The Hanky Panky Continues! Kenney’s newly named War Room, “Alberta Energy Information Centre,” gets another new name: “Canadian Energy Centre” and it sounds like AER’s/Jim Ellis’ ICORE on steroids! UCP failed candidate, Tom Olsen, hired as manager, reportedly to get $195,000.00 salary. “Spin pays big time in Alberta.”

Alberta ‘war room’ incorporated as Canadian Energy Centre to paint positive picture of energy sector by Kieran Leavitt, Oct 9, 2019, Star Edmonton

The United Conservative information “war room” boasts a fresh name as the Canadian Energy Centre now that it’s been made a corporation by the Alberta government.

The operation was incorporated on Wednesday and it’ll have three units: a rapid response team, an “energy literacy” unit [Nothing new about that, Alberta’s been pimping energy propaganda, aka literacy, for years!] which deals in creating content about Alberta’s energy industry, and a data and research team focused on data gathering to help promote the industry globally.

The overall goal for the three units is to paint a pleasant picture of Alberta’s energy industry after the government contends it has been smeared by falsehoods, misinformation and negativity for years. The effort will also collaborate [WARNING! Enter the dreaded Synergy Alberta!] with Indigenous peoples, academics, and industry leaders to promote the province’s economic backbone. [Bankruptcy backbone more accurate!~]

“These things will operate as separate units that all work together,” Energy Minister Sonya Savage told reporters Wednesday.

“I think part of the main function in there is to anticipate where the ball is going, to get ahead of the story, to tell the story, to be able to write the story.” [She sounds like Trump.]

During the election campaign, and up until recently, the centre has been known as the “Energy War Room” — mandated with combating what the Alberta government sees as misinformation about the oil and gas industry in social and traditional media. That could be on platforms like Twitter [allowing propaganda only, critical citizens will be blocked, like Rachel Notley and her cowardly NDP gang did?], in magazines or in newspapers, but Savage said more details are still being worked out.

Critics and the Opposition NDP have slammed the war room as a glorified government Twitter troll farm, but the United Conservatives say that all too often, misinformation about Alberta’s oil and gas industry is propagated through media into the public conversation which takes its toll on the provincial economy.

On the name change, Savage said it would look “rather unusual to have a corporation called War Room Inc.”

“We set it up as a corporation to be more efficient. [Or to make it UnFOIPable?] One of the goals of the energy centre is to be able to respond rapidly and to anticipate what is coming at it.” [If it weren’t all so pathetic, it’ll would be insanely funny.]

It’ll be overseen by a board made up of three cabinet ministers: Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer, Environment Minister Jason Nixon and Savage.

While it’s setup as a corporation, Savage said it will still be open to information requests under the province’s freedom of information laws.

When asked why the name was the Canadian and not the Alberta Energy Centre, Savage said that the energy industry in Alberta “is the beating heart of the Canadian economy.”

“The energy centre is going to have to go out on a global stage and talk to investors in New York and London to make them understand and to tell our story, so I think the word Canada is reflective of that,” she said. [But, investors don’t want Alberta’s trashy, filthy, polluting, two oil spills a day, aquifer frac’in, caprock bustin’, rights and health violating products anymore! A war room and no amount of CAPP lies & propaganda is going to fix that.]

The effort won’t just focus on social media, but will use speaking engagements, traditional media, and other platforms available to paint a more positive image of Alberta’s energy industry, Savage said. She hopes to see the war room fully operational by the end of this year.

Alberta incorporates energy war room as Canadian Energy Centre, work starts soon by The Canadian Press, October 9, 2019, Calgary Herald

Alberta’s energy war room is now a legal entity with a new name, a new managing director and a plan to be running by Christmas. [That’s mighty slow! Industry and Koch Bro might fire Kenney!]

Energy Minister Sonya Savage said the Canadian Energy Centre is now incorporated and former journalist and United Conservative party candidate [Election failure] Tom Olsen has been hired as managing director. [Shows us what an expensive, waste of time and money gong show the war room will be!]

Savage said the centre will focus on [LIES AND PROPAGANDA!] improving the reputation of Alberta’s oil and gas sector and challenging those it believes are delivering misinformation.

“There will be social media. There will be traditional media,” Savage said Wednesday. [She so sounds like Trump!]

