It is also responsible for assessing and collecting non-renewable resource (NRR) royalties, freehold mineral taxes, rentals, and bonuses.

The Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission, which is fully integrated with the Department of Energy within the ministry, and fully funded by the Crown, accepts delivery of the Crown's royalty share of conventional crude oil and sells it at the current market value.

It reported to the Executive Council through the Ministry of Energy, although it operated and made its formal decisions independently and autonomously.

[2] ENR policy was based on the premise that with proper planning and management, land can support a variety of uses, such as, timber, recreation and wildlife.

The Resource Evaluation and Planning (REAP) division was created in 1976 to provide coordination and data gathering services.

More established agencies like the Alberta Forest Service supported preservation of traditional attitudes and behaviour and felt threatened.

Fish and Wildlife division were with the Department of Recreation and Parks before joining Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) in 1979.

The Province of Alberta receives a portion of benefits from the development of energy resources in the form of royalties that fund in part programs like health, education and infrastructure.

[3]: 10  In that year Alberta's total resource revenue "fell below $7 billion...when the world economy was in the grip of recession.

[3]: 10 In order to accelerate development of the oil sands, the federal and provincial governments more closely aligned taxation of the oil sands with other surface mining resulting in "charging one per cent of a project's gross revenues until the project's investment costs are paid in full at which point rates increased to 25 per cent of net revenue.

Effective January 1, 2009 the royalty percentage of net revenue is also indexed to the Canadian dollar price of WTI.

When the price of oil per barrel is less than or equal to $120/ bbl indexed against West Texas Intermediate (WTI) "payout.

Western Canadian Select (WCS), a grade or blend of Alberta bitumens, diluents (a product such as naphtha or condensate which is added to increase the ability of the oil to flow through a pipeline) and conventional heavy oils, developed by Alberta producers and stored and valued at Hardisty, AB was determined to be the best reference crude price in the development of a BVM.