Threat of huge federal fines pushes ‘War Room’ into UCP government’s fold

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Troops in the Alberta War Room had been limping around the wounded for many months.

They are now demobilized and posted under the leadership of a new general: Prime Minister Danielle Smith herself.

Something like this was long overdue for the litigation agency, but why now?

The main reason is federal Bill C-59, which passed third reading in the House of Commons and is now before the Senate.

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The UCP suddenly realized that the War Room was an easy target for enormous sanctions under this legislation.

“We are at a time when the federal government is trying to make it illegal to promote Alberta’s energy industry with Bill C-59 and a proposed emissions cap that would cripple Canada’s largest industry employing hundreds of thousands of Canadians,” Smith said in a statement.

The remains of the War Room will be stored safely under its wing as part of the Department of Intergovernmental Relations. It’s the minister. Presumably, the changes will protect kind words about oil and gas from federal prosecution.

Tom Olsen, the boss of War Room, will leave after helping to liquidate it.

“I know that Premier Smith and her government are deeply committed to the energy file,” he said in a statement. “I am confident that the good work will continue under the leadership of the group that now handles intergovernmental relations.

Olsen also said he would leave the club with a three-month retirement allowance, as per his contract.

Some researchers and writers will migrate to intergovernmental relations.

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Bill C-59 is terribly undemocratic and an affront to freedom of expression. It imposes huge penalties on companies and entities that tout environmental and climate improvements in the sector.

Fines can reach $10 million for a first “offense,” or three times the benefit of “deception.” A second conviction could cost $15 million.

Publishing favorable articles about oil and gas is pretty much all the War Room does all day long.

It once had a government budget of $30 million for the task. The site is always full of user-friendly articles on projects and CO2 emissions reductions.

Under the federal bill, the industry will have to prove its claims are accurate. The responsibility lies with them, not the complainant.

Guilt is measured against a vague “internationally recognized methodology”.

The puppet court will be the Competition Bureau, whose head welcomes these measures. Complaints will be received friendly.

The mere existence of this system will act as a deterrent to any self-promotion by the industry, even when fully justified.

The main amendments came from NDP MP Charlie Angus, who would also like to see oil CEOs jailed for ads he doesn’t like.

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Of course, no parallel federal agency requires that critics of the energy sector tell a facsimile of the truth.

Bill C-59 may well violate Charter rights to freedom of expression, but this would require legal challenges and months, if not years, to establish.

The War Room has been unpopular and widely ridiculed almost since the start of 2019, even in Alberta.

Technically, the Canadian Energy Centre, the War Room, was created as a sort of quasi-private agency.

He promoted the industry through farce and madness. He once launched an attack on an animated Bigfoot movie that portrayed oil companies as villains. This attacked the New York Times.

Ultimately, the War Room was doomed by its own exuberance, government efforts to shield it from scrutiny, and the damaging findings of Alberta’s Auditor General in 2020.

In 2020, the auditor criticized that company for coughing up contracts that didn’t meet standards for proprietary sourcing and potential conflicts of interest.

Former Prime Minister Jason Kenney started this project in May 2018, when he pledged to create a War Room to defend the industry at the UCP’s founding meeting.

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The crowd of 3,000 went crazy when he said those words. The label remained.

Kenney also created a public inquiry into foreign money in the anti-oil agitation.

This also backfired on us. Commissioner Steve Allan found nothing illegal about the foreign activities and also had harsh words for the War Room.

“The Canadian Energy Center has been the subject of almost universal criticism,” he wrote. “It may well be that the reputation of this entity has been irreparably damaged. »

True, but the War Room is just one skirmish in a much larger battle to completely silence the energy industry. Although they have often been wrong, in recent times many articles have been well researched and accurate.

Certainly, nothing in Kenney’s strange creation justifies an unfair, heavy-handed, and probably illegal federal bill.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald

X: @DonBraid

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