{"id":1181158,"date":"2020-04-28T18:23:23","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T23:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1022104"},"modified":"2020-04-28T18:23:23","modified_gmt":"2020-04-28T23:23:23","slug":"alberta-called-out-for-energy-war-room-secrecy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1181158","title":{"rendered":"Alberta called out for  energy war room secrecy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Premier Jason Kenney\u2019s Alberta government is the 2019 recipient Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy in the provincial category for the veil of secrecy over its secretive, so-called energy war room.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center d-xs-block d-sm-block d-md-none'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Canadian Association of Journalists, Centre for Free Expression at Ryerson University, News Media Canada and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression decide a winner each year to expose governments, government departments and agencies that have gone the extra mile into denying the public its legal right of access to government information. <\/p>\n<p>The creation of the war room &#8211; or Canadian Energy Centre (CEC) &#8211; was a $30 million, 2019 election promise by Premier Jason Kenney dedicated to fighting the perceived enemies of Alberta\u2019s energy sector such as environmentalists.<\/p>\n<p>But, said the media groups, the public cannot know what goes on inside the CEC or hold those operations to account, because Kenney\u2019s government exempted it from requests under Alberta\u2019s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP).<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote alignright\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>The Canadian Energy Centre\u2019s internal operations are not subject to FOIP <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThat means the public will only find out what the Kenney government wants them to find out about the war room,\u201d the groups said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGeorge Orwell\u2019s 1984 was written as a warning,\u201d the award news release said. \u201cBut, increasingly, it seems Premier Jason Kenney\u2019s government in Alberta is using it as a handbook.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage\u2019s press secretary Kava Bal said the CEC \u201cabides by the Fiscal Planning and Transparency Act, works through a strict budgeting process with detailed business plans and reporting and is subject to a code of conduct policy, whistleblower policy and review by the auditor general.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor over 10 years, there has been a coordinated campaign by foreign-funded special interests to discredit and attack Alberta\u2019s energy industry,\u201d Bal said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe CEC\u2019s internal operations are not subject to FOIP \u2013 this would provide strategic advantage to the same special interests the CEC works to counter,\u201d Bal said.<\/p>\n<p>Calgary\u2019s Mount Royal University journalism professor Sean Holman was one of the award judges.<\/p>\n<p>He called the secrecy around the CEC \u201can anathema to democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said having a taxpayer-funded organization working on behalf of the oil and gas industry\u201cindefensible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo have an organization whose mission is to propagandize on behalf of that industry is not the kind of decision making we would expect in an evidence-based democracy,\u201d Holman said.<\/p>\n<p>Holman didn\u2019t have kind words for the former journalists who staff the CEC&nbsp; &#8211; including CEO Tom Olsen, a former Calgary Herald reporter and editor.<\/p>\n<p>These individuals should know better,\u201d Holman said.\u201cThese individuals are betraying everything they previously stood for as members of the fourth estate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In creating the CEC, Kenney said, \u201cI have a message to those foreign-funded special interests that have been leading a campaign of economic sabotage against this great province. To the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, to the Tides Foundation, to Leadnow, to the David Suzuki Foundation, and to all of the others, your days of pushing around Albertans with impunity just ended.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The centre also planned to tout the benefits of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to all Canadians, particularly British Columbians.<\/p>\n<p>The war room, however, left the battlefield at the end of March, surrendering to the COVID-19 pandemic, when its $30-million budget slashed by 90% to reflect pandemic needs. Savage said then most of the centre\u2019s budget was earmarked for paid advertising campaigns that cannot proceed during the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>The CEC became a figure of mockery when it was discovered its logo was already in use elsewhere and when it&#8217;s the centre\u2019s Twitter account saw some questionable comments about the New York Times. The tweets said the Times is &#8220;not the most dependable source,\u201d has a &#8220;dodgy&#8221; track record, has been &#8220;called out for anti-Semitism countless times,&#8221; and is &#8220;routinely accused of bias.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Alberta\u2019s NDP has called the CEC \u201cparade of errors\u201d and called for its closure.<\/p>\n<p><em>(This article first appeared in <a href=\"https:\/\/biv.com\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Business in Vancouver) (opens in a new tab)\">Business in Vancouver)<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The creation of the war room &#8211; or Canadian Energy Centre &#8211; was a $30 million, 2019 election promise by Premier Jason Kenney.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1035,369,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1181158"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1181158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1181158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1181159,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1181158\/revisions\/1181159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1181158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1181158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1181158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}