle. It goes to the government.

Yet, to this day in Alberta, the system remains and problems have only increased as more and more oil and gas companies walk away from wells, or stop paying the compensation they owe to use the land, leaving the bills to taxpayers and languishing well sites to ranchers. It’s the result of decades of regulatory failure. 

Compensation from oil and gas companies, similar to a surface lease on private land, is for impact and damage from those operations, including everything from chasing cattle after gates are left open, to weed control, loss of access to land as well as pollution and noise. 

There are approximately 5,700 grazing leases across Alberta, covering roughly 5.2 million acres, or about five per cent of the province’s land base. To get a clearer picture of the issues in 2026, The Narwhal focused on Cypress County, the County of Newell and what are called the Special Areas in southeastern Alberta. We sourced public records, including leaseholder maps and government payments to landowners when oil and gas companies fail to pay what’s owed.

An analysis of data from the Land and Property Rights Tribunal, a government body that directs tax dollars to landowners and leaseholders when oil and gas companies don’t pay their rent, found that since 2021, $5 million in taxpayer money has been paid to grazing leaseholders in the region to cover company debts.

The Narwhal tried to verify the total with the tribunal. Executive director Mike Hartfield said the tribunal’s database is “designed to be self-service in nature.”

“Given the nature of this request and the time and staff resources it would take, we’re unable to verify this figure,” he said by email. 

The issue is political, and particularly acute in the deeply conservative ridings of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and federal Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre. Here, a significant percentage of the land is public and rented to ranchers to graze their cattle — although some plots are so thick with wells it’s difficult to imagine enough room to graze. It’s a potential boon, but also a significant headache, for ranchers.

“[Grazing leaseholders] are rich and influential in their communities, and not just a little bit on either point,” Shannon Phillips, the NDP environment minister at the time of the auditor general’s report in 2015, said in a recent interview. “Historically, it’s an area of Alberta that has flexed its muscles within conservative movements. And, once again, not just a little bit.”

The Narwhal contacted seven Alberta ranchers with grazing leases in southern Alberta, all of whom either didn’t reply, or declined interviews, but did speak with Lindsye Murfin, who represents both a leaseholder and stock grower association.

The office of Grant Hunter, the minister of environment and protected areas who is responsible for the grazing leases, did not respond to questions from The Narwhal.

“I don’t know why anybody in their right mind would touch this topic,” one leaseholder, who declined to be interviewed, said over the phone. 

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