Alberta's deficit this year is forecast to be $24 billion.

More than 12 months ago Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced with great fanfare an investigative inquiry into nefarious foreign-funded environmental campaigns bent on destroying Alberta's energy industry.

In two months, the inquiry commissioner is expected to deliver his final report to the government.

And yet, on Aug. 27, Steve Allan filed a court document saying he doesn't have a process for the environmental groups to respond and procedural rules "remain under development."

Environmental groups who have been singled out as culprits by Kenney and the government have yet been asked to chat with Allan despite his show having been on the road for more than a year.

Allan's court filing is in answer to an Ecojustice application to halt the inquiry, which it contends could damage the reputation of environmental organizations.

Allan argues in his brief that Ecojustice can't prove it will be harmed by the inquiry.

Given the shaky looking process and a string of controversies about the inquiry over the past year, Allan's contention is likely true.  It may well be the only harm from this initiative will be done to Kenney and the UCP reputation.

The inquiry prompted scathing criticism from the beginning with its ideological bent and scant attempt at any kind of balance.

By June of this year the government blinked in the face of that criticism by tweaking the terms of reference in an order in council by adding the words "if any" to the inquiry's original mandate to "inquire into anti-Alberta energy campaigns that are supported, in whole or in part, by foreign organizations."

Another "if" was sprinkled in belatedly in the terms of reference asking Allan to make recommendations to allow the government to respond effectively "if" anti-Alberta campaigns come to light.

What exactly Allan has found to date and who he has met with or heard from is unknown, thanks to the bizarre government decision to shield his work from freedom of information provisions.  Apparently a public inquiry isn't actually public in the UCP's Alberta.

We do know that, according to Energy Minister Sonya Savage's June press release, Allan needed an extension on his original end of June 2020 deadline to the end of October to finish his report.

Allan's court response to the Ecojustice injunction request complains that suspending the inquiry now would "significantly disrupt the tight budget and timeline" of his work.

One could argue that the budget for this inquiry is not what the average Albertan would call tight.

Reporters have winkled out that he commissioner's contract provided him with $291,000 for the original year-long job.  A part-time executive director is costing $108,000.

Contracts for outside legal counsel and outside forensic accounting were pegged at $905,000 each.  Allan had the power to award the contracts without going through regularly government procurement processes.

When Savage granted Allan the deadline extension she also handed him another $1 million for the inquiry.

At least that money came out of the bloated $30 million budget of the Canadian Energy Centre, Kenney's dubious energy war room devoted to churning out happy talk about the province's oil and gas industry.

There was even controversy about Allan getting the job in the first place.  The provincial ethics commissioner had to rule on whether his close ties to Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer's election campaign as a donor and supporter influenced his appointment.  The ethics commissioner concluded it was not a breach of the conflicts of interest act.

Kenney made a rash promise on the campaign trail to get to the bottom of the so-called conspiracy to keep Alberta's resources in the ground. The trick with conspiracy theories is the difficulty in proving them.

While the Allan's report will be delivered this fall to the government, it isn't expected to be made public until January of 2021.  Then the public can decide if the premier's penchant for these kinds of blue-ribbon inquiries is just a costly exercise in justifying campaign rhetoric.

Photo Credit: CBC News