The Dubai skyline at night.
The Dubai skyline at night. Credit: Ivan Siarbolin / Wikimedia Commons Credit: Ivan Siarbolin / Wikimedia Commons

So, about this group of “hundreds” of Albertans who have accompanied Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on her field trip to dusty Dubai for the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28) – are they part of an official mission, or just some sort of petro-state posse of uninvited interlopers?

The first three days of COP28 were open only to invited guests, including delegates from national governments and observer organizations, such as environmental charities.

After today, though, it will basically become a huge trade show in an expensive and exotic locale to which almost anyone with enough money to travel who can get through a security check can book a day pass.

As a result, fossil fuel lobbyists of all sorts have poured into Dubai pushing “climate change” policies that will keep the world addicted to coal, gas oil and gas. So it’s not just the Smith gang from Alberta. 

But who are the “hundreds” from Wild Rose Country – an estimate from the headline atop a Postmedia news story last Tuesday? 

That Calgary Herald yarn said that “more than 100 Alberta delegates across dozens of companies and organizations, along with several politicians” would be along for the trip. (Emphasis added, of course.) Were they all supposed to be part of the premier’s entourage? That’s not clear. 

Former Calgary Herald managing editor Gillian Steward’s November 28 commentary in the Toronto Star provided a figure of 150 for the Alberta delegation. 

A spreadsheet of the names and workplaces of those attending published by COP28 and crunched by Emily Atkins’ Heated Substack, revealed “hundreds of fossil fuel industry representatives who are actively working to delay climate policy at home.”

Andrew Leach, the University of Alberta economist and frequent critic of the United Conservative Party (UCP) government, took a run at the spreadsheet looking for people associated with the provincial government, and found 43, all nominated by the Government of Canada.

Dr. Leach posted his list to social media. It includes Smith and Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz; Smith’s husband David Moretta (listed as being from the Office of the Premier); Rob Anderson (director of the Premier’s Office and a co-author of the separatist Free Alberta Strategy); more than a dozen other senior Alberta government officials; about the same number from Alberta government boards, agencies and commissions; sundry political aides; a couple of security guys; and two representatives of the Metis Nation of Alberta. 

That leaves aside the nameless business people cited by the Herald and the Toronto Star, of course. 

So, if this is some sort of semi-official Alberta Government delegation to the fringes of COP28, what is its mission? If it is, who is actually part of the group? 

Since none of these folks have any meaningful role to play in the actual business of COP28 – which stands, by the way, for the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC – what are they doing?

So far not much but “twiddling their thumbs in a corner,” as an observer in Dubai noted. 

Then there is the always vital money question: Who is paying the freight? 

Hint: You can count on it, at least for the people on Dr. Leach’s list, that one way or another Alberta taxpayers will pay for almost all of them. And the cost will be high: Former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Thomas Lukaszuk estimates the airfare alone for each passenger from Alberta to be more than $18,000. 

So, as an aside, why hasn’t the supposedly non-partisan Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) spoken up about this gross waste of tax money? Surely this is worth a CTF Teddy Award like the one given to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s 2019 visit to India!

If one went by the Alberta Government’s official news release on the topic Tuesday, though, about all you’d know was that Smith and Schulz were on their way to the UAE. All the release had to say about the delegation was that there was one. 

“At COP28, Premier Smith and Minister Schulz will participate in panels, speaking events and discussions with heads of state, ministers, municipalities, civil society representatives and chief executives from around the world about global issues like greenhouse gas emissions, CCUS, hydrogen, technology and innovation,” the news release enthused. “In addition to participating in COP28, the Premier’s delegation will meet with officials from the regions of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Doha to discuss opportunities in the energy, infrastructure, education, transportation and agriculture sectors.” (Once again, emphasis added.)

The cost of this extravaganza will be totted up and reported later, the release promised. But does that only refer to Smith and Schulz, or the whole shebang? If the government is not paying the freight, who is? 

The ministerial pair’s itinerary for the two-week sojourn is vague, although it lists two “fireside chats” – which seems incongruous under the circumstances, but maybe that’s just me.

We can theorize about why the UCP Government thought an event of this sort was worth this kind of attention – especially in light of the things said by many right-wing figures about the legitimacy and value of COP28 and similar international initiatives. 

Maybe they just thought it was a great excuse for a holiday on the taxpayer’s dime, as the most cynical commentators on social media have complained. 

The official news release tried to frame it as a sort of trade show opportunity to peddle Alberta’s wares, although surely a delegation of this size wouldn’t normally be sent to such an event.

For all the world it looks to me as if Smith and Anderson are indulging their Alberta independence fantasy and pretending to be a national delegation, right down to the president bringing along her first gentleman.

Now, about that other Danielle Smith in Dubai …

Let’s all remember the nuisance we made of ourselves yelling at Jason Kenney, the fellow from a Virginia community adjacent to Washington D.C., just because he was known online as @JasonKenney and there was an Alberta premier with the same name. Let it be said that the American Kenney put up with our Canadian nonsense for a long time with good grace and a sense of humour. 

But let’s commit now to leaving the Danielle Smith connected the Dubai Personal Coaching Center alone whenever the Danielle Smith from Canada says something stupid, especially if she says it in Dubai? 

OK? Is everybody on board?

David J. Climenhaga

David J. Climenhaga

David Climenhaga is a journalist and trade union communicator who has worked in senior writing and editing positions with the Globe and Mail and the Calgary Herald. He left journalism after the strike...