AER dismisses landowner’s conflict of interest complaint

By ZOE MASON on March 21, 2026.

An Alberta landowner with an orphan well on his property has had an ethics complaint to the Alberta Energy Regulator dismissed.

Dwight Popowich filed an ethics complaint in January with the regulator seeking an investigation under the AER’s internal conflict of interest policy.

Popowich asked the regulator to investigate David Yager, an AER board member who led the development of the province’s mature asset strategy, a government report containing recommendations for dealing with costly abandoned oil and gas wells across the province.

Yager also filled roles as an adviser to the premier and a government consultant, as well as advertising private consulting work on his webpage.

According to the AER conflict of interest policy, the Ethics Committee is required to ensure claims against members or employees who are alleged to be in breach of the policy will be reviewed by an impartial investigator. That has yet to occur.

Susanne Calabrese, a lawyer with Ecojustice, calls the delay a “blatant violation” of AER policy.

“Their new policy explicitly requires this process to occur in writing and mandates the appointment of an investigator when a complaint is filed.”

A press release from Ecojustice, the firm representing Popowich’s complaint, says no action has been taken on that complaint, and the AER has informed their client that action will not proceed unless he agrees to an off-the-record, in-person meeting in Calgary without his lawyer present.

“That’s not how accountability works, and it’s certainly not how independent, transparent regulators work when an affected member of the public flags a potential conflict of interest in their leadership,” said Calabrese.

Popowich and Ecojustice previously filed a request for investigation to the Office of the Ethics Commissioner. That request was denied on the basis that Yager was not considered a senior official and therefore fell outside the jurisdiction of that office.

Landowners objected to the mature asset strategy for an initial allusion to, which was objected by landowners after a leaked draft suggested liabilities be backstopped with taxpayer money. The final version of the report suggested the province manage a new insurance fund instead.

Yager was reappointed to the AER board earlier this month for a term lasting until 2031.

Popowich is calling on the AER to appoint an investigator to explore his complaint.

“Landowners are dependent on the rules to protect their interest, but more importantly we depend on an open and impartial regulator that we can trust to follow and properly apply the rules that are meant to protect not only landowners but all Albertans,” he said.

The AER did not respond to a request for comment from the News in time for publication.