"OTTAWA — Natural Resources Canada says a powerful oil and gas industry lobby group was responsible for organizing a key meeting and some controversial messaging, in partnership with government, to polish the image of Alberta's oilsands industry."
"In newly released emails and internal records, department officials said the strategy to 'turn up the volume' and get 'the right attitude' on oilsands advocacy was actually proposed by high-ranking officials from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers during a March 2010 meeting involving senior federal and Alberta government officials, as well CEOs from oil and gas companies.
'The meeting was organized by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP),' wrote Natural Resources Canada media relations manager Paul Duchesne in an email sent on March 15, 2011, that was supposed to be delivered to Postmedia News. 'We suggest you contact CAPP for more information.'
The email was written in response to media questions about the 2010 meeting and a summary prepared by the federal Natural Resources Department, which highlighted arguments in favour of boosting communications efforts to promote the oilsands.
But it took several months, and a formal request under access to information legislation, which allows the public to ask for copies of government records after paying a $5 fee, for the department to partially release its answers in nearly 200 pages of records with some sections blacked out."
Mike De Souza reports for Postmedia News August 9, 2011.
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