Canadians for Affordable Energy (CAE)

Background

Canadians for Affordable Energy (CAE) is a fossil fuel advocacy group launched in 2016 by New Brunswick Member of Parliament and conservative movement activist John Williamson.¹

The group frames its pro-fossil fuels arguments as being about the cost of energy. According to its website, “Keeping energy services affordable must be an ongoing public policy priority for all levels of government. We are committed to speaking out on this issue so there is an informed debate and the interests of all Canadians are heard.”²

CAE’s incorporation records describes the group’s purpose as to “(1) advocate for more affordable energy in Canada, (2) challenge governments in Canada to prioritize affordable energy when legislating and regulating environmental and energy policies, (3) educate and inform Canadians about the environmental implications of wasteful and expensive environmental and energy policies, and (4) advocate for innovation in techniques and processes of energy production that create and result in lower costs to the consumer.”³

Before being elected to the House of Commons in 2011, John Williamson worked as former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s director of communications.⁴

Williamson was also formerly the national director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), a former fellow at the Manning Centre for Building Democracy, and a Fraser Institute senior fellow.

Stance on Climate Change

March 26, 2021

In a post on the Canadians for Affordable Energy website, CAE president Dan McTeague wrote,⁵

“As I have said before, no one disputes that climate change is real.

“It is happening all the time.

“What people do dispute (myself included) is the jump that is made from saying climate change is real, to saying that humankind is the overwhelming cause of it. And people (millions in fact) also dispute the claim that those causal human actions are very dangerous.

“Today, daring to raise such disputes is tantamount to treason.”

October 7, 2020

In an opinion piece for the Financial Post, CAE President Dan McTeague wrote, “Some might say we have a state religion in Canada and it is called climate. But my experience with religion is that it is rational — and this obsession isn’t. What we have is a cult of climate.

“At Canadians for Affordable Energy we are working hard to speak out against the irrationality of the current climate obsession and be a reasonable voice that defends the interests of everyday Canadians.”⁶

2019

According to the group’s 2019 annual report, “Opposing the carbon tax has been one of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s biggest fights, so it was rewarding to gain some ground in 2019” when Alberta scrapped its provincial carbon tax.⁷

“This victory for taxpayers came after years of hard work. The CTF has been the leading voice against carbon taxes in Canada. We hosted anti-carbon tax events across the country, launched billboards, handed out bumper stickers, debated pro-tax advocates, intervened in court cases and conducted numerous media interviews on why carbon taxes are bad policy,” the report stated.⁸

Funding

Corporate Documents

Key People

According to snapshots captured by the Internet Archive, key people at CAE include:

Barinder Rasode* — Advisor and contributor

Barinder Rasode works as a social responsibility advisor to Resource Works, a group advocating for natural resource development in British Columbia.⁹ The group was described by The Narwhal as at a leader of the campaign to “remake the industry’s reputation and, in the process, attack critics of unrestrained resource extraction.”

While the group does not disclose its funding sources, it did note that seed funding came from the B.C. Business Council. Rasode is also a board member of Fraser Health. ¹⁰

*Note that, while previously listed as an advisor, Rasode was removed from the CAE website in late June 2022.

Rasode indicated by email she had advised Canadians for Affordable Energy on sustainable resource development for a short period of time about five years ago. Soon after DeSmog contacted Rasode, her photo and biography were deleted from the CAE website.

Dan McTeague — President since 2020

Dan McTeague is a former Liberal MP and parliamentary secretary to Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. Before entering politics, he worked as a PR specialist at Toyota/Lexus of Canada. ¹¹

Dan McTeague’s LinkedIn lists him as a “senior petroleum analyst” at GasPriceWizard.com. The website, which monitors gas price changes across Canada, was formerly Gasbuddy.com, and now appears to be active at GasWizard.ca. ¹²

According to a 2019 article, McTeague “became known to TV viewers and radio listeners across the country as Gas Buddy Dan because of his frequent media commentaries about the ups and downs of prices at the pumps.”¹³

Dan McTeague is active on Twitter with the handle @GasPriceWizard, where he has made comments critical of climate change “alarmists” and “climate bedwetters.”

