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A new report suggests the Alberta government subsidizes the fossil fuel industry to the tune of $2 billion per year, money the report’s authors say would be better spent on diversification and helping the province move toward renewable energy.

However, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers disagrees, arguing the government programs that benefit the oil and gas industry are not, in fact, subsidies at all.

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According to the report published Thursday by Environmental Defence and the International Institute for Sustainable Development, over the past three fiscal years, the Alberta government has subsidized the fossil fuel industry by at least $1.6 billion each year, with more than $2 billion in subsidies alone in 2017-18. These subsidies — which the report’s authors define as everything from tax incentives to royalty holidays to research grants to the government’s investment in the North West Redwater Sturgeon Refinery — come at a time when Alberta also has a Climate Leadership Plan aimed at reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions.