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“There’s an opportunity to bring us back to a competitive jurisdiction through this process so that would be the outcome that would serve Albertans best.”

Royalties are payments made by the oil and gas industry in return for the right to harvest petroleum owned by the Crown. The review was an election pledge by the NDP government which swept into power last spring.

McMillan said Alberta’s royalty system now is similar to those in other parts of Canada but producers in certain plays in British Columbia and Saskatchewan are paying less. Meanwhile, production growth in the United States is transforming a customer into a major competitor.

“The U.S. has eaten our lunch in the last decade and we want to be competitive, we want to be an economic leader and the royalty system is a way to get us back to a strong investment jurisdiction,” McMillan said, repeating a CAPP statistic that Alberta’s share of each North American energy investment dollar has dropped from 35 cents in 1994 to 17 cents in 2014.

Energy Minister Margaret McCuaig-Boyd has promised any changes resulting from the review wouldn’t be implemented until at least 2017 to give the industry time to adjust its plans.

That’s not good enough, CAPP says, calling for predictability. It recommends that the government give a minimum of three years notice prior to any changes to the conventional oil and gas royalty system.

In an email, McCuaig-Boyd thanked CAPP for its submission but declined comment on it.