Alberta’s so-called ‘energy war room’ shuts down

Alberta’s controversial Canadian Energy Centre, also known as the “energy war room,” has shut down.

In an emailed statement on Tuesday afternoon, a spokesperson for the province’s energy ministry’s office said the CEC will be integrated into the province’s intergovernmental relations department.

“After careful consideration, we will be integrating the mandate of the CEC into Intergovernmental Relations (IGR). Resources such as CEC assets, intellectual property and researchers will now be supporting IGR in order to seamlessly continue this important work,” the email read.

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A publicly-funded agency founded by Alberta’s United Conservative government, the CEC was launched to fight what it calls misinformation about the province’s oil and gas industry.

In September 2023, it was reported that the CEC spent around $22 million on oil and gas ads in the April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022 fiscal year, according to the centre’s 2023 annual report. The ad campaign was to take place in the U.S., Europe, the U.K. and Canada.

The report did not provide much information on how the money was spent or what results it generated.

1:54 Growing number of people call for Canadian Energy Centre to be shut down

However, documents from the U.S. Foreign Agent Registry revealed that Alberta spent $159,593.51 on ads in the Wall Street Journal.

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They also include contracts signed between the Alberta government and DDB, a marketing and communication company with offices in Edmonton and Washington.

The contract indicates Alberta spent $1.7 million out of a budget of $3.8 million to spread the message to Americans that the province’s industry is a well-regulated and safe supplier.

The Opposition NDP said the “war room” was a colossal waste of taxpayer money.

“Danielle Smith could have been focused on building more schools, hiring more doctors, and making life more affordable for Albertans. Instead, the government is wasting their time with an energy war room that’s most famous battle was with a children’s cartoon, and has not improved Alberta’s energy sector in any measurable way,” said Nagwan Al-Gundeid, the NDP critic for energy and climate, in a news release.

“Since 2019, the UCP have wasted over $66 million of taxpayer money on this failed war room … which could have been invested in more technology to reduce emissions, but instead the UCP funnelled these dollars directly into a partisan office and unmeasurable marketing stunts.”

The NDP said it will ask the Auditor General to investigate this latest evolution of the “war room.”

The press secretary for energy minister Brian Jean said the Auditor General has audited the CEC “every year of its existence” and it’s “always had a clean audit.”

1:55 Alberta energy minister defends ‘war room’ petition against children’s ‘Bigfoot Family’ movie

Jean said Tuesday that the CEC is “an important advocate for Canada and Alberta’s long-term position as a safe, clean and responsible energy supplier and will continue to increase the public’s understanding of the role oil and gas plays globally in a secure energy future.”

Jean said at a time when the federal government policy “will cripple Canada’s largest industry,” “it is more important than ever that Alberta has a strong advocate. The government of Alberta will continue our fight to promote the energy sector.”

According to Andrew Leach, energy and environmental economist at the University of Alberta, it’s still unclear whether this investment was worth the money. That’s part of the problem, he says.

“We don’t know. I don’t even know if we know how much money went in, let alone what it was spent on.”

He said Alberta’s issue isn’t misinformation – it’s performance.

“The Kenney government came at it from a view of: ‘We just have to tell our story better,’ as opposed to: ‘We have to make our story better,’” Leach said.

“I do think you still have the same challenges … that our production emissions per barrel are higher in the oil sands than most other jurisdictions,” he said, adding there’s still problems with tailings ponds.

1:43 Amnesty International ‘deeply concerned’ about Alberta’s fight back strategy against oil foes

And the perception of Alberta – at least within Canada – hasn’t improved, Leach said.

“That’s our most important political audience and I don’t think Alberta has moved the dial in that conversation.”

Premier Danielle Smith could open the books on the CEC, Leach said, and bring it out from the shadows.

“And say: ‘Let’s actually just have a full accounting of what happened here, how much was spent, what it was spent on, and … give me the value-for-money audit on this.”

1:59 Alberta’s energy ‘war room’ spent $22M on media campaign

–With files from Bob Weber, The Canadian Press.