REGINA — When we think of a “boom town,” we often imagine a formerly sleepy rural town suddenly awash in wealth and economic expansion. It might surprise some to learn that for many municipalities in oil-producing regions in Saskatchewan, the costs of servicing the oil boom can outweigh the benefits.
A Prairie Patchwork: Reliance on Oil Industry Philanthropy in Saskatchewan Boom Towns by Simon Enoch and Emily Eaton highlights the uneven costs and benefits of Saskatchewan’s oil boom and bust within oil-producing communities themselves. We found that urban municipalities in particular were often incapable of capturing sufficient oil revenues to cover the costs associated with a booming oil patch. Instead, many Saskatchewan municipalities have had to rely on oil industry philanthropy for the provision of essential infrastructure and public services that most would consider to be the sole purview of government. This reliance is a direct result of the provincial government’s underfunding of public infrastructure and services and the inability of some local municipalities to capture sufficient revenue from the oil development in their backyards.
Highlights include:
- Respondents identified a substantial inequality between urban municipalities and rural municipalities in oil-producing regions, as the costs of servicing the boom — particularly in regards to services — are disproportionately shouldered by urban municipalities while RMs collect a significant share of the revenues resulting from oil development.
- RMs with intensive oil infrastructure are able to reduce their overall tax burden relative to other municipalities. One RM cancelled its taxes on agriculture outright and only taxed oil infrastructure at half of what the neighbouring municipality was levying.
- Communities rely heavily on the oil industry for the provision of a host of services and infrastructure in the areas of health, human services, emergency response and education.
- A resource-revenue sharing plan akin to BC’s Fair Share Agreement could help communities absorb the shocks of the commodity cycle and ensure local services have the requisite funds they require to coordinate, purchase and invest in the programs, equipment and personnel that best address their needs rather than relying on the precarious nature of private philanthropy.
View the full report here: corporatemapping.ca/prairie-patchwork
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Contact the authors:
Simon Enoch
Office: 306.924.3372
Mobile: 306.502.0363
Emily Eaton
Office: 306.585.4034
Mobile: 306.596.2838
Author: Simon Enoch and Emily Eaton
Simon Enoch is Director of the Saskatchewan Office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. He holds a PhD in Communication & Culture from Ryerson University with a research interest in corporate social responsibility and political ecology.
Emily Eaton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Regina and a co-investigator with the Corporate Mapping Project. She is the author of two books, Fault Lines: Life and Landscape in Saskatchewan’s Oil Economy (with photographer Valerie Zink) and Growing Resistance: Canadian Farmers and the Politics of Genetically Modified Wheat. Her work concerns environmental, social, and economic aspects of resource development and resource-based communities.
