KENNEY MUST IMMEDIATELY RELEASE STEVE ALLAN’S REPORT

CALGARY - Alberta’s NDP Opposition is calling on Premier Jason Kenney to immediately release the final report from Steve Allan’s overdue, over-budget, scandal-tainted, not-so-public inquiry.

After two extensions and seven months of delay, Allan is expected to present his report to the government on Sunday, January 31, but Kenney could withhold it from the public for an additional three months.

“Albertans have waited long enough to hear back from this kangaroo court,” said Kathleen Ganley, NDP Critic for Energy. “Thousands of workers in our energy sector are out of work, projects have been cancelled, investment has fled, and we lost a pipeline. If Steve Allan has something useful to say, Albertans deserve to hear it immediately.”

Kenney launched the public inquiry into the funding of environmental advocacy organizations in July of 2019, but refused to release Allan’s preliminary report in January of 2020. Allan himself has told the public almost nothing about his public inquiry. His mandate has been rewritten twice alongside two missed deadlines and an additional $1 million dollars in funding on top of the original $2.5 million budget. 

Allan spent $900,000 of his budget on a sole-source contract with a law firm at which his son is a partner, and wasted tens of thousands of dollars of Albertans’ money to commission discussion papers that promote conspiracy theories and deny the science of climate change.

As recently as September, Allan said he was still developing the procedural rules of the inquiry. Several prominent environmental groups in Alberta say Allan has not asked them to testify to the inquiry, an opportunity he is legally required to offer if they are named in his report.

“Albertans deserve to know how Jason Kenney spent $3.5 million on yet another boondoggle. I suspect they will have some hard questions about why that money wasn’t spent creating jobs,” Ganley said.

“Alberta can protect energy jobs and create new ones in a rapidly changing world if we move with the times. Albertans understand the reality of climate change and we’re ready to compete and thrive in a modern global economy. But Jason Kenney’s disastrous war room and public inquiry are telling investors the exact opposite, and that’s harming our economy.”

“The sooner the Allan report is released, the sooner we can turn the page on this chapter of Jason Kenney’s failed strategy,” Ganley said.