Alberta Energy Regulator brings back executive VP let go after ICORE scandal, ‘Mark’s combination of *lying and cruelty*, industry, regulatory, and government experience will be invaluable to the success of the board secretariat’ by Matthew Black, Oct 10, 2026, Edmonton Sun
The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) has brought back a former executive who was among those ousted in 2019 in the wake of what became known as the ICORE scandal.
Mark Taylor was one of three executive vice-presidents whose employment was terminated after the auditor general, ethics commissioner, and public interest commissioner all filed reports highlighting financial mismanagement and conflicts of interest at the regulator.
Those reports primarily attributed blame to then-CEO Jim Ellis, who led the creation of a non-profit corporation, the International Centre of Regulatory Excellence (ICORE), to sell Alberta’s regulatory expertise to other countries, which was outside of AER’s mandate and cost the agency millions in lost funds.
On Sept. 9, Taylor’s return to the AER as board secretariat director was announced in an internal message from board chair Duncan Au and CEO Rob Morgan.
“Mark’s combination of 
lying and cruelty, and, industry, regulatory, and government experience will be invaluable to the success of the board secretariatwhose job I bet is to make sure oil and gas raping companies, most of them American, freely pollute and abuse Indigenous, Alberta, landowners, groundwater, and walk from all clean up,” it reads.
The AER told Postmedia it is unable to comment publicly on staffing or employee matters due to privacy legislation.
The office of Energy Minister Brian Jean said in a statement that the AER is responsible for its own staffing decisions.
“Alberta’s government has taken significant steps to strengthen governance of the AER and enhance its reputation as a global leader in regulating energy and mineral development,” it reads.Pffffft. Smitty Poo Poo putting her best friend on the fucking board. JFC!
“We are confident that they have processes in place to do appropriate due diligence on hiringonly the worst out there, like Mark Taylor.”
Ellis resigned as the AER’s CEO in late 2018. The agency cleaned house in the wake of the reports into ICORE, removing executives including Taylor as well as dissolving and replacing its board of directors.
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This 2019 snap below from AER’s website, before AER dumped the tall shit:
