AB Today – Daily Report May 21, 2019 Quotation of the day “This is not an editorial initiative but part of the commercial content part of the business.” Postmedia spokesperson Phyllise Gelfand defends the media company’s move to hire the ​ ​ UCP’s former campaign director to lobby the new government for a contract to create content for its “energy war room” (via The Globe and Mail). ​ ​ Today in AB On the schedule The United Conservative Party’s 63-member caucus will be sworn in this morning at 9:30 a.m. In the afternoon, MLAs will gather in the chamber to elect the 30th Parliament’s Speaker, deputy Speaker, chair of committees and deputy chair of committees. The vote will take place in a secret ballot in the chamber. Second-term UCP MLA Nathan Cooper (Olds—Didsbury—Three Hills) is the presumed ​ ​ favourite for the Speaker gig. On Wednesday afternoon, the session will officially commence with the UCP’s throne speech. Committees this week The government’s treasury board committee will meet behind closed doors in the cabinet room of the legislature on Thursday morning. On Thursday afternoon, its legislative review committee will also hold a closed-door meeting. Premier Watch Premier Jason Kenney was at home in Calgary for the long weekend. He spoke at the Jewish ​ ​ National Fund Calgary on Friday and attended the city’s Serbian Fest on Saturday. ​ ​ On Sunday, Kenney watched the National Junior A Championship final in Brooks. (The ​ ​ hometown team, the Brooks Bandits, won the tournament.) Postmedia recruited Kenney’s former chief of staff to lobby for ‘energy war room’ contract Postmedia Network Inc. has hired Nick Koolsbergen to lobby the new UCP government to help ​ ​ the media company win a contract in relation to the planned $30-million “energy war room.” Koolsbergen filed a registration on the Office of the Ethics Commissioner’s online lobbyist registry last week, outlining plans to meet with government officials “to discuss ways Postmedia could be involved in the government’s energy war room.” Koolsbergen was Premier Jason Kenney’s chief of staff during his time as opposition leader ​ ​ and most recently served as the UCP’s campaign director. Post-election, he co-founded a new lobbying firm, Wellington Advocacy, with former prime minister Stephen Harper’s ex-policy ​ ​ director Rachel Curran. (Curran is also a consultant with Harper’s Calgary-based firm Harper & ​ ​ ​ ​ Associates.) Wellington Advocacy officially launched on May 6. It is within the rules and not unusual for political staffers to jump into the lobbying game after the party they work for gets elected (after Doug Ford was elected Ontario premier last year his ​ ​ campaign war room director and spokesperson, Melissa Lantsman, was promptly hired by ​ ​ Hill+Knowlton Strategies and his campaign manager, Kory Teneycke, went on to found the firm ​ ​ Rubicon Strategies). However, Postmedia’s move to vye for a contract to potentially create partisan government content has raised questions about whether the company’s newspapers can maintain editorial independence while reporting on the new government. Postmedia owns most of Alberta’s major newspapers, including the Edmonton Journal, ​ Edmonton Sun, Calgary Herald and Calgary Sun — all of which separately endorsed Kenney ​ ​ ​ during the final days of the spring election campaign — as well as several community newspapers. By AB Today’s count, four of the Alberta’s Legislative Press Gallery’s 17 members are ​ ​ employed by Postmedia. The media company is hoping to partner with the government via its Content Works division, which creates native advertising and is separate from its news division, but a contract could also include running “energy war room” ads in its newspapers. “Postmedia has engaged Wellington Advocacy with respect to the commercial content area of the business and the previously announced Alberta government’s energy war room,” Postmedia’s spokesperson Phyllise Gelfand said in a statement to Canadaland Friday. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ The UCP’s campaign pledge to create a $30-million “energy war room” to “respond in real time to the lies and myths told about Alberta’s energy industry through paid, earned, and social media” has been criticized by environmentalists as “political theatre.” ​ ​ NDP democracy and ethics critic Heather Sweet questioned the company’s decision. ​ ​ ​ ​ “Frankly, while a newspaper company hiring a partisan lobbyist to offer support for a government campaign promise is deeply troubling, we remain confident in the impartiality of the journalists in the Edmonton and Calgary newsrooms," Sweet said in a statement to The Globe ​ and Mail. ​ In 2016, Postmedia’s Content Works ran a native advertising campaign in conjunction with the Edmonton Journal to promote the West Edmonton Mall. However, that campaign appeared in ​ the newspaper’s style and fashion sections where the perception of editorial bias has lower stakes than in the political pages. Koolsbergen’s registration on behalf of Postmedia was covered by several major news outlets