2007 Cartoon on AER when it was the EUB on last page of J Perras’ report on the repulsive spying scandal by the “regulator.” The gov’t responded by ignoring it, and renaming EUB to ERCB to hide things. After my lawsuit suing AER, Alberta gov’t and Encana went public, the gov’t changed ERCB to AER removing its public interest mandate and putting Encana VP Protti at the top!
Fudgy Fudgy “Regulator” of raped and pillaged Alberta.
Donna Little:
The article clearly explains a number of possibilities, but I am inclined to believe the breach was deliberate because the AER is not trustworthy as evidenced in their very amateurish email fiasco. What else can’t they do?
Alberta Regulator’s Email Error Sparks Outrage, Frustration, and Some Thanks by Lella Blumer, March 30, 2026, The Energy Mix
Laura Laing rides along the Oldman River. (Submitted by Laura Laing)
The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) last week exposed the email addresses of nearly 600 individuals who submitted comments about a controversial coal mine project proposed for Crowsnest Pass.
After a series of differently-worded follow-up emails, the regulator conceded to the group Monday that this was not its “preferred approach” to bulk emailing, but by then the damage was done. The incident uncovered a mountain of distrust and frustration among Alberta residents over how the AER conducts its business.
On March 25, when a routine email from the AER landed in my inbox, acknowledging the comments I had submitted regarding the Grassy Mountain coal project, I noticed 298 other email addresses in the Cc field. A careless mistake and par for the course, I thought.
Then the “reply all” emails started coming in, followed by posts on social media and Substack. Clearly, Albertans were angry about their contact information being shared with everyone else who had commented, from both sides, on a mining project that is deeply dividing the region.
Division to conquer is why the evil “No Duty of Care” AER fuckers do it. They did it to me too, to try to get my community to turn against me, which they did, and to try to stop me trying to warn Albertans about the serious harms caused by frac’ing that I started doing in 2003
I reached out with a “reply all” email of my own to ask if anyone wanted to share their story. More than two dozen did, and the emails haven’t stopped.Bravo! Keep the fury coming. AER violated every person’s privacy rights with disclosing every one’s email address which can lead to those people being frauded and stolen from, including ID theft if people used their real names in their emails, by the endless criminal shits out there in the world.
Some made tongue-in-cheek comments, others were concerned about their personal safety. Rightly so! In a 2004 public meeting attended by hundreds of people, Encana/Ovintiv handed out aerial maps of our community on which they violated my privacy rights by disclosing where I live complete with my name printed on it in full. I was the only person in the community Encana did this to. It was illegal, no one cared but me. Shortly thereafter, angry rural Albertans “dropped in” (I hate drop ins) trying to threaten and scare me and my dogs, and ordered me to shut up, the fools told me that only men are allowed to talk to media FFS!, and how much they love Encana’s money and AERAt least five people questioned whether this was really an error or a tactic to make citizens think twice about speaking up.
Respondents said:
- “I am outraged at this ‘mistake’. It’s difficult for me to imagine that it was a mistake because someone who has the job to send emails should know the difference between cc and bcc.”
- “The alternative to assuming that the use of all our email addresses ‘inadvertently’ was proof that they had no respect for us, is that they wanted to let us know that they have no respect for us. Either way, it was disappointing.”Albertans, other than the lying separatists and anti health Fucker Truckers, are always way too polite, which is why the abuses against the harmed continue, decade after decade
- “I fear backlash and more hacking attempts because of this breach.”You are wise to be afraid. Watch your back, that of your loved ones (notably your dogs) and accounts.
- “1. It was likely a clerical error, I have also been guilty of doing a mass mailing and using cc instead of bcc. Not on a work matter though. 2. While it might have been a clerical error, I would have expected something from the AER as an apology or acknowledgment of the breach. So far, nothing. 3. Despite number 1 or 2 above, when it comes to AER this all seems expected.”