“Their predictions, like their faux science, isn’t about accuracy, it’s about control through fear” he has tweeted. McTeague has also said “Green schemes like Net-Zero are dangerously delusional.”

John Williamson — President, 2017

John Williamson is a Member of Parliament representing Southwest New Brunswick, and launched Canadians for Affordable Energy in 2016. He was director of communications to former prime minister Stephen Harper, and has connections to a range of Canadian think tanks and conservative groups.

Williamson is a former senior fellow of the Manning Center, Fraser Institute, and was a national director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He also did work for the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies and was a founding editorial board member of the National Post.¹⁴

Kevin Lacey — Alberta director, 2021, and acting president, 2018-1029

Kevin Lacey is Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, a “not-for-profit citizen’s group dedicated to lower taxes, less waste and accountable government.”¹⁵

According to his LinkedIn, Lacey worked as manager of strategic planning, stakeholder relations, at the office of the Prime Minister Stephen Harper from 2006 to 2008.¹⁶

Richard Garneau — Advisor

Richard Garneau is president and CEO of Resolute Forest Products, which his official bio describes as having a “leadership position in North America’s forest products industry.” His former positions included president and CEO at Catalyst Paper Corporation, 2007-2010, vice president of pulp and paper operations at Domtar, and various roles at Norampac, Copernic.com, Future Electronics, St. Laurent Paperboard, Finlay Forest Industries, and Donohue.¹⁷

Directors

A group titled Canadians for Affordable Energy, also incorporated in 2016, listed the following directors, according to federal corporation records.¹⁸

Kathleen M. Mcguire Ciccolini

Stella M. Ciccolini Ambler

Stella Ambler appears to have been a former Conservative MP for Mississauga South Ontario¹⁹ who also organized election campaigns in Brampton for conservative candidates, according to an archive of her profile at the Conservative Party of Canada website.²⁰

Robin A. D’Agostino

Contributors

Barinder Rasode

See profile above.

Brigitte Pellerin

Brigitte Pellerin is a freelance writer based in Ottawa, Ontario. She is listed on the website of a Canadian anti-abortion group named “ProWomanProLife.” According to her profile on the group’s website, “Brigitte is not so much pro-life as anti-casual-abortion.” Her profile notes she has written columns for a variety of Canadian newspapers including the Ottawa Citizen, the Montreal Gazette, and the National Post, magazines such as Western Standard and Reader’s Digest, and online publications such as Le Québécois Libre, Mercatornet.com, and C2C: Canada’s Journal of Ideas.²¹

John Williamson

See profile above.

Kevin Lacey

See profile above.

Mark Milke

Mike Milke is a “public policy analyst, keynote speaker, author, and columnist” whose “work has been published by think tanks in Canada and internationally, including the Fraser Institute, the Montreal Economic Institute, American Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation, and Brussels-based Centre for European Studies,” according to his website.²²

“In 2019 he was the lead architect of the United Conservative Party election platform and principal policy advisor to UCP leader Jason Kenney. He was most recently the executive director of research for the Canadian Energy Centre.”²³

According to his LinkedIn profile, Milke was a co-founder and senior fellow at SecondStreet.org, as well as a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute. He was a research director at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and held roles as British Columbia and Alberta director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Other affiliations include:

Canadian Energy Centre
United Conservative Party (UCP)/Jason Kenney
Civitas
Canadian Taxpayers Federation
Sir Winston Churchill Society of Calgary

Matthew Lau

According to his profile at CAE,²⁴ Matthew Law is a Toronto writer who has written for the Financial Post, the Fraser Institute – where he is an adjunct scholar – and the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (now merged with the Fraser Institute). He is also fellow at the Montreal Economic Institute.²⁵

Paige MacPherson

Paige MacPherson is the Atlantic director and former Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. She previously worked at a host for Sun News Network. According to her LinkedIn, she is the associate director of education policy for the Fraser Institute and a freelance contributor at SecondStreet.org. She was a coordinator and “AIMS on Campus Founder” at the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies and interned at the Manning Centre for Building Democracy.

