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After that, the government will focus on “directing funds to where they can have the most significant environmental benefits or where some operators have failed landowners and have not paid their lease rents.”

The funding comes from the $1.7 billion the federal government announced last week for cleaning up abandoned or orphaned oil well sites, and contractors will apply via a new online portal.

Contracts of up to $30,000 per application will be accepted May 1-31 for the first allotment of money. From May 15 to June 15, another $100 million will be set aside for projectswhere government is paying landowners as required under theSurface Rights Act.

Savage said future increments will be developed for larger projects.

NDP energy critic Irfan Sabir called the federal money “welcome news” but criticized Premier Jason Kenney for waiting for help from the federal government and not acting sooner.

“I hope Premier Kenney and the UCP have further plans to support the energy sector and the women and men who work in it,” Sabir said in a statement. “And in the future, I hope they take the opportunity to enforce the polluter pay principle and ensure that municipalities and landowners are properly compensated.”

Savage said there are companies that have been hit hard over the past five years and “don’t have two pennies to rub together” to help with the cleanup.

“They’re just going to tip over and tip over those wells into the orphan wells funds. So it’s those companies that will need to have 100 per cent of the cost paid for by the program.”