The common sentiment among those who contacted me was exasperation and repeated disappointment with the regulatory body created to ensure that Alberta’s energy and mineral resources are developed in a safe and environmentally responsible manner.that might have been why the first ERCB (later switched to EUB, after some hanky panky switched back to ERCB, then more hanky panky switched to AER in 2012 and its public interest mandate removed) was created way back when, but even then, they didn’t regulate. They are an intentional enabler of crimes by corporations, lie to us and abuse us, and take home nice paychecks to do so. Check this out, from soon to be 50 years ago!
1981-07-15: Oil Patch Mafia Andy Russell in Calgary Herald slamming ERCB and oil industry pollution
News reports about AER’s handling of regulations and permit approvals had already given respondent Greg Pohl “reasons to be suspicious about how AER is overseeing our resources,” he told me, “and it doesn’t give me a lot of faith that our resources are in good hands when I see this kind of breach.”
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“We’ve been discounted, discredited, and denied at every step in the process,” Laura Laing said on the phone from her ranch near Nanton. She has participated in the review and hearings process since Benga Mining initially proposed a coal mine in Crowsnest Pass in 2020. That project was denied in 2021 by a joint federal-provincial review panel that ruled it would have significant adverse environmental effects, but it has since been resurrected, this time under the name Northback Holdings Corporation.
“Our experience has been that [the AER’s] response and handling of projects has been chaotic and unorganized, and not always handled with respect,” Laing said.
“Not to downplay privacy, but we’ve had worse,” she added. “We’ve had the government call us foreign-funded eco-terrorists.”
Northback (formerly Benga) is owned by Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart.
Bill Trafford, president of the Livingstone Landowners’ Group, a local organization focused on responsible and sustainable development, and a major intervener in the 2020 hearings, told me there is “absolutely” a difference between the joint federal-provincial process in 2021 and this one.
“The problem is the AER,” Trafford said. The email breach may have been simple carelessness, but “on the other hand, this is a critical file, and a lot of people put a lot of work into responding.”
“AER continues to disappoint everyone, and the people of Alberta are not being given their due.”
Not everyone who responded to my email was a seasoned activist. Brendan Nogue told me this was the first time he’s submitted comments through a public engagement process.
He started canvassing for the Water Not Coal petition as a way to deal with increasing frustration with a government “dragging us down into the past and unwilling to try to do anything different.”
“Seeing them bungle something as easy as putting a Bcc on something makes me question the claim that they’re going to do this right,” he said.
It was the first time Shanika Abeysinghe submitted public comments, as well, although she said she’d engaged in political action before. She told me she wasn’t worried about the impact the breach will have on her, as much as others “who may not feel as safe speaking out, may be in vulnerable situations, and may be discouraged from ever participating in democratic processes again.”
Whether or not AER’s sharing of email addresses constituted a privacy breach is not certain—in large part because its privacy policies are not clear.That doesn’t matter. Alberta has privacy law! Encana violated my privacy rights by handing out my private information to land agents without my consent, claiming they could legally do this via my “implied” consent. HA! I complained in writing to the Privacy Commissioner and Encana’s law violating fingers were slapped, and ordered to stop it, but no punishment for Encana and no apology from them to me for intentionally AGAIN putting me at riskBut, of course, the judges on my case put the AER above the law, so there’s that dirty problem. The Energy Mix has asked privacy experts for their analysis and will report back on that.
In this case, an AER notice stated that contact details “may be incidentally collected… to confirm receipt and consideration of submitted comments; and to respond to commenters where necessary.”But the fuckers did not warn Albertans their privacy rights might be intentionally violated to serve Billionaire Gina and her goons.
When Abeysing he contacted the AER to formally state her concern over emails being shared, the regulator’s March 25 response acknowledged that “this was not the intended approach, and we understand why this raised privacy concerns.”
It added that “we have taken steps to ensure that future communications of this nature are sent in a way that better protects participant contact information.”Bullshit, they’ll do it again and again and again and again. Harming us to serve the uber rich is their motto.
