The Alberta Energy War Room is no more – except for the FOIPs that are bound to follow its demise

The Alberta Energy War Room is kaput. Supposedly, it’s about to be folded into a government department. 

So, did the government of Alberta conclude it really is safer to publish stories and studies intended to greenwash the fossil fuel industry as government press releases instead of through a government funded “private” company that might fall under the ambit of a new federal truth-in-advertising law?

After all, it was less than a week ago we observed in this space how the so-called Energy War Room set up by premier Jason Kenney soon after the United Conservative Party’s election in 2019 posed a risk to its three directors – all UCP cabinet ministers – if Bill C-59’s amendment to the federal Competition Act became law.

As Alberta Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz, one of the three directors along with Energy Minister Brian Jean and Justice Minister Mickey Amery, fussed in an overwrought statement about the federal bill, “activists will be able to bring claims against oil and gas companies under so called ‘anti-greenwashing provisions.’”

Whatever the actual reason, this afternoon Premier Danielle Smith’s UCP government pulled the plug on what was among Mr. Kenney’s dumbest ideas, which has been a continuing embarrassment almost since the day it opened for business as a too-clever-by-half dodge to prevent Freedom of Information searches about what the company, officially known as Canadian Energy Centre Ltd., was getting up to. 

Mr. Jean’s office released a statement to media saying that “after careful consideration, we will be integrating the mandate of the CEC into Intergovernmental Relations.”

“Resources such as CEC assets, intellectual property, and researchers will now be supporting IGR in order to seamlessly continue this important work,” it continued. 

This seems unlikely, however. While the CEC website continues online for the moment, its staff members are understood to have been laid off. What will happen to CEO Tom Olsen remains to be seen. 

Interestingly, the minister’s statement was released only after Kathleen Ganley, one of the candidates to replace Rachel Notley as leader of the Opposition NDP, got the scoop and broke the story before the government could. 

“The War Room was symbolic of the UCP’s leadership,” Ms. Ganley said in a statement emailed to media just before 4 p.m. “It existed only to signal the UCP’s disdain for our fellow Canadians and waste money, and it was intentionally designed to avoid even a hint of transparency.”

“I am thrilled to see this pointless waste of money finally ended — I hope the UCP will use the funding to do something to actually help the people of this province.” Good luck with that, of course. 

The statement from Mr. Jean’s office also claimed, falsely, that “In a time when the federal government is attempting to make the promotion of Alberta’s energy industry illegal, and passing policy that will cripple Canada’s largest industry employing hundreds of thousands of Canadians by implementing an emissions cap, it is more important than ever that Alberta has a strong advocate.”

The War Room was never a strong advocate, however. Mainly, it came to be an international joke. In its early days, it twice managed to purloin copyrighted logos from other companies, and later famously launched a campaign against a cartoon movie called Bigfoot Family to worldwide hilarity. Such gaffes distracted from its effort to appear to be a credible advocate for expanded fossil fuel use. 

In response to a news feature on international lenders’ growing discomfort funding oilsands projects in northern Alberta, the War Room took to social media to accuse The New York Times of antisemitism and having a dodgy track record. Mr. Olsen apologized and the 20-part thread soon disappeared from the social media service previously known as Twitter. 

Now that what’s left of the War Room has been rolled into Alberta’s Intergovernmental Relations department, the government can expect to be deluged with FOIPs about the War Room’s activities. How it tries to avoid reporting will be interesting to observe. 

The Opposition Energy Critic, Nagwan Al-Guneid, said the NDP will ask the Auditor-General to investigate the consolidation “so Albertans can truly have an understanding of how much of their tax dollars will be on the line.”

The War Room, said Ms. Al-Guneid, “has not improved Alberta’s energy sector in any measurable way.”