Harper Regime & science funding / CSEE Can. Sch. of Energy & Envi.

[Holly Stick]

Sixth Estate has a post about the Canada School of Energy and the Environment (CSEE), which was started by the Harper Regime in 2007, with funding of $15 million for 2008-2013 from Industry Canada:
 
http://sixthestate.net/?p=904
 
http://sixthestate.net/watchlist/index.php?title=Canada_School_of_Energy_and_the_Environment
 
Hat tip pogge for the website: http://www.pogge.ca/archives/003186.shtml
 
This looks to me like another bait-and-switch, with the Harper Regime not committing more funding to PEARL for climate research, but giving funding to a Conservative-agenda centre instead (though I'm not sure of how the funding by the different ministries is arranged, so it's probably not so much a direct transfer but a change in what ministries are favoured and emphasized).  Much like cutting CIDA funding to KAIROS, which criticizes Canadian mining companies among other things, and giving CIDA money to mining companies instead.
 
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/budget-deep-freeze-will-lead-to-end-of-climate-research-lab/article1495628/
 
ETA:
http://blogs.physicstoday.org/politics/2010/03/budget-cuts-end-canadian-clima.html
 
http://www.miningwatch.ca/en/cida-subsidizes-mining-s-social-responsibility-projects
 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/02/21/f-vp-dueck.html
 
 

[Holly Stick]

Originally this thread was going to be about CSEE, but I've realised that Mentarch has all sorts of posts about the Harper Regime and science and research funding, and they might as well be together.  Here are some of Mentarch's link-rich posts, the most recent on top:
 
Jan 23 2011:
http://pov-mentarch1.blogspot.com/2011/01/harper-government-in-nutshell.html
 
http://pov-mentarch1.blogspot.com/2011/01/late-friday-night-ode-to-right-wingers.html
 
http://pov-mentarch1.blogspot.com/2010/01/anti-science-harper-because-ignoring-it.html
 
http://pov-mentarch1.blogspot.com/2010/12/harper-government-no-money-for.html
 
http://pov-mentarch1.blogspot.com/2010/11/and-mendacity-of-harper-and-co-keeps-on.html
 
 

[Holly Stick]

SR&ED: another federal program that doesn't work very well (the Harper Regime didn't start this one, but keeps up the money wasting in it):
 

...At a time when experts worry Canada is falling badly behind in the global innovation race, Ottawa often touts its Scientific Research and Experimental Development program as a key part of the answer – a powerful lure to get companies to invest here and generate wealth. In fact, the government’s own studies have found the program generates almost no economic benefits. And the low risk of getting caught means too much of the money winds up in the hands of people who do little or no R&D, including small manufacturers, consultants and lenders...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/flawed-rd-scheme-costs-taxpayers-billions/article1939418/singlepage/#articlecontent
 
Hat tip: http://scathinglywrongrightwingnutz.blogspot.com/2011/03/puppets-and-potted-plants.html

[Holly Stick]

Bruce Carson stepped down as executive director of CSEE as he is being investigated for lobbying without being registered:
 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2011/03/16/pol-carson-rcmp.html
 
Sixth Estate has more about him and Big Oil:
 
http://sixthestate.net/?p=1025
 
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/Governments+unite+fight/4446476/story.html
 

ETA: see also this post about him lobbying Indian and Northern Affairs:
http://breadnroses.ca/community/index.php/topic,1432.msg198038.html#msg198038
 
ETA: earlier information about him (note they don't mention his criminal past):
 
http://www.albertaoilmagazine.com/2008/12/ottawa%e2%80%99s-mechanic-goes-west/

http://www.iseee.ca/about-us/contact-us/directory/bruce-carson/
 
http://www.ucalgary.ca/news/uofcpublications/oncampus/november2008/carson
 
ETA: another by Sixth Estate: http://sixthestate.net/?p=1035
 

[Holly Stick]

CSEE about Carson:
 

...Heidecker praised Carson's work with the Canada School of Energy and Environment over the last three years.
 
"He has been able to cause a lot of very, very good conversations in the whole area of energy and environment," he said...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2011/03/18/calgary-carson-folo-criminal-record-hired.html

[skdadl]

Do you understand how U of C can claim he's not an employee? Is this some kind of mere legalism?

