Kenney declined to take questions on the war room plan, saying only
that details will be coming soon. CBC says the PR campaign “will be
funded in part by levies on major industrial emitters in Alberta, with
$10 million repurposed from the existing Alberta government advertising
budget.”
The announcement prompted an immediate response from Keith Stewart,
senior energy strategist with Greenpeace Canada, reminding Kenney that
shooting the messenger won’t solve the problems facing Alberta’s fossil
economy.
“We all understand wishing that the oil boom could go on forever as
if climate change didn’t exist, but that’s not the world we live in,”
Stewart said.
“Jason Kenney can spend $30 million on political theatre to try to
distract us from the deadly seriousness of climate scientists’ warnings,
but that won’t keep wildfires, heat waves, or floods from getting worse
or stop the seas from rising. Shooting the messenger might make for
great election campaign rhetoric, but ignoring inconvenient truths does
nothing to prepare Alberta for the coming transition off fossil fuels.”