Time for an overhaul of Alberta's royalty program?

While Alberta's booming oil and gas sector has been called the engine of the Canadian economy, critics say the companies benefiting from those resources aren't giving enough of those profits back to the province.

David Campanella, public policy research manager for the Parkland Institute, tells BNN the current structure of Alberta's royalty regime is short changing the province's residents.

"The current royalty structure….ensures all of the costs of the investing company are refunded through royalty payments that are reduced for those companies, so the public is basically waiving their right to charge royalties for access to their resources," he tells BNN. "The rate is reduced to between one and nine percent of the net revenue, which is very little internationally speaking."

Campanella says the vast majority of the wealth created by the oil sands continues to flow to private companies.

"Since 1986 there has been $285 billion worth of resources that have been extracted from the oil sands and through royalties and land sales - which are the main two way Albertans receive payments for the use of their resources - they've only received 6 percent of that total value," he says.