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The Alberta government formally launched its energy war room Wednesday, tasking the now operational Canadian Energy Centre with pushing back against what Premier Jason Kenney called a “campaign of lies” targeting the province’s oil and gas industry.

The Calgary-based centre, with its $30-million annual budget, was one of the UCP’s key campaign promises. At its launch event at SAIT, Kenney said the centre is needed because Alberta’s energy sector has been targeted by a “highly co-ordinated and largely foreign funded” campaign to landlock its resources.

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“We were not doing nearly enough to tell the truth in response to a campaign of lies — of defamation and disinformation based on torqued, dated and incomplete and out-of-context attacks,” Kenney said. “We refuse to sit here and be a punching bag anymore. When they lie about us, we will tell the truth.”

The Canadian Energy Centre will be headed by managing director Tom Olsen — a former journalist, unsuccessful UCP candidate and press secretary to former premier Ed Stelmach — and has seven other employees, according to its newly launched website. Of the centre’s budget, $20 million will be funded by industry through the Technology, Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) fund, while $10 million has been repurposed from advertising spending earmarked by the previous provincial government.