Alberta is creating an ESG Secretariat to create yet more happy talk for global investors.

The international flight of investment out of the oil sands as global institutions and banks look to environmental, social and governance metrics has convinced Premier Jason Kenney that it's imperative to burnish the province's image.

So the spring Alberta budget plowed $1 million into a new entity to tell Alberta's story.  It's yet another voice singing the same old song Alberta has been trying to get on the hit parade for years.

There's not much detail about how the secretariat will fulfill its mandate.  Supposedly it will spotlight other economic sectors besides the energy industry, but it's pretty clear where most of the focus will be.

"We really think we don't get a fair shake when it comes to many especially European investors, who hear only the negative side of the oil sands," Kenney told reporters last week.

"Part of our message is: To focus only on emissions in the broader ESG spectrum is not the right path."

Alberta has been proclaiming for years that Alberta oil is somehow more ethical.  The province's human rights record beats Saudi Arabia's, after all.  Alberta workers are well paid.  Some First Nations participate in the sector.  Just look away from that big carbon footprint (which, by the way, industry is chipping steadily away at.)

Last year the UCP government created the Canadian Energy Centre (CEC) to basically do the same thing as the ESG.  It was immediately derided as a bloated and incompetent PR effort.  With its $30 million annual budget and shaky first months, the "war room" proved a liability to the province's reputation.

The CEC continues to exist despite the creation of the ESG Secretariat.  It clocked in with a slightly slimmer $12 million budget this year and will continue to promote the energy sector's ESG merits, according to its director.

And also still hanging around on the fringes is the bizarre inquiry into "foreign-funded special interests" seeking to tarnish Alberta energy's reputation.  That inquiry, with more than $3 million in tax money, has garnered plenty of controversy and has blown well past its original deadline.

What will all these overlapping efforts amount to when all is said and done?  If nothing else they've proven a handy target for NDP Leader Rachel Notley.

"This is a government that has been spending millions and millions of dollars on a joke of a war room, that is spending money to buy junk science, that is changing environmental rules behind closed doors without consulting with people," Ms. Notley said.

"Each and every day they undermine the international picture that we need to present to the rest of the world."

The $1 million budget for the ESG Secretariat is coming from the province's tax on heavy carbon emitters.  Surely there are better ways to spend those dollars and all the dollars sunk into the war room and the inquiry.

The government could, for instance, provide some content for its sustainability story by beefing up regulation and enforcement of the resource industry.

Or better yet, if money must be spent on chatting up international investors, why not tell them about opportunities in Alberta beyond oil and gas, including agriculture, technology and health science?

But the UCP remains focused on energy even though that industry's share of the revenue picture continues to shrink.  And of course the energy industry itself is happy to have the government act as its marketing arm.

"If we can get some objective, consistent, complete and comparable data on ESG performance, it can then start to set the right tone and the right basis for either identifying areas to improve performance, or demonstrating the performance of our industry to international markets in order to attract capital," Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers vice-president of oil sands told reporters.

It's debatable if the secretariat's data will be objective, given the track record so far of the UCP's story-tellers.

It's too bad sheer volume is unlikely to bring back oil and gas investment given that Alberta's expensive PR chorus is now so deafening.

Photo Credit: CBC News