Alberta’s government has received a report from an advisory panel that was tasked with developing a long-term vision for Alberta’s energy future.
That announcement of the panel and its report was public, but its findings are being kept under wraps.
The report is being classified as advice to the premier, which makes it immune to a freedom of information request.
Premier Danielle Smith didn’t commit to releasing the full report publicly but said we could see some of it after her energy minister combs through its findings.
“Sometimes when you put out a report without having that extra layer of scrutiny, people can think you’re going to act on all the recommendations, and it can be that some of them can be good advice, and some of them may be advice we can’t act on,” Smith told reporters.
Smith asked for the report in February, and it was completed June 30.
The report included a section on a proposed program once called RStar, and then the Alberta Liability Management Incentive Program.
RStar is a plan which offers oil companies royalty breaks or other incentives to clean up their old oil wells, which is something they are already legally obligated to do.
In Smith’s mandate letter to Brian Jean, her energy minister, she asks he look into the program.
She asks him to start:
- “Developing a strategy to effectively incentivize reclamation of inactive legacy oil and natural gas sites, and to enable future drilling while respecting the principle of polluter pay.”
- and “Working with the Alberta Energy Regulator to improve and modernize processes around the new Liability Management Framework, project approvals and transfer of well sites in a timely fashion.”
Critics are accusing the government of secrecy and a potential conflict of interest.
David Yager, the person who headed Smith’s advisory panel, is president and CEO of a company called Winterhawk Well Abandonment.
He remained as head of Winterhawk throughout his work on the panel.
An ‘about us’ page on the company’s website says it was established to ‘conceive, develop and commercialize new approaches to assist oil and gas developers (to) improve the economics and profitability of their new, existing and mature production operations.’
The website has other pages about its products like the ‘abandonment plug’, ‘casing expansion tool’, and on-site remediation.
Despite his business and his role advising on energy — which includes advising on incentives to encourage oil well clean up — Smith says there is no conflict of interest.
“Look, he put together a panel that had over 150 CEOs, of course I’m going to take advice from CEOs. Who else am I going to take advice from?” Smith responded.
The Alberta NDP questions that claim.
“There are lots of ways to engage stakeholders that does not involve a conflict of interest. So, I don’t buy the premier’s explanation,” NDP MLA for Edmonton-South West Nathan Ip told Global News.
He calls it a clear conflict of interest.
“This is in some ways kind of getting the fox to guard the hen house.”
Ip says the report needs to be released immediately. He questions what Smith and the UCP could be hiding.
Yager said he could not comment directly on the report, citing a confidentiality clause in his contract with the government.
However, he did provide Global News with a statement.
“Winterhawk Well Abandonment does not do well abandonment. We rent tools that can be used in the well abandonment process,” he said.
It’s not the first time Smith has been under fire for a conflict of interest regarding RStar.
In March, Global News reported her office hired Kris Kinnear — director of Sustaining Alberta’s Energy Network (SAEN) — as a special project manager.
At the time, NDP Leader Rachel Notley asserted there are a lot of strange links between people in Smith’s government, to which Smith responded there is no conflict of interest between Kinnear and any work he does for the government.