Alberta Heritage Fund

The highest bidder wins the opportunity to explore and develop the resources lands; if the development is successful, royalty payments (owners’ share) are made to the public via the mechanism of government revenues. [...] The policy changes also preceded the important impact of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which burst onto the world scene in the fall of 1973. [...] The Alberta Heritage Fund (AHF) was formed as an instrument to manage economic rents (a portion of the oil and natural gas royalty revenues) into the longer term future of the province. [...] An election was due in early 1975, and one option was to complete the legislation and go into the election with the AHF as part of the government’s record. [...] The result was that the concept of the AHF policy was put to the public in the March 1975 election, with one opposition party against the policy and the other “on the fence”.