REGINA — The Saskatchewan government is proposing to have oil and gas workers who have lost their jobs clean up abandoned wells.
Premier Brad Wall says the program would help stimulate employment in the oil-and-gas sector by accelerating cleanup of wells no longer capable of production.
Wall says it would speed up decommissioning and reclamation of 1,000 non-producing wells over the next two years and generate 1,200 jobs.
Work would include safe removal and disposal of old equipment, remediation of any spills and revegetation of the land.
But the proposal calls for $156 million in federal funding.
Wall says he has spoken with and written to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the idea.
"Saskatchewan is home to a high concentration of energy service sector companies and their employees, many of whom are now out of work," Wall said Monday at the legislature.
"These are the professionals who are best suited to well cleanup."