Peter Shawn Taylor

Peter Shawn Taylor’s profile at CAE describes him as an editor-at-large at Macleans and a columnist for the Waterloo Region Record.²⁶ According to his LinkedIn profile,²⁷ Taylor is also the senior feature editor for C2C Journal, a publication that describes itself as having an “unabashed bias is in favour of free markets, democratic governance and individual liberty.”²⁸

Rex Murphy

Rex Murphy has reportedly been a regular speaker at oil and gas industry events across Canada. As noted by The Narwhal, Press Progress analyzed 25 of Murphy’s public speaking engagements and “found sponsors for Murphy’s pro-oil public appearances included the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Enbridge, TransCanada and Suncor among others.”²⁹

Those events were reportedly sponsored by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association, the Mining Association of Canada, the Forest Products Association of Canada, and the Railway Association of Canada, among others.³⁰

In one notable example, Murphy spoke at an event in 2011 titled “Climate Science 101,” hosted by the Friends of Science and presented by the Frontier Center for Public Policy, according to the archived event description. Listed sponsors were Canoe Financial and W. Brett Wilson.

Stewart Muir

Stewart Muir is the founder and executive director of the Resource Works Society in Vancouver, B.C.³¹

Tasha Kheiriddin

Tasha Kheiriddin is a national political columnist with Postmedia Network, and a principal at Navigator, LTD.

Paige T. MacPherson

Paige T. MacPherson was a writer for Canadians for Affordable Energy from August 2017 to January 2019. She contributed “opinions columns to a variety of newspapers on issues related to affordable energy for Canadians,” according to her LinkedIn profile.³²

Macpherson has had connections to a range of other Canadian think tanks, most recently associate director of education policy at the Fraser Institute.

MacPherson held several editorial positions at Sun Media, where Ezra Levant was also a regular columnist. She was the Atlantic director and earlier the Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation for more than five years, and also contributed freelance work to SecondStreet.org.

Key Actions

October 25, 2021

In a commentary on the group’s website, President Dan McTeague assessed the Alberta government’s “Public inquiry into anti-Alberta energy campaigns final report.“³³

“The intent of the report was to track how much money was coming into campaigns against development of oil and gas in Alberta,” he wrote.

“[T]he activists’ claim, if true, is that they have stopped the equivalent of investment of 4 times the size of Canada’s annual economy.

“These people are good at what they do!”

He added:

“But the activists are brazen as well as smart. They love to go on about how ‘big oil and gas’ is spending billions to advance its interests.

“If only that were true! Big oil and gas does spend billions – but those are billions spent on research and development of specific project opportunities that then deliver energy to citizens around the world. And they spend billions on constant efforts to improve how that energy is extracted, processed, transported, and used – no sector spends more on innovation in Canada. In other words, they spend billions delivering value to humankind.

“But the activists focus on stopping all that good work.

“And COP26 is just an opportunity to give those activists more profile.”

August 11, 2021

On the Canadians for Affordable Energy website, McTeague promoted an open letter by the UK-based Global Warming Policy Forum and Nigel Lawson. “Great Britain’s Net Zero agenda is a case study for Canada. Net Zero will be shockingly expensive here too,” McTeague wrote. He concluded, ³⁴

“Unfortunately, Canada doesn’t have a Nigel Lawson – certainly not in our opposition politicians like Erin O’Toole. There is no one holding our Prime Minister to account on climate alarmism, on the outrageous cost of the Net Zero transition, that he, of course, will never feel, but that will make life so much less affordable for Canadians still reeling from the economic costs of the Covid-19 pandemic. We wish we had similar voices here, holding our PM to task to stop punishing Canadians with more policies that make energy – and life in general – much less affordable.”

