Landowners have been enduring years of missed payments from the late oil company

Some landowners in Edmonton are taking a stand by mounting a blockade against what they call a delinquent oil and gas company.

The group says MAGA Energy has not paid its rent for three years, and therefore the company is no longer allowed on their land.

On Thursday, landowners Mark Dorin and Dale Braun placed a wooden barrier on their piece of farmland in southwest Edmonton, where MAGA Energy operates pumps.

“If I’m a landowner and I don’t pay my bills, I lose my land, I lose my house,” Dorin told reporters outside one of the company’s active wells.

“But look behind me, we have (an) active iron pump here … more iron pumps out there on our land, they’re all running and they haven’t paid their bill.”

Braun, who along with his family owns a 75 percent stake in the land, said he is not against oil and gas and that he believes Premier Danielle Smith’s government is on the right track when it comes to the industry. But he said he wants the company to “grow up.”

“The laws are broken here. They’re being broken every day and they’re being ignored,” Braun said.

Dorin said that now that the group has terminated the lease for missed payments, MAGA Energy is not allowed to enter the land unless its employees are there to decommission the wells.

“That’s Alberta law and we’re going to enforce it here,” he said.

He added that the company usually has staff on site at least once a day.

MAGA Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Dorin said the company took over the lease about a decade ago and at first had no problem making the payments, which he said totaled $12,000 a year.

Last year the Narwhal – an independent environmental news paper – reported that MAGA Energy’s flagship refinery was closing in 2023, cutting off a major revenue stream.

Dorin said he and other landowners with stakes in the site have tried to get the provincial energy regulator to take action, but said the effort has gone nowhere.

“They have to balance the rights of that industry with the rights of these people who own this land. That’s not happening,” he said.

“We have a complete loss of social license for the industry that built this province and thousands of landowners across this province are absolutely fed up with this lawlessness and these double standards.”

Oil and gas companies failing to pay landowners or pay property taxes to municipalities is a longstanding issue in Alberta, and MAGA Energy is just one latecomer.

Landowners like Dorin and Braun as well as the association representing rural municipalities in the province have been calling on the government for years to fix the problem, which has led to several policy changes.

But Dorin said it’s not like the province needs new laws to address the issue; rather he said that existing laws only need to be enforced.

In 2023, the provincial government implemented a new rule that required the Alberta Energy Regulator to block the transfer of oil and gas leases to companies that owed more than $20,000. The Foundation for Investigative Journalism reported last month that despite the rule, some companies, including MAGA Energy, have managed to buy new wells.

Asked for comment on the blockade on Thursday, the regulator said in a statement that the deals are private between a landowner and a company.

“The AER cannot enforce commitments between a landowner and a company that are not included in a written agreement,” he said.

Energy Minister Brian Jean dismissed Dor and Braun as “activists,” but he also said no system was perfect, “especially when it’s run by the government.”

“But I will tell you that this government is focusing like a laser on this particular issue,” Jean told reporters at the legislature in Edmonton.

“For the first time ever a government is actually looking at the current process and trying to make the process much better.”

Jean, in a statement later Thursday, added that landowners who have not been paid by power companies can file a claim with the provincial property rights court, which could order the government to compensate landowners instead of private companies.

Dorin said it was an “absolute joke” that taxpayer dollars are paid when a company refuses to pay.

“These are roads, hospitals, libraries (and) other services that are not funded,” he said.

Opposition energy critic Nagwan Al-Guneid said Dorin and Braun are not alone in their fight against oil companies that do not pay rents or taxes, calling it a “liability management crisis” in the province.

“Companies have promises to fulfill to landowners and it’s a question of how the regulator is enforcing the law to ensure that companies are fulfilling commitments to these landowners,” she said.

“Regular needs to be regulated, the government must start governing and ensure that companies are fulfilling their commitments.”

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on March 12, 2026.

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