“There will be speaking engagements, anything that you can get that can be utilized to get the story out because over the last decade that story has been framed, and the narrative has been set, by opposition to our oil and gas sector.”

The Calgary-based war room will have a budget of $30 million.

She said Olsen, who worked as a senior staffer under former premier Ed Stelmach, will set up the office and hire staff.

Savage, Environment Minister Jason Nixon and Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer are the board of directors. [The incentuousness of the “Brother&sisterhood” knows no bounds!]

There will be three departments: a research group, a data analysis wing and a rapid response team [ROARING LAUGHTER!] to challenge misinformation in real time while promoting information about Alberta’s oil and gas sector.

Savage said the war room won’t target or demonize specific critics.

“This is about telling our story, setting the narrative, disputing the narrative opposing our oil and gas sector,” she said. “It’s not about going after individual people.” [If she’s telling the truth or not, will be seen soon enough]

She said it will be called the Canadian Energy Centre instead of the Alberta Energy Centre because it will have to take the message to investors and other decision makers around the world. [Kenney’s War Room is just ICORE on steroids!]

“And we also know that when the energy sector prospers, the entire country prospers. So it is more than just an Alberta issue. It’s a Canadian issue.” [In reality, the energy sector rapes and takes profits, leaving air, water, land, and public health polluted, and those it ravages in the gutter with the AER piling on more abuses to the harmed. It’s causes incredible harm to many, not just to Canadians and Canada, but to the world.]

The centre is part of what Premier Jason Kenney has termed a “fight-back” strategy against those he says are unfairly denigrating the industry and contributing to the landlocking of Alberta’s non-renewable resources.

The province has also launched a $2.5-million public inquiry into foreign funding of anti-oil advocacy groups.

NDP critic Irfan Sabir said the former NDP government worked with stakeholders and other levels of government to promote Alberta’s oil and gas sector and its commitment to environmental sustainability.

Sabir said the war room is a waste of money. [Of course it is, so is most of what Alberta does, and has always done, even under the oil industry handmaids, the NDP]

“This government is spending $30 million for a soft landing of one of their failed candidates,” he said.

In the April election, Olsen lost to NDP member Joe Ceci in the Calgary Buffalo constituency.

Sabir said the money is particularly critical given Kenney’s government is signalling there will be cuts in the Oct. 24 budget.

“I didn’t hear anything (about) how this Twitter machine will help us get our product to market,” he said. [Too funny!]

NDP’s Ceci hangs onto Calgary-Buffalo; Alberta Party’s Greg Clark falls by Yolande Cole and Jon Roe, April 17, 2019, Calgary Herald

The NDP’s Joe Ceci has kept his seat in Calgary. …

This morning Ceci was 1,594 votes in front of UCP challenger Tom Olsen, a former Calgary Herald journalist and director of media relations under Progressive Conservative premier Ed Stelmach.

Refer also to:

Jason Kenney gives multi-billion dollar profiting companies a taxpayer-funded war room to abuse citizens concerned about industry’s rampant life-threatening pollution: Suncor tarsands revenue up from $11.2 to $12 billion between 2017 and 2018 when companies whined about how hard it was to operate in Canada; CNRL boosted its revenue from $7.1 to $11.5 billion

Mega list of bankrupt companies! Kenney’s $30 Million McCarthyism War Room renamed “Alberta Energy Information Centre” (AER’s 100%-industry-funded ass): PetroPimps’ Propaganda Hanky Panky Bunker to Spy ‘n Lie for CAPP ‘n Koch ‘n Encana ‘n Harper? Just New West Partnership cont’d?

CAPP/Kenney’s Snitchie Bitchie $2.5 Million “McCarthy style witch hunt” of courageous concerned citizens, to help polluting, job-decimating, billion $ profit-taking, largely foreign-owned multinationals. The Inquiry lies, says not linked to Kenney’s war room even though inquiry is reportedly paid for out of war room’s budget! Inquiry Commissioner Steve Allen is industry-biased of course: Was Director of Compton Petroleum, chaired Compton’s Audit Committee (company with a greedy sordid sour history)

Jason Kenney’s (CAPP et al’s) War Room swamped by fightin’ mad Albertans falling for lies & propaganda instead of looking honestly at industry’s greed-induced “de-manning” killing jobs & causing their suffering

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