Incremental Ethane Extraction Program

Documents pertaining to the Tories' backroom deal that gave advance notice of changes to the province's Incremental Ethane Extraction Program to a company before the changes were publicly announced. Included in this collection are: [1] Emails obtained through FOIP that show Energy Ministry officials (Jay O'Neill, the Director of Communications; and Courtney Luimes, the Executive Assistant to the Leader) were corresponding with Williams Energy and their lobbyist about the IEEP changes before the changes were publicly announced. [2]The Energy Ministry news (IEEP) release announcing the changes to the IEEP. [3] The Williams Energy news release announcing their partnership with Nova that takes advantage of the changes to the IEEP. Their announcement comes just two business days after the government announcement. Williams and their lobbyist consulted with the Energy Ministry on the drafting of this news release prior to the announcement of the IEEP changes. [4] Williams Energy's Capital Guidance Filing from February 17, 2011. In their news release, Williams Energy says this document as having been part of the planning process for their partnership deal with Nova, which means the deal was in the works as early as this date, which is over a month before the government's announcement of the IEEP changes. [5] The Nova Chemicals news release announcing their partnership deal with Williams Energy. They credit the IEEP changes as being instrumental in their partnership deal. [6] The Order in Council from March 23, 2011 that approved the changes to the IEEP. [7] The provincial government's news release announcing the creation of the Alberta Competitiveness Council--which would recommend and validate the changes to the IEEP--and the appoint to the Council of Walentin Mirosh, a former Nova Chemicals VP and lobbyist, and a regular contributor to the PCs. [8] An old entry in the Lobbyist Registry showing that Walentin Mirosh was once a designated lobbyist for Nova. He would late be taken off the Lobbyist Registry and then appointed to the Alberta Competitiveness Council, which would eventually recommend changes to the IEEP that would benefit his former company, Nova.