The controversial Canadian Energy Centre in Alberta, also known as the “Energy War Room,” has closed.
A spokesperson for the provincial energy department's office said in a statement emailed Tuesday afternoon that the CEC will be folded into the province's intergovernmental relations department.
“After careful consideration, we will be integrating CEC's responsibilities into Intergovernmental Relations (IGR). Resources such as CEC assets, intellectual property, and researchers will now support IGR to seamlessly continue this important work,” the email read.
The CEC is a publicly funded agency established by Alberta’s United Conservative government to combat misinformation about the province’s oil and gas industry.
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September 2023, According to reports According to the center's 2023 annual report, the CEC spent about $22 million on oil and gas advertising in the fiscal year from April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022. The advertising campaign will run in the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom and Canada.
The report did not provide details on how the money was used or what results were achieved.
However, documents from the U.S. Foreign Agents Registry show Alberta spent $159,593.51 on advertising in the Wall Street Journal.
It also includes a contract between the Alberta government and DDB, a marketing and communications firm with offices in Edmonton and Washington.
The contract shows Alberta spending $1.7 million of its $3.8 million budget to promote its industry to Americans as a well-regulated and safe supplier.
The Opposition New Democratic Party said the “war room” was a huge waste of taxpayers' 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 time in an energy war room where the most notable battle is with a children's cartoon and failing to improve Alberta's energy sector in any measurable way,” said Nagwan Al-Gundeid, the NDP's energy and climate critic, in a news release.
“Since 2019, the UCP has wasted more than $66 million in taxpayer dollars on this failed war room… Money that could have been used to invest in more technology to reduce emissions, but instead the UCP funneled that money straight into partisan offices and untold marketing gimmicks.”
The New Democratic Party said it would ask the auditor general to investigate the latest developments in the “war room.”
– With files from Emily Mertz of Global News and Bob Weber of The Canadian Press.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
