A new study released on Tuesday by the Fraser Institute indicates more executives in the energy industry today believe environmental regulations are a deterrent to investment in Alberta.

In 2013, 32 per cent of respondents to the Fraser Institute’s annual Global Petroleum Survey said environmental regulations were a deterrent to investment compared to 68 per cent in 2017, the latest year of comparable data, the Canadian public policy think-tank revealed.

In its report, Natural Resource Regulation in Alberta, the institute said Alberta has to cut unnecessary red tape to attract investment to its oil and gas sector.

“Investors have been saying loud and clear for years that Alberta is increasingly an unattractive jurisdiction for investment because of needless and costly red tape,” said Kenneth Green, Fraser Institute senior fellow and author of of the report.

The Fraser Institute cited a report by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers that said capital investment in Canada’s oil and natural gas in 2017 was $45 billion, which was down 44 per cent from $81 billion in 2014, before oil prices collapsed.

The Fraser Institute said many other factors are affecting investment in Alberta besides the world oil price.

“For example, Alberta’s fiscal terms (the regime of lease payments, royalties, production taxes and gross revenue charges, but not corporate or personal taxes) were only considered a deterrent to investment by 14 per cent of survey respondents to the Fraser Institute’s Global Petroleum Survey in 2013. That deterrence perception reached 50 per cent in 2017. Respondents saying that Alberta’s fiscal terms were attractive to investment dropped by 22 per cent over that same period. With regard to Alberta taxation in general, there was a similar decline in investment attractiveness from only 16 per cent of respondents registering deterrence due to this factor in 2013, rising to 52 per cent of respondents registering deterrence to investment in 2017,” said the report.

“The same is true for mining investment in Alberta. In 2013, regulatory uncertainty in Alberta was only considered a deterrent by 11 per cent of respondents to the Fraser Institute’s Annual Survey of Mining Companies. After peaking at 38 per cent in 2016, the percentage expressing deterrence fell to 25 per cent in 2017, still more than double that from four years before.”

Mario Toneguzzi is a veteran Calgary-based journalist who worked for 35 years for the Calgary Herald, including 12 years as a senior business writer.

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