June 25, 2021

Dan McTeague appeared in a CTV News segment to discuss the increase in gas prices in Canada.³⁵

“We’re paying a carbon tax that’s about ten cents a litre that we didn’t have to pay two years go,” he commented, suggesting other reasons included an increase in demand exiting the first waves of the Covid-19 epidemic.

“There has also been an inability, I think for a lot of oil producers not just in Canada who are familiar with this, but now US shale producers who have not been able to get back into business and meet the surging demand.”

October 7, 2020

The Financial Post published an opinion piece by Dan McTeague titled “The Liberals are becoming a climate cult,” in opposition to the Clean Fuel Standard.³⁶

“Some might say we have a state religion in Canada and it is called climate. But my experience with religion is that it is rational — and this obsession isn’t. What we have is a cult of climate. Cults are powerful and grip the imagination of the people they entrap. But eventually common sense from reasonable voices can prevail and the extremists can be exposed for what they are,” he wrote.

In the article, McTeague cited a September report by LFX Associates, commissioned by CAE, that claimed major job losses would result from implementing the standard:

“Research we have commissioned and just released shows exactly how profound. Our analysis concludes the proposed CFS will lead to as many as 30,000 job losses nationally, putting in the order of $22 billion of capital at risk of exiting the country in order to avoid investment losses.”

LFX Associates listed climate change denier and LFX board member Ross McKitrick as a consultant on the report.

September 28, 2020

CAE president Dan McTeague announced CAE was releasing a new report³⁷ titled “Assessment of the Proposed Canada-Wide Clean Fuel Standard” critical of the Clean Fuel Standard.

“[W]e are committed to giving Canadians all the ugly facts about this very harmful tax,” McTeague wrote.

Canadian climate change denier Ross McKitrick was listed as a consultant on the report, which was produced by LFX Associates. Both McKitrick and G. Cornelis van Kooten are listed on the board of advisors at LFX Associates.³⁸ According to federal corporation information, McKitrick is also listed as a director of the group. ³⁹

Another post on the CAE website lists a full range of case studies, also produced by LFX Associates, for various provinces.⁴⁰

LFX Associates — CAE commissioned LFX Associates to produce a report on the impacts of the Clean Fuel Standard.
Canadian Taxpayers Federation — A number of people affiliated with Canadians for Affordable Energy are either currently or formerly associated with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Contact & Address

Canadians for Affordable Energy lists the following contact information in its privacy policy:⁴¹

Canadians for Affordable Energy

1 – 200 North Service Road W

Oakville, Ontario L6M 2Y1

Phone: 647-220-0114

[email protected]

Note that federal corporation records lists a business titled “Canadians for Affordable Energy,” also incorporated in 2016, with a different address:⁴²

100 King Street West
56th Floor, First Canadian Place
Toronto ON M5X 1B5
Canada

Canadians for Affordable Energy on Facebook
@GasPriceWizard (Dan McTeague) on Twitter