[Holly Stick]

CSEE was formed by the three universities and got funding from Industry Canada:
 
http://www.canadaschoolofenergy.com/about/history-of-csee.htm
 
But it seems a little fuzzy to me; might it be considered a government organization or a private corporation or what?
 
ETA: Sixth estate calls it a Centre of Excellence created by the Government of Canada (before its name change I guess):
 
http://sixthestate.net/watchlist/index.php?title=Canada_School_of_Energy_and_the_Environment
 
ETA: That link mentions Carbon Management Canada:
 
http://www.cmc-nce.ca/
 

...Carbon Management Canada (CMC) is a not-for-profit corporation that is part of Government of Canada’s Network of Centres of Excellence program. CMC was incorporated in December 2009 and comprises a multi-disciplinary network of researchers at over 20 Canadian universities. Research carried out by CMC investigators focuses on developing the technologies and business and policy frameworks that will reduce carbon emissions in the upstream fossil fuel industry. Key to CMC’s operation is facilitating the rapid transfer of research results into practice. Funding for CMC comes through a blend of federal, provincial and industry support...

http://www.cmc-nce.ca/media/frequently-asked-questions/
 
http://www.nce-rce.gc.ca/NetworksCentres-CentresReseaux/NCE-RCE/CMCNCE-CMCNCE_eng.asp
 
This shows money given to various Centres of Excellence:
http://www.nce-rce.gc.ca/NetworksCentres-CentresReseaux/NCE-RCE_eng.asp
 

[Holly Stick]

Carson was also involved with EPIC, which has gone offline.  Here is a list of members from the March 14 2011 cached webpage:
 
 Members   Our membership is comprised of leading Canadian energy organizations representing a broad spectrum of energy business from every region of the country.
Member organizations include:
 

Accenture Aecon Group Inc. AltaLink Management Ltd. Apache Corporation ATCO Power Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) Canadian Energy Pipeline Association (CEPA) Canadian Gas Association Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. Canadian Pacific Railway Canadian Petroleum Products Institute (CPPI) Canadian Oil Sands Limited Canfor Capital Power Corporation Cenovus Energy ConocoPhillips Canada Domtar Corporation

E. I. du Pont Canada Company Emera Inc. (Nova Scotia Power Inc.) Enbridge Inc. EnCana Corporation Enmax Corporation Finning International Inc. Forest Products Association of Canada General Electric Canada Imperial Oil Limited Irving Oil Ltd. Petrobank Energy & Resources Ltd. Plutonic Power Corporation Rio Tinto Alcan Shell Canada Ltd. Spectra Energy Suncor Energy Inc. TD Financial Bank Group Terasen Inc. Toronto Hydro Corporation TransAlta Corporation TransCanada Pipelines Ltd. Vestas-Americas

 
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Qgv-xJUN9OkJ:www.canadasenergy.ca/who-we-are/members/+http://www.canadasenergy.ca/who-we-are/leadership/&hl=en&gl=ca&strip=1
 
(my screen capture key does not seem to work ETA: figured it out)
 
And as Alison noted:
 

But just to be on the safe side EPIC, the Energy Policy Institute of Canada, energy lobby group :
 
David Emerson – Chair
Bruce Carson – Vice Chair
Elyse Allan – Vice Chair  - and CEO of GE Canada and Chair of the Board of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce
Gerard Protti – Vice Chair - and VP of EnCana
Daniel Gagnier – Vice Chair - and Chief of Staff to Quebec Premier Jean Charest in 2007 and VP at Alcan
Doug Black – President of EPIC
 
has gone off-line.

http://breadnroses.ca/community/index.php/topic,1432.msg198194.html#msg198194
 

[Holly Stick]

Last April Harper appointed John McDougall as head of the National Research Council. McDougall is a Calgary engineer and businessman, not a scientist as such.

There's radical change at the National Research Council, Canada's biggest science institute, as the new president orders all staff to direct research toward boosting economic development and technology, with less time for pure science.
 
  Starting this spring, 20 per cent of research money, and all the capital funds that buy expensive lab equipment, will be removed from existing budgets and directed where the president and vice-presidents choose.
 
Eventually, 80 per cent of research funds will be redirected this way...

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/boss+orders+scientists+focus+market+drivers/4472949/story.html
 
Hat tip to Dawg whose satirical post is partly fiction:
http://drdawgsblawg.ca/2011/03/NRC-market-driver-at-wheel.shtml
 
A couple of articles by or about McDougall:
 
http://www.albertawater.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=93&Itemid=71
 
http://www.oilweek.com/articles.asp?ID=657
 
So he has been the head of the Alberta Research Council; I wonder what effect he had there?
 

[Holly Stick]

Hah, I forgot about this thread about NRC Research Press being privatized:
 
http://breadnroses.ca/community/index.php/topic,7351.0.html
 

[Holly Stick]

More by Sixth Estate about the environmental groups Carson is involved with and the MSM finally asking some questions that should have been asked before:
 
http://sixthestate.net/?p=1128
 

EDMONTON - Let's start with two questions.
 
How did Bruce Carson, 66, come to be appointed as the executive director of the Canada School of Energy and Environment, a federally-funded think-tank that links academics from the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary and the University of Lethbridge?
 
How did Carson come to be named, only this January, to the Alberta government's "expert panel," which is supposed to create a world-class environmental monitoring system for Alberta's oilsands?...

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Stewardship+Alberta+oilsands+must+remain+free+controversy/4481595/story.html
 
And about disappearing websites:
 
http://sixthestate.net/?p=1090

[Alison]

EPIC - Energy Policy Institute of Canada - a corporate energy lobby group headed by David Emerson and Bruce Carson, is back online again, now minus Vice Chair Bruce Carson

[Holly Stick]

The Liberal Party has more about Carson continuing to work for the Government of Harper after Feb 2009, including a photo of him as special advisor to Jim Prentice at a meting:
 
http://jamesbowie.blogspot.com/2011/03/advantage-of-bruce-carson-over-chuck.html
 
http://www.liberal.ca/newsroom/news-release/carson-advised-minister-months-conservatives-claimed/

[k'in]

That photo dated April 28, 2009 of Carson is still up (you have to scroll down) on the government website:

http://www.climatechange.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=7E0FA1DA-1

Jim Prentice sure picked an interesting time to bail...

[Holly Stick]

More about Carson as advisor to Harper Regime, including this quote from Gerard Kennedy:
 

..."There's also, it would seem, a bit of a scheme here to give $15 million to an organization, set Mr. Carson up in it, and then work with the oil and gas industry on undermining Canada's climate change policy," said Kennedy. "He has had a tremendous amount of collaboration with the government and the industry and he seems to be the link. And when Canadians ask themselves why don't we have a climate change policy, why is Canada falling further and further behind, Mr. Carson may be part of the answer."...

http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/Disgraced+former+Harper+adviser+continued+consulted+ministers/4492913/story.html
 
And The Sixth Estate has interesting stuff about the H2O Global Group office, with some very interesting other groups at the same address:
 

...H2o Global’s website says it is based in Suite 1150 at the World Exchange Plaza, an office building in downtown Ottawa, just a couple of blocks away from Bruce’s old digs in Langevin Block, which houses the Harper Government™ Prime Minister’s Office. That same office suite is also currently claimed by (among other tenants) GCI Canada, home of Harper’s former senior strategist Ken Boessenkool. And by SecDev, the Canadian partner of Palantir, recently and dramatically outed by Anonymous as part of a conspiracy by the American Chamber of Commerce to stalk and hack political opponents. You can rent it too, if you have a couple hundred bucks a month. If you actually need to use the office, say for a meeting, you have to pay extra, generally by the hour...

http://sixthestate.net/?p=1159
 
 
ETA:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/former-escort-caught-in-bruce-carson-probe-breaks-silence/article1955486/
 
Updated today:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/pms-ex-adviser-carson-has-chequered-past/article1954294/
 
APTN trailer for tomorrow:
http://aptn.ca/pages/news/2011/03/23/season-finale-promo/