EDMONTON—Incorporating its “war room” may have complicated the government’s efforts to collect and safeguard information.

Last week, the province said the Canadian Energy Centre (CEC) — previously known as the Energy War Room — is a private corporation and therefore its internal operations will not be subject to Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) requests, but will instead fall under the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA).

But some experts are questioning the validity of the centre’s FOIP exemption, as well as the logistics of complying with PIPA.

PIPA states an organization cannot collect, use or disclose personal information about an individual without that person’s consent. If a person requests information collected on themselves, the corporation has to respond within 45 days.

“If the war room is looking into me personally … then I have a legal right to request, from the private sector organization: What information do you have about me? What are you doing with it? What is the purpose for its collection?” said Sharon Polsky, president of the Privacy and Access Council of Canada. “I’m supposed to be given the opportunity to consent to its collection, as well.”

The energy centre has been mandated with combating what Alberta’s United Conservative government sees as misinformation about the oil and gas industry.

The government is promoting the controversial theory that a foreign-funded campaign of misinformation is at work in Canada, specifically to landlock Alberta oil — something critics call a conspiracy theory.

While information travelling between the centre and the government will still be subject to freedom of information requests, according to Premier Jason Kenney’s press secretary Christine Myatt, the internal operations of the corporation will not be.

Myatt said in an email Tuesday that the centre “will, of course, develop processes and procedures to ensure that it complies with PIPA rules.”

But Polsky said the centre’s entire operation might actually fall under FOIP, despite its declaration as a private corporation. She said the centre appears to be a “hybrid,” like the Alberta Treasury Branches, and said it may have to comply with both FOIP and PIPA.

Derek Anderson, a criminal defence and human rights lawyer in Edmonton, said how much of the centre’s work will be exempt from FOIP is an open question until it is clear how the organization is constituted and who is liable for its decisions.

“There’s a lot of unknowns. There’s a lot of unknown unknowns,” Anderson said.

Even within the government, there has been some confusion on the corporation’s level of separation from the province.

At a press conference last Wednesday, Energy Minister Sonya Savage initially told reporters that the body would be open to FOIP requests. But the next day, Myatt issued a statement to reporters saying the minister “was not sufficiently clear regarding FOIP legislation’s applicability to the CEC.”

The CEC’s budget is set by the province at $30 million and will be managed by former Calgary Herald journalist Tom Olsen.

Lisa Young, a political science professor at the University of Calgary, said she has concerns with the centre’s efforts to keep some information from the public.

Young also criticized the centre’s choice of a leader with a background in journalism rather than science, saying it suggests the focus will be on developing public relations expertise — not engaging in scientific conversation.

“There’s a level of secrecy here that I think is worrisome, and I wonder if a media organization will challenge it in court,” Young said.

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Another complication might lie in the government’s $2.5-million public inquiry, which was established to collect information on people perceived to be working against the oil and gas industry in Alberta.

The inquiry has an email address, dubbed a “snitch line” by some critics, where Albertans are encouraged to submit information.

Myatt said in an email Tuesday that “while the inquiry and CEC are separate, distinct entities, the inquiry’s findings may eventually inform the CEC’s work.”

Anderson said the inquiry would not be allowed to share any personal information with a private corporation, however, and vice versa.

Anderson said governments are not allowed to divulge information collected via tax filings to third-party private interests, for example, without explicit personal consent. If they were to do so, they would face “significant consequences.”

“I don’t think it’s any more appropriate for the government to take information that it’s in possession of and pass it along to a corporation that it nominally wishes to be received as — and acted upon as though it were — a truly independent corporation,” Anderson said.

“You can’t have it both ways, in my mind. You can’t be both a Crown corporation and subject to the rules and regulations, duty of fairness, admin law requirements of a Crown corporation, but then also try and (adhere) to all the protections and limitations of a truly private corporation.”

The corporation will still be subject to an audit by the auditor general and the whistleblower’s act.

Anderson said regardless of legality, the challenges of obtaining information from a Crown corporation will be enough of a hurdle to stop most people, who have limited resources and time, from digging too far.

Polsky suspects it could take a great deal of time and resources to get anything from a FOIP request to the Canadian Energy Centre.

“The government’s already made it abundantly clear that their intention is to safeguard the corporation’s dealings,” Polsky said. “So I would be very surprised if a FOIP to any unit of the government of Alberta would be met with anything other than a delay, a claim for exemption, stonewalling.”

With files from Nadine Yousif and Kieran Leavitt

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