Resources

1
“About Canadians for Affordable Energy,” Canadians for Affordable Energy. Archived July 4, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/dP3KZ
2
“About Canadians for Affordable Energy,” Canadians for Affordable Energy. Archived July 4, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/dP3KZ
3
Certificate of Incorporation for Canadians for Affordable Energy (corporation number 958821-3), Industry Canada.
4
“ABOUT JOHN WILLIAMSON,” John Williamson MP. Archived January 28, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/dYxyC
5
Dan McTeague. “Supreme Extremism will leave Canadians hurting,” Canadians for Affordable Energy. Archived January 31, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/xHWnD
6
Dan Mcteague. “Opinion: The Liberals are becoming a climate cult,” Financial Post, October 7, 2020. Archived January 31, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/aopii
7
“2019 Annual Report” (PDF), Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
8
“2019 Annual Report” (PDF), Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
9
“Barinder Rasode | Advisor,” Canadians for Affordable Energy. Archived May 10, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/cj6Bb
10
Donald Gutstein. “Resource Works: Two Cheers for Natural Resources?” The Narwhal, August 7, 2015. Archived January 28, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/cj6Bb
11
“Dan McTeague,” LinkedIn. Accessed January 2022. Archive .pdf on file at DeSmog.
12
“Dan McTeague,” LinkedIn. Accessed January 2022. Archive .pdf on file at DeSmog.
13
Charlie Smith. “Gas Buddy Dan McTeague is rebranding himself as the Gas Price Wizard,” The Georgia Straight, June 27, 2019. Archived January October 27, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/vX4ZM
14
“ABOUT JOHN WILLIAMSON,” John Williamson MP. Archived January 28, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/dYxyC
15
“Who we are,” Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Archived January 28, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/P3Xl4
16
“Kevin Lacey,” LinkedIn. Accessed January 2022. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
17
“Richard Garneau | Advisor,” Canadians for Affordable Energy. Archived January 22, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/HAbsT
18
“Federal Corporation Information – 958821-3,” Government of Canada. Archived January 28, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/oNeCQ
19
“Ambler, Stella,” Our Campaigns. Archived January 28, 2022. Archive URL:https://archive.ph/zDh8F
20
“About Stella,” StellaAmbler.ca. Archived April 3, 2008. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/vTQXS
21
“The Women,” ProWomanProLife. Archived January 31, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/nlVAh
22
https://markmilke.com/about
23
https://markmilke.com/about
24
“Matthew Lau,” Canadians for Affordable Energy. Archived February 1, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/bXWRW
25
“Matthew Lau,” LinkedIn. Accessed February 2022. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
26
“Peter Shawn Taylor,” Canadians for Affordable Energy. Archived January 19, 2021. Archive URL:https://archive.ph/xJmiS
27
“Peter Taylor,” LinkedIn. Accessed January 31, 2022. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
28
“About,” C2C Journal. Archived December 31, 2021. Archive URL:https://archive.ph/diDRh
29
“So Who Does Rex Murphy Work For?” The Narwhal, February 18, 2014.
30
“Rex Murphy and Big Oil: friends with benefits?” PressProgress, February 4, 2014. Archived February 1, 2022. Archive URL:
31
“Stewart Muir,” Canadians for Affordable Energy. Archived May 14, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/RQEAp
32
“Paige T. MacPherson,” LinkedIn. Accessed January 2022. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
33
“COP in Focus – Part Two – The Alberta Angle,” Canadians for Affordable Energy, October 25, 2021. Archived January 31, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/e6hrS
34
“Who will tell Trudeau?” Canadians for Affordable Energy. August 11, 2021. Archived August 11, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/z7KWt
35
“Jump at the Pumps,” CTV News, June 25, 2021. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.
36
Dan Mcteague. “Opinion: The Liberals are becoming a climate cult,” Financial Post, October 7, 2020. Archived January 31, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/aopii
37
Dan McTeague. “An In-Depth Study of Trudeau’s Second Carbon Tax,” Canadians for Affordable Energy, September 28, 2020. Archived May 14, 2021. Archive URL:https://archive.ph/lhzEY
38
“OUR TEAM,” LFX Associates. Archived May 13, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/1ahnr
39
“Federal Corporation Information – 1236349-6,” Government of Canada. Accessed March 2022. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
40
“Assessment of the Proposed Canada-Wide Clean Fuel Standard,” Canadians for Affordable Energy, December 11, 2020. Archived March 4, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/Lo1kh
41
“Privacy Policy,” Canadians for Affordable Energy. Archived January 28, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/djXvd
42
“Federal Corporation Information – 958821-3,” Government of Canada. Archived January 28, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/oNeCQ

DeSmog

DeSmog