For folks looking for more information on why/how there are active gas wells/pipelines on CFB Wainwright, here's some basic Alberta oil & gas regulatory information. tldr Alberta owns the subsurface mineral rights to the land the CFB is on, which means the CFB doesn't control if there's wells etc.

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The laws are all from the government of Alberta, the AER just monitors and enforces them. (and I'm too many years out to remember off the top of my head how everything all fits together, though I still have the binders)

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Disaster readiness and responses (including automatic shut-offs for leaking pipelines/wells, etc) are part of the various regulations governing oil & gas. ... which is why we don't have more news about oil & gas-fueled wildfires in the province. BUT this kind of stuff deserves scrutiny.

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It would probably be worth contacting the AER about this because THEY regulate the pipelines and wellsites and all other energy infrastructure in the Wainwright area (and all of Alberta). ... if you want more detailed clarification of how these things "coexist" with CFBs and the rules for them.

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Surface rights holders can require changes to proposed locations of wells, infra, etc. But generally do not actually have the power to deny an oil and gas company access to their land nor deny them the ability to build a wellsite (etc). Directional drilling (eg diagonal) is, after all, fairly new.

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