NDP calling for the closure of Canadian Energy Centre

EDMONTON Wielding a list of missteps in its first weeks, NDP energy critic Irfan Sabir called on Alberta’s premier to shut down a government-created war room that purports to correct misinformation about Canadian oil and gas.

Sabir on Monday said the Calgary-based Canadian Energy Centre (CEC) has damaged, not uplifted, the reputation of the oilpatch.

“I think it would be funny if it wasn’t costing Albertans $82,000 a day,” Sabir said.

The government fired back. In a email Monday, Kavi Bal, press secretary to Energy Minister Sonya Savage, pointed to NDP MLAS attending protests organized by activists who have blockaded pipeline construction.

The provincial government created the CEC as a private corporation to tell positive stories about Alberta’s oil and gas industry in articles, opinion pieces, speaking engagements and by conducting research, among other methods. Ministers have said the $30-million annual expense is necessary to combat a campaign of misinformation, partly funded by alleged foreign-funded special interest groups.

The CEC has had some awkward moments since its Dec. 11 launch.

Energy centre head Tom Olsen, an unsuccessful UCP candidate, pulled the CEC’S first logo after it appeared nearly identical to the logo of an American software company. Another company has since said it’s investigating after the CEC’S second logo appears to be a rotated version of its logo.

Olsen has been mocked by critics for a slip of the tongue in a TV interview in which he said the purpose of the centre is about “disproving true facts.”

The Canadian Association of Journalists called for CEC staff to cease identifying themselves as reporters to people they interview.