The federal government, which owned the land and natural resources on and under them until their cession to the western provinces in 1930, and the province of Alberta, which controlled the laws of incorporation, jointly issued stock certificates such as this one. As one pioneer oil man recollected, "All you needed was a $5 deposit to get a 40-acre 16 [hectares] lease from the federal government. This entitled you to a provincial charter from Edmonton. And then you went out and sold shares in your new oil company as fast as you could have them printed." A.W. Dingman himself characterized many of these early companies as run by "a lot of unscrupulous men who were simply working a shell game." Despite warnings from the Financial Post that "investors should be prepared to lose their money without grumbling," shares were often sold out the day they were issued from temporary booths in bars on main street or at the railway station.
The speculative boom did collapse by late 1914, and the Alberta government appointed a royal commission under Judge Arthur Carpenter to investigate the situation. In 1915, however, one of the oil companies successfully obtained an injunction preventing any further investigation. The provincial government then established in 1917, by virtue of another commission headed by W.A.D. Lees, the Companies Act of Alberta. This act provided more effective provincial controls on the sale of stocks prior to granting provincial incorporation and required a clear statement of assets be made prior to the sale of stock. Further loopholes on the federal side were closed in 1921 by the prior authorization requirement of all leases under the Dominion Securities Act.
Courtesy: Glenbow-Alberta Institute and the National Museum of Man, National Museums of Canada (S 83-323)
