Article content continued

It’s worth remembering the royalty review was a political creation, one of the cornerstone promises made by the NDP during the 2015 election campaign that saw Rachel Notley topple the four-decade-old Tory regime.

At the time, the NDP accused the ruling Progressive Conservatives of failing to earn for Albertans “full and fair value for their oil and gas by maintaining one of the world’s lowest oil royalty rate structures.”

After the election, Energy Minister Marg McCuaig-Boyd assembled a royalty panel led by ATB Financial president Dave Mowat to examine the issue.

But if the NDP’s suspicion was the province was getting a raw deal, it turned out that wasn’t the case. Instead, the panel concluded earlier this year that Albertans were getting an “appropriate share” of royalties.

Acting on the report, the government left oilsands royalties intact, but revamped rates on conventional oil and gas production.

New wells will pay a flat royalty of five per cent until payout, and then face a higher rate once these costs are recovered.

Mintz, who is also a director at Imperial Oil Ltd., and report co-author Daria Crisan examined the new fiscal regime and say it will lower the marginal effective tax and royalty rate from about 35 per cent today to 26.7 per cent next year.

That compares to 28.7 per cent in B.C. and 32.6 per cent in Saskatchewan.

It’s also lower than in Norway, but higher than in Australia, the United Kingdom, Pennsylvania, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.