Alberta premier defends $4.8-million office budget increase

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Edmonton – Alberta Prime Minister Danielle Smith has added nearly 23% to her office’s budget, saying it was at the expense of the Department of Energy as her office assumes formal and financial responsibility to promote the province’s oil and gas industry.

Smith appeared at a legislative committee meeting on Tuesday to raise budget issues against opposition NDP members and United Conservative backbenchers, saying that adding $4.8 million to the prime minister’s office budget plan would complete the process of folding the controversial Canadian energy center into government.

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Also known as the “Energy War Room”, the center was founded in 2019 by former Conservative Prime Minister Jason Kenney and gave an initial $30 million budget to fight misinformation thrown by the Alberta oil department.

Alberta’s opposition NDP said the center wasted a lot of public funds.

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

“I think the work done by the Canadian Energy Center is very interesting, and that’s part of the reason I want to protect them,” Smith told the committee Tuesday, adding that she thinks the center’s advertising efforts may be more effective.

The transition means additional staff are hired or signed to the executive committee, and a portion of the $12 million spent on advertising in the center was added to her budget last year, with the rest increasing to her office budget based on this year.

“What we’re going to do with these dollars is the energy advocacy that the original energy center has been doing,” she said.

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“We found out we needed to do some big exercise.”

After a staff member contracted with the Executive Committee after a shutdown of the government’s sole source contract database, Steve Rennick was paid nearly $430,000 in two years, according to the government’s sole source contract database.

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

Another staff member, Cody Ciona, was awarded a two-year contract to pay him more than $100,000.

The new budget proposed by the Alberta government last month predicted a $5.2 billion deficit, largely due to a decline in oil revenues and uncertainty over tariffs south of the border.

Of the $79 billion throughout the government, about $67.4 million has been designated as Smith’s Office and Executive Committee, where she serves as Minister of Intergovernmental Relations and awards annual operating grants to the Alberta Royal Company.

About $25.7 million, up from the $20.9 million forecast this month for the fiscal year, is the expenses for the Smith office and the Executive Council.

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It covers Smith and the Executive Committee’s personnel spending, such as the government’s new supreme bureaucrat Dale McFee, former Edmonton Police Chief, and government employees of government employees, responsible for drafting and coordinating policies across all government departments.

Smith said Tuesday that the Intergovernmental Relations Department will be renamed to Intergovernmental and International Relations next month.

Since she took office in 2022, the nearly $5 million budget continued by Smith’s office plan continues the increasing trend of work between her office and intergovernmental relations.

The government’s new budget, including an increase of approximately $70,000 in intergovernmental relations, has totaled $23.6 million from the current fiscal year forecast expenditure.

Smith told the committee that she plans to continue her trip to the U.S. to meet with government officials about President Donald Trump’s tariffs as uncertainty continues to be vaguely on Canada’s relationship with its southern neighbors.

She also said her office will also seek to build relationships and establish trade opportunities in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

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