this weekend, including the CBC, Globe, National Observer, Toronto Star, Narwhal and ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Canadaland, but not by any Postmedia-run outlets. ​ In his registration, Koolsbergen said he plans to lobby the Alberta Treasury Board, Ministry of Finance, Alberta Environment and Parks, the executive council, the Premier's Office, Alberta Energy and the Alberta Legislative Assembly. Wellington Advocacy boasts about its ability to “win high stakes campaigns” and says its team is “uniquely positioned” to achieve the “best policy and political outcomes for its clients.” Under the rules set out by the Office of the Ethics Commissioner, the cooling off period for former political staffers does not apply to Koolsbergen because the UCP was not in government when he worked for the party. Kenney said last week an advertising campaign about the forthcoming energy war room is in the works and will be rolling out ahead of the establishment of the actual agency, which is expected by late summer. The war room will receive $20 million of its funding from levies garnered from heavy emitting companies and $10 million from the government’s communications department, according to the UCP. The UCP has also promised to boycott multinational corporations who boycott Alberta oil, such as HSBC, and committed to launching defamation lawsuits against environmental groups accused of promoting “anti-Alberta” interests. Today’s events May 21 at 8:30 a.m. — Edmonton ​ Premier Jason Kenney will provide an update on the wildfire situation near the town of High ​ ​ Level in the legislature’s media room. May 21 at 1:30 p.m. — Edmonton ​ MLAs will elect a Speaker, deputy Speaker, chair of committees and deputy chair of committees by secret ballot in the legislative chamber. Upcoming events May 22 at 8:30 a.m. — Edmonton ​ Premier Jason Kenney and his cabinet will meet at the legislature. ​ ​ May 22 at 3 p.m. — Edmonton ​ Lieutenant Governor Lois E. Mitchell will deliver the throne speech in the chamber. ​ ​ May 23 at 7:30 a.m. — Sherwood Park ​ Service Alberta Minister Nate Glubish will speak at the 2019 Student Skills Portfolio breakfast. ​ ​ May 25 at 2 p.m. — Edmonton ​ Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides will speak at the Concordia University ​ ​ convocation at the Edmonton Expo Centre. Topics of conversation ● The United Conservative Party’s executive director, Janice Harrington, has resigned ​ ​ from her role effective June 1, CBC reports. ​ ​ ○ Harrington was formerly the executive director of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta and prior to that spent five years as director of communications for the Government of Alberta. ○ Harrigton also served as the UCP’s spokesperson when it came to party matters. In recent months she was frequently tasked with defending the party against accusations of voter fraud during its 2017 leadership race. ● The UCP confirmed to the Edmonton Journal it will scrap the $3.7-billion crude-by-rail ​ ​ ​ ​ contracts the NDP government signed with rail companies in February. ○ The leases would have added 4,200 rail cars to ship an additional 120,000 barrels of oil per day out of Alberta, a mid-term solution designed to ease the oil price differential between Western Canadian Select and West Texas Intermediate as the province awaits additional pipeline capacity. ○ Premier Jason Kenney’s spokesperson Christine Myatt told the Journal the ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ government is in talks with CN and CP to get out of the Notley-led deal, and teased its willingness to break contracts using legislation as a last resort. ○ “If these contracts cannot be transferred to the private sector on acceptable terms, our government will do what is necessary to protect Alberta taxpayers,” Myatt said. ● Provincial and federal governments are eyeing a rollback of regulations that govern liquid tailings from the oilsands, the Globe and Mail reports. ​ ​ ​ ​ ○ Under current rules the tailings wastewater — a mix of sand, silt, clay, bitumen and solvents — is held in ponds and cannot be released, but a potential change in rules could allow for the mixture to be discharged into the Athabasca river. ○ The federal government says it would introduce stringent environmental controls before allowing the discharge, which it hopes to have in place by 2022, but, as of now, no technology has been used to filter contaminants on this large a scale. ○ "It’s going to happen sooner or later. And it’s better it happens in a controlled and managed fashion than later on when nobody has the money,” University of Prince Edward Island professor Michael van den Heuvel told the Globe. ​ ​ ​ ● As part of his ongoing campaign against Ottawa’s Bill C-48 and Bill C-69, Premier ​ ​ ​ ​ Jason Kenney has issued letters to each of Canada’s 105 senators “demanding fair ​ treatment from Ottawa for [Alberta’s] economic interests” and calling on them to reject the passage of Bill C-48 and adopt the Senate energy committee’s substantial ​ ​ amendments to Bill C-69.