It's another indication of just how many people feel the trickle down effects of a slower oil and gas sector.
 
For Ponoka County, 70% of tax revenue generated to operate the County comes from that industry.
 
Waldron Energy Corporation, who was recently sold after going into receivership, was operating in the County and as CAO Charlie Cutforth explains, they'll now be taking a hit on their budget "as a condition of sale, the County had to waive outstanding taxes in the order of approximately $700,000 with the hope and anticipation that future years revenue will continue to be received and that's approximately $400,000 per year".
 
Cutforth says in anticipation of the troubles the Company was facing, the County put $500,000 into reserves, leaving them to budget for the $200,000 shortfall in the 2017 budget.
 
Unfortunately, it's those reserve dollars Cutforth says the County has been using to support community projects "it's not that many years ago frankly the County finanically didn't have the ability to contribute to any great extent for community projects either in the Ponoka or Rimbey areas.  In recent years we have managed to step up and become major contributors in many respects largely because of the success we've had in the growth of the oil and gas industry".
 
The County is hopeful the industry will recover, the old Waldron wells will continue to be used and the County will then collect future tax dollars.