‘Huge concern’: Opposition says Alberta premier should come clean on campaign funding

The NDP says it's a "huge concern" that before Smith re-entered politics, she lobbied for an oil well cleanup bailout that she made a government priority when she became premier.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith should come clean on whether funding for her leadership campaign has influenced her government’s agenda, says the province’s New Democrat Opposition.

Energy critic Kathleen Ganley said Friday it’s a “huge concern” that Smith, before she re-entered politics, lobbied for an oil well cleanup bailout program that she made a government priority when she became premier.

“This is, once again, Danielle Smith being willing to do the bidding of those who put her in power.”

Ganley said Smith should stop a pilot project the United Conservative Party government is planning that would grant $100 million in royalty credits to energy companies that clean up old and abandoned wells — work the companies are already obliged to do under the conditions of their licence.

As president of the Alberta Enterprise Group, an influential Calgary-based business lobby, Smith wrote then-energy minister Sonya Savage and met with her several times to pitch what was then known as the RStar program. Smith was a registered lobbyist with the group until less than a year ago when she decided to run for the UCP leadership.

Within months, Smith raised $1.3 million for her campaign, far more than any of her opponents.

But after winning the leadership, Smith immediately made RStar a priority, writing it into her new energy minister’s mandate letter. That’s despite analysis from energy department experts who panned the proposal.

The sources of the money Smith raised for her campaign have not been revealed.