Alberta shuts down its energy ‘war room’

The Alberta government has shut down a so-called “war room” it set up to target environmentalists, journalists and anyone else it believed was spreading “misinformation and lies” about Canadian energy.

Officially called the Canadian Energy Centre Ltd., it was set up in 2019 as a private corporation rather than a Crown agency – a deliberate tactic by the United Conservative Party government to shield it from access to information laws, despite being funded entirely by Alberta taxpayers. The mandate of the multimillion-dollar agency has now been rolled into Alberta’s Intergovernmental Relations Ministry.

Armed with an initial $30-million-a-year budget, the energy war room fulfilled a promise made by former Alberta premier Jason Kenney in the 2019 election.

Alberta’s Energy Ministry said in an e-mail Tuesday that the CEC remains an “important advocate” for Canadian energy sector, and its work to increase public understanding of the role oil and gas plays globally in a secure energy future would continue.

However, the government said, the mandate of the CEC, along with the agency’s assets, intellectual property and researchers would now be part of Intergovernmental Relations.

The province said it would continue to “fight to promote the energy sector,” particularly in the face of efforts from Ottawa to pass policy – such as the cap on greenhouse gas emissions from the oil sands – which it says will cripple the sector.

“It is more important than ever that Alberta has a strong advocate,” it said.

The CEC included a rapid response unit to “issue swift responses to misinformation about Canadian energy,” an energy literacy unit to create original content about the sector and a research unit to analyze oil industry data targeting investors, researchers and policy makers.

When he launched the CEC in December, 2019, Mr. Kenney roundly rejected the suggestion that it would be a propaganda arm for the government and oil sector, even though it was already producing its own content.

Instead, he said, it would “quickly and effectively rebut every lie told by the green left about our world-class energy industry.”

The CEC produced reams of research reports and hundreds of other pieces of content, including analysis and stories about the energy sector, though its budget ended up being significantly less than the initial $30-million committed by government.

The CEC also led an advertising effort to promote the province’s environmental, social and governance standards.

But it was heavily criticized for its combative tactics and lack of transparency.

The agency generated a number of controversies in its first two years, including widespread criticism and jokes about its 2021 campaign against a children’s cartoon about a mythical bigfoot family on Netflix. The CEC also had to pull and replace its logo days after its launch, after learning that it was already being used by another company.

The CEC was part of a broader campaign to counter criticism of the multibillion-dollar oil and gas sector, which also included an inquiry into alleged foreign-funded anti-Alberta energy campaigns.

Mr. Kenney and his government long argued there was a concerted effort, bankrolled by deep-pocketed U.S. foundations, to hamstring the oil and gas industry. When he launched the inquiry, Mr. Kenney promised it would expose a “premeditated, internationally planned and financed operation to put Alberta energy out of business.”

The report, published after a two-year process that was plagued by delays and complaints about secrecy and unfairness, identified $1.3-billion of foreign money directed at Canadian and U.S. environmental groups. However, much of that had little or nothing to do with anti-oil work.