Alberta NDP decries contract for government supporter to review energy regulator

 Alberta’s Opposition New Democrats are condemning another sole-source contract handed out to a close associate of the United Conservative Party government.

A recently released document shows David Yager, a longtime oilpatch executive, journalist and conservative activist, is being paid $70,000 to review the Alberta Energy Regulator. The information is contained in government disclosure statements that are released quarterly.

The disclosure reveals little about what Yager has been asked to review. It refers to a “review” of the regulator _ one of Alberta’s most important public bodies _ and gives an end date of February.

Neither Alberta’s energy ministry nor Yager were immediately available for a response. A spokesperson for the regulator said it had no comment.

Rules posted on the government’s website say sole-source contracts can be issuedwhen “it can be demonstrated that only one supplier is able to meet the requirements of a procurement.”

NDP critic Kathleen Ganley questioned Thursday whether that rule was applied in this case.

“In a province full of energy experts, it leaves you to wonder what the work is, if the outcome is predetermined.”

Ganley said there has been no information on what the review is to consider or on the process for public input. The regulator adjudicates some of the most wide-ranging and contentious issues in the province, including coal mining, oilpatch cleanup and tailings pond management.

Ganley called Yager a conservative “partisan.”

Yager’s website lists a long history of involvement in conservative politics, including fundraising for the former Wildrose Party, running as a candidate for the Wildrose, supporting its merger with Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives to form thenow-governing UCP and advising Energy Minister Brian Jean.

Yager has claimed to have helped convince Premier Danielle Smith to enter politics. He also once compared the former New Democrat government to a terminal disease.

It’s the second recent sole-source for Yager, who also worked on a report on Alberta’s energy future _ a report that has never been released.

“What it looks like is the premier hired an insider to do a report to give her the answer she wanted,” Ganley said. “It’s incredibly troubling.”

In an article written in 2019, Yager laid out his vision for a revamped regulator.

“That the AER should ensure the industry cleans up after itself is within its mandate,” he wrote. “How it accomplishes this must be re-examined.”

Yager said court rulings that put environmental liabilities ahead of creditors during bankruptcy have squeezed energy companies.

“Troubled companies can’t borrow to stay onside with (the regulator’s) decommissioning deposits,” he wrote. “Is this what the (regulator) should be doing, when many companies are experiencing financial difficulties?”

Yager argued the regulator’s role has expanded to include environmental and social questions. Those questions should be decided elsewhere, he wrote.

“Alberta’s energy regulator was not created to make political decisions, nor should it be permitted to do so.”

He said industry critics are uncompromising and that attempts to find middle ground are doomed to fail.

“While the stated mandate is not to say, ‘No,’ the increasingly long, costly, convoluted and uncertain path to ‘Yes’ makes an agency review, and possibly an overhaul, essential.”

Ganley said any review of the regulator must not only be conducted in public, it must be released publicly.

“The (regulator) does some pretty important things.”