Even though the payments were sent in error, the Alberta cabinet has decided not to ask 2,900 households to repay carbon tax rebates totalling between $200,000 and $400,000.

A choice group of new Albertans cashed in on the so-called Alberta advantage late last year when unsolicited cheques from the Canada Revenue Agency arrived in their mailboxes, bearing their names.

Mike Brown, press secretary to Finance Minister Joe Ceci, said the overpayment was due to a systems error.

Administered by the CRA on behalf of the Alberta government, the system didn't properly account for the residency requirement, Brown said Friday.

Cabinet approved the move to not seek repayment this week.

To be eligible for the carbon tax rebate, recipients must have lived in Alberta for a minimum of three months. Those who got the cheques in error hadn't met that requirement.

The average amount overpaid by the CRA to each households was about $100, said Brown.

The decision not to recoup the payments was based on practicality and fairness, he said.

"Some of these people would have costs related to the carbon levy already.

"It would be administratively costly to bring this money back, and we also don't want to penalize Alberta families for something that's not their fault.

"We're talking about 2,900 payments out of 1.2 million that go out. Things like this can occur and we try to minimize it as much as possible."

Alberta's carbon tax is offset by a comprehensive rebate program that sends quarterly cheques to middle- and low-income residents.

The payments are intended to help pay for the higher costs of everything from gasoline to home heating.

Rebate wrinkles

The rebate program has hit snags before.

When it first rolled out, the families of a small number of deceased recipients were asked to repay cheques that had been sent to their loved ones.

After public blowback, the government changed its position, and absorbed the cost. In that case, the finance minister sent each family a letter of apology and returned the carbon levy, Brown said.

That was "another small number of cases back in 2017," said Brown. He said a small number of mistakes can be expected during the rollout of a new program.

UCP leader Jason Kenney has said that scrapping the carbon tax would be among the first orders of business should he form government after the next provincial election.