But on March 27, the regulator wrote to another respondent, who declined to be identified for this article, a very different response. That email read:
Pease [sic] be advised that a public body is not required to:
(a) establish and implement a privacy management program;So what, AER are still operating under Alberta laws, and Albertans still have rights!
(b) provide a person with a copy of its privacy management program or with directions to where the person may access a copy, AER knows this would be useless anyways because AER likes to violate our rights, with intent to terrorize, terrify and put us at harm. They did it to me often trying to make me go away and often frightened me and my dogs. Two different AER men slithered their bodies up and down mine in public, I think trying to get me to scream and use that to discredit me. They are hired to be heinous to anyone speaking up or saying no.until 1 year after section 25 of the Protection of Privacy Act comes into force.Doesn’t matter what law is brought in, AER will violate it to harm, frighten and silence us.
Accordingly, please resubmit your request after June 11, 2026, if you are still interested at that time.”what a condescending rude douche fucker wrote that!
A subsequent, more detailed email to the same person indicates the AER “has been actively working to ensure compliance with the new privacy legislative framework” and “that work is nearing completion.”Alberta has had privacy law for years!
Then, on March 30, the AER emailed all respondents, this time with their addresses hidden, writing that it had received “a number of inquiries” Pfffft pathetic liars. The word is COMPLAINTS! about the initial email and adding that it “recognizes that this was not the preferred approach for issuing bulk correspondence”.
“The AER typically receives a limited number of submissions in response to an environmental assessment process and would generally respond to participants individually,” it stated in the email. “In this instance, the AER received approximately 600 submissions.”boo hoo, it’s your fucking job to respond. If you had said no to Gina as was required, AER would not have to endure all those submissions. Abusive Idiots
“The AER does not consider the March 24, 2026, emails to give rise to a reportable privacy breach,”I DO! What AER says about their violation of so many Albertans’ rights has no value. Complain to the commissioner, en masse AND FOIP THE BREACH – and watch AER squirm but it has amended its bulk correspondence practice so that it “prevents the visibility of recipient contact information and limits reply‑all responses.”DO NOT BELIEVE THEM. THEY LIE, ALL THE FUCKING TIME, SMILING.
Recipients were not placated. “Blaming the volume of responses is not an explanation—it is an admission of poor planning,” wrote Adam Parker, replying to everyone in the AER thread.
“High participation is not an excuse to lower standards; it is when standards matter most.”
“When hundreds of participants have their contact information exposed without consent, dismissing it as non-reportable sends a very clear message: accountability is optional.”FILE COMPLAINTS, ANYWAY, MANY AND MAKE THEM PUBLIC!
The respondents who contacted me directly said the incident would not change their resolve to speak up about what they consider inappropriate conduct on the AER’s part.EXCELLENT!
“At the end of the day I feel as an Albertan I want to take an active role when I have an opportunity to make my thoughts known,” Pohl said. “It might be opening myself up to unwanted attention from someone, but I won’t stop sticking out my neck.”BRAVO!
Laing echoed she “will continue to be completely committed until a regulation is passed to stop coal mining, because if it wasn’t for the voices of Albertans in 2020 we would already have had full-blown mining in the Eastern Slopes.”
The power of NO! kept frac’ing out of Cities of Calgary and Lethbridge
One respondent who wished to remain anonymous said they would give the AER employee the benefit of the doubt—and their thanks. “Your little ‘oops’ just gave me a whole network of fellow thinkers,” they wrote. “If it happens twice, though, I’ll start to see a pattern of someone thinking this is intimidating.”
Lella Blumer is The Energy Mix’s Community Engagement Lead.
Refer also to:
2006!!!!!
2012: AER named me a terrorist without any evidence of me being such, in their court fucking filing and in court (it’s illegal to lie in court and or rulings), and claimed because I am a terrorist, I have no charter rights for them to respect. My lawyers told me this was done intentionally to bias judges against me in the future on the case, which is what happened.
