Alberta gave grants to group critical of oilsands by Bill Kaufman, QMI Agency, March 25th, 2014, Sunnews
The province has supplied $88,000 in grants to oilsands critic-environmental think-tank the Pembina Institute and its foundation over the past five years. Details of the grants from Alberta Culture were acquired by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation through a Freedom of Information request, said the CTF’s regional director Derek Fildebrandt, who called the payouts inconsistent with Alberta’s economic development efforts.
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She noted energy industry giants like Suncor, Imperial Oil and EnCana have donated to Pembina. [Emphasis added]
Snap above from Sunnewsnetwork.ca
[Refer also to:
Screen grabs from various Pembina Institute Annual Reports taken May 6, 2014 shows funding from Encana/Cenovus as clients and/or supporters of the Pembina (pink dots added for emphasis):
Screen grab of a Google Search taken at 8 PM on February 7, 2014 (note the Pembina encouraging landowners to join a synergy group):
For more evidence of the Pembina Institute’s synergizing, refer to:
Is the Yukon Government setting up a fracked territory?
Federation fights public dollars for political advocacy groups by Tamara Gignac with files from Jason van Rassel, September 6, 2013, Calgary Herald
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation wants Calgary to pass a bylaw banning the funding of political advocacy groups after the city paid more than $340,000 in fees to an environmental think-tank. The Pembina Institute was hired over a three-year period to help the city develop a greenhouse gas reduction plan.
But the tax group argues that organizations involved in political debates should fund themselves and not be allowed to benefit from public dollars.
“Pembina has an agenda and there’s nothing wrong with that. The point is that it’s unethical to take taxpayers’ money when you’re a political organization,” said Derek Fildebrandt, the Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
It’s no different than if the city were to offer dollars to the right-leaning Fraser Institute or pay the conservative Manning Foundation to write a paper on business competitiveness, he added.
Fildebrandt wants the Pembina Institute to return the money and the city to prohibit the hiring of all lobby groups in the future. “Further to that, candidates for mayor and council should make clear where they stand,” he said.
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Executive director Ed Whittingham said Pembina’s researchers also do work for Alberta’s oil and gas industry. “We are hired by some of the very same companies that we are critical of and I think that’s a testament to the expertise we bring to the table,” he said. [Emphasis added]
Screen grab below from the Pembina’s website, May 6, 2014:
