A citizens’ group campaigning in favour of a contentious coal mine project in Alberta’s Rocky Mountains has previously undisclosed connections to a "grassroots" Canadian oil and gas lobbying group, according to a Great West Media investigation.
On Nov. 25, residents of Crowsnest Pass will vote in a non-binding plebiscite to determine the community’s stance on the development of a metallurgical coal mine at Grassy Mountain.
The nearly 7,000 acre open-pit mine was rejected by a joint federal-provincial regulatory panel in 2021, which ruled the adverse environmental and social effects from the proposed mine outweighed potential economic benefits. But Northback Holdings Corporation, a subsidiary of Australian mining giant Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd., has revived its push for the project after Alberta’s energy regulator accepted new applications from the company for coal exploration, drilling and water diversion at the site.
Citizens Supportive of Crowsnest Coal (CSCC) is one of the most prominent champions of the coal industry’s return to the region. Members have rallied support for the Northback project through the “This is a Coal Town” and “I (heart) CNP Coal” signs displayed throughout the municipality, organizing community meetings, and through calls to action on its website and social media.
The group describes itself as a non-profit formed by passionate people who recognize the economic benefits of mining and want to see their community succeed. The fine print on the CSCC website reveals a more experienced, professional lobbyist’s involvement in the campaign.
In the privacy policy section of crowsnestcoal.org, visitors with inquiries or concerns about privacy practices were directed to contact an email address for Energy United.
Energy United is an arm of the Maple Leaf Institute focused on grassroots lobbying campaigns related to Canadian oil and gas production and environmental policies.
Jarret Coels is Energy United’s campaign manager and is named as a campaign director for the Maple Leaf Institute (MLI) in the federal lobbyist registry, where records show he is currently lobbying federal ministries on the carbon tax and clean energy regulations.
Coels's biography on the Energy United website only briefly mentions he “worked in politics” before starting the advocacy campaign, omitting his noteworthy tenure as the manager of strategic communications for powerful industry association and lobby group The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP). During that time, Coels managed Canada’s Energy Citizens, CAPP’s grassroots marketing and engagement strategy to mobilize citizens in what it described as a “movement of Canadians supporting the positive role Canada’s oil and natural gas industry plays in our lives.”
While it was active, Canada's Energy Citizens claimed to be the largest oil and gas advocacy organization in Canada, and boasted a membership of over 500,000.
His last official position in politics was in 2019 as a chief of staff for the Saskatchewan Party government, serving as a senior strategic, policy, and political advisor to the minister of Parks, Culture and Sport.
Coels is also the principal of Lynx Strategy, a public affairs and communications agency that specializes in advocacy and campaigns, according to its website.
In an interview, CSCC members Carmen and Troy Linderman initially denied any connection with Energy United. When asked about the reference found in the privacy policy on their website, Troy said Coels started working with them earlier this year, and manages the group's online presence through the website, email list, and related assets, responsibilities that he said are beyond the capacity of their core circle of volunteers.
“Jarret came in with a proposal that would assist us in doing what we were doing. So, we secured his services on a monthly basis,” Troy said, adding that Coels offered to do the work for less than other quotes they received.
Coels also helps manage some of the groups social media, such as moderating the “Pro-CNP coal” group on Facebook.
The Lindermans said there is no formal affiliation between their citizens’ group, Energy United, or any other organization, and note CSCC has been active for years in their community.
“We're really just a grassroots organization that's trying to promote industry in the Crowsnest Pass,” Troy said.
Shortly after the interview on Oct. 25, all references to Energy United were removed from the CSCC website.
Coels was reached by phone but declined to answer questions or provide comment for this story.
Energy United, MLI, and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
Energy United is a relatively new organization but has rapidly grown an online presence, owing in no small part to its members' previous experience and the substantial funds at their disposal. Since its launch at the end of May 2023, the “grassroots advocacy” campaign has spent almost $20,000 per month on Facebook and Instagram ads, according to the Meta Ad Library.
Aside from its work through Energy United, there is little publicly available information about the Maple Leaf Institute itself. The group doesn’t appear to even have a website.
Documents obtained from Corporations Canada show MLI was registered as a soliciting corporation in April 2023. Soliciting corporations receive more than $10,000 per year from public sources such as donations, gifts, government grants, and funds from other corporations that have income from public sources.
Four of the six founding members of MLI’s board of directors were executives at CAPP until 2022: the former president and CEO Tim McMillan, vice-president of communications Cole Scuhlz, executive vice-president Terry Grant Abel, and vice-president of oilsands, fiscal, and economic policy Ben Brunnen.
Brunnen and Abel are no longer directors.
McMillan was instrumental in developing CAPP's energy citizens program, which was created in the first year of his term as president and CEO. He now also runs the government and public relations firm Garrison Strategy alongside Abel and Schulz.
Subsidized public, astroturfing, and lack of transparency
Over the last decade, the fossil fuel industry has increasingly looked to political advocacy that presents itself as grassroots to sway public opinion, said Dr. Robert Neubauer, a professor in the University of Winnipeg’s Rhetoric, Writing, and Communications faculty and researcher with the Corporate Mapping Project.
One common strategy is to exert influence through what sociologists call a “subsidized public.” Industry associations and business firms “target potential movement constituents, people who they think are likely to have common interests with them … That tends to be especially employees and people that live in communities with a strong economic dependence on the firm,” Neubauer said.
“They either work with preexisting groups or they create their own groups and attract supporters. And they give them the sorts of resources and tactical direction to turn a kind of disorganized group of potential supporters into people that can act within a coherent campaign.”
These resources can be things like giving someone talking points, leadership training, providing social media content, or help developing online and social media strategies.
While many of these industry-advocacy group relationships are open and transparent, it has also become "extremely common" to do this work in a "more astroturfy way" that minimizes perceived connections between a group's backers and its rank and file, Neubauer said.
“When something is astroturf is really when you are hiding funding, hiding supports coming from an industry, either you are making up a level of grassroots citizen support that is not there … or you're just not being honest or transparent about the supports you're giving a movement,” he said.
Neubauer said the efforts taken by Energy United and CSCC to obscure their connection by scrubbing the website stands out to him, because the campaign and the types of services being provided aren’t inherently very scandalous.
“What I think is sort of interesting here is that Energy United and MLI, the host organization, don’t want to own up to it. That is the part of it that feels like an astroturf campaign to me.
“Everything else … sounds to me like what I would call a subsidized public campaign. But it's the unwillingness to just say, yeah, we're supporting these people, which, honestly, I find a little bit strange.”
