Alberta premier defends $4.8M office budget increase

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith provides an update on what steps the government is taking related to allegations by former Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos, in Calgary, Alta., Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)

EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is defending a nearly 23 per cent increase to her office’s budget, saying it’s coming at the expense of the Energy Ministry as her office assumes some formal and financial responsibility for promoting the province’s oil and gas industry.

Smith, appearing at a legislative committee meeting Tuesday to take budgetary questions from Opposition NDP members and United Conservative backbenchers, said the roughly $4.8-million increase planned for the premier’s office budget will complete the process of folding the controversial Canadian Energy Centre into government.

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The centre, also referred to as the “energy war room,” was created in 2019 by former United Conservative premier Jason Kenney and given an initial $30-million budget to do battle against what it considered misinformation being hurled at Alberta’s oil sector.

Alberta’s Opposition NDP has called the centre a massive waste of public dollars.

It was fully shut down last summer and its resources were returned to the government.

“I thought it was very interesting the work that the Canadian Energy Centre has done, and that is part of the reason why I wanted to preserve them,” Smith told the committee Tuesday, adding that she thought the centre’s advertising efforts could’ve been more effective.

She said the transition meant additional staff were hired or contracted to executive council, and part of the $12 million the centre was spending on advertising was added to her budget last year, with the remaining amount being accounted for under this year’s increase to her office budget.

“What we will be doing with those dollars would be the energy advocacy that the original energy centre had been doing,” she said.

“There’s been a couple of major campaigns we discovered that we needed to do.”

One of the staff contracted to executive council after the energy centre was shut down, Steve Rennick, is being paid a total of nearly $430,000 over two years, according to the government’s sole source contracts database.

Calgary-based Jaremko Energy Consulting was also given the same contract, and both expire in the spring of 2026.

Another staff member, Cody Ciona, was given a two-year contract that will pay him just over $100,000.

The Alberta government’s new budget tabled last month forecasts a $5.2-billion deficit, largely attributed to declining oil revenue and the uncertainty of tariffs south of the border.

Out of the $79 billion set to be spent across government, about $67.4 million is designated for Smith’s office and executive council, her duties as intergovernmental relations minister and the annual operating grant given to the Invest Alberta Crown corporation.

About $25.7 million, up from the $20.9 million forecasted to be spent in the fiscal year ending this month, is for Smith’s office and executive council.

It covers staffing expenses for Smith and executive council, such as the government’s new top bureaucrat — former Edmonton police chief Dale McFee — as well as government employees tasked with drafting and co-ordinating policy across all government ministries.

Smith said Tuesday that the Intergovernmental Relations Ministry will be renamed Intergovernmental and International Relations as of next month.

The nearly $5-million budget hike planned for Smith’s office continues the trend of increases given to her office and intergovernmental relations work since she took office in 2022.

The government’s new budget includes a roughly $70,000 increase for intergovernmental relations from the forecasted spending in the current fiscal year, bringing the total to $23.6 million.

Smith told the committee she plans to continue making trips to the United States to meet with government officials about President Donald Trump’s tariffs as uncertainty continues to loom over the relationship between Canada and its southern neighbour.

She also said her office will also be looking to form relationships and establish trade opportunities in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 18, 2025.

Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press