Dave Yager: “Short-armed double-dipper” on board of AER (oil and gas industry’s self regulator, not independent, not respectful of the law or Albertans harmed by its failure to regulate) gets $156,000 (from taxpayers) to do the hanky panky in office of Danielle Smith (Alberta’s premier, wrapped in scandals from head to quisling toe).

AER board member brazenly moonlights with $156,000 job in premier’s office, Fake “arms-length” Alberta Energy Regulator exposed in structurally corrupt cross-contamination with Danielle Smith’s scandal-ridden premier’s office by David Thomas, Apr 17, 2025, Crowsnest Headquarters

At an otherwise un-notable meeting of the standing committee on resource stewardship March 18, opposition MLA Nagwan Al-Guneid dropped a time-bomb that would blow wide-open the Smith government’s phoney claim that the Alberta Energy Regulator is an independent agency.

“Last time I checked, the Premier appointed Mr. Yager to the AER board, which means he and the AER must be at arm’s-length from the government. How is Mr. Yager receiving $156,000 salary from the government while being an AER board member?” asked Al-Guneid.

“Why is an AER board member holding closed-door consultations on how to make taxpayers pay for delinquent assets of bankrupt oil and gas companies in rural Alberta? Through the chair, why does Mr. Yager introduce himself as a special adviser to the Premier and Executive Council in public events and consultations while being a board member on the AER?”

The time-bomb exploded publicly April 14 when High River Mayor Craig Snodgrass responded to Northback CEO Mike Young’s assertion that his scheme to rip coal from Grassy Mountain would be subject to rigorous regulatory review.Pffft. Big lie, Team Northback/AER know it. AER lies non stop and works to help companies break the law, and get away with it. I experienced it directly, for years.

“Not only is David Yager on the AER board, he is on the payroll as a special adviser to the premier. Don’t tell me he’s at arm’s length from the Alberta government,” Snodgrass said during the public meeting of High River Council.

The Alberta Energy “Regulator” is currently pretending to evaluate an application by Australian coal grubber Northback Holdings to drill yet more exploratory holes into Grassy Mountain. Northback’s Grassy Mountain project was definitively rejected in 2021 by a joint federal-provincial panel. Despite that, the AER agreed under order of Energy Minister Brian Jean to pretend its own decision didn’t happen and allowed Northback a do-over.

Refer also to:

2024 04 28: Big Oil Dildo Danielle (slithered into power by TBA evangelicals and the oil patch she’s lobbyist for) “refreshes” AER, appoints industry CEO Duncan Au as Chair, and old & new board members: 1. Fascist industry CEO, Dani’s pal, “yäger bomb” (Dave Yager, paid by UCP to review AER); 2. past ERCB member, leak expert and lawyer Theresa Watson; 3. industry CEO Carey Arnett. Of course, on a Friday afternoon. **Remember: AER owes “no duty of care” to any Albertan harmed by oil, gas ‘n frac; is legally immune; violates the law with impunity, including Canada’s charter, enabled by the judges our dirty politicians appoint; and NDP enabled and lied about AER same as UCP.**

fascism: A philosophy or system of government that advocates or excercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merger of state and business leadership, together with an ideology of belligerent nationalism.But in UCP and Danielle Smith’s corrupt quisling case, the USA, not Canada, complete with taxpayers forced to pay to send UCP MLAs to USA for prayer sessions, even after Trump threatened to annex us.

Photo of 1967 American Heritage Dictionary definition of fascism. Page 477.

Dear AER and Rosalie Abella, I’m still waiting for your apologies: 1) AER for lying, judging me to be a criminal in 2005 because I asked you to regulate Encana’s frac crimes, in your lying 2012 court filing calling me a terrorist, in your lying public statement after Canada’s supreme court damaged our Charter to enable your douche fuckery; 2) Abella for lying about AER’s lies about me, judging that they found me to be – two years before I filed my lawsuit – a vexatious litigant.

2021: The Rule of Gag: Alberta Rules of Court Amendment Regulation (AR 36/2020) confidential dispute resolution (ADR) for civil actions. USA: “Lighting strike more likely than forced arbitration win.” Of 60 million employees forced into arbitration, only 282 awarded damages. “The U.S. Supreme Court drew a road map to give immunity to these corporations.”

2020: AER skulduggery escalates: Dave Goldie, Encana & Cenovus VP is new Chair (first was Encana & Cenovus VP Gerry Protti); Martin Foy, Encana crime-enabler, appointed Exec VP (remember AER exec VP, ex-Encana lying manager Mark Taylor?); Propagandizing Synergy Queen, Tracey McCrimmon & Encana crime-enabler Bev Yee appointed to the Board; Anti-science climate change denier, Steve Harper’s best buddy/compaign manager, Kenney’s Kamikazi campaign manager, John Weissenberger, made VP Technical Science & External Innovation Branch.

2007: Last page in retired Justice Perras’ report on EUB’s lying and law-violating spying scandal. He concluded the regulator’s behaviour was repulsive. Did Alberta gov’t do anything to fix the formal fuckers of the public interest? No, they just changed its spots from EUB to ERCB to AER and after my frac lawsuit was filed, they removed public interest from its mandate. It’s never had a public health mandate. AER’s douche fucking lying lawyer Glenn Solomon told the judges on my case it did.

2006 10: EUB (now AER) quote in article about Rosebud’s community-wide water contamination after Encana illegally frac’d directly into our drinking water aquifers, blessed and enabled by the douche and Charter-fucking “regulator.”

The EUB is basically a facilitator for the oil and gas industry. No one really takes them seriously as a regulator anymore.

2005: Calgary Herald cartoon. Sour gas damages the brain, even in tiny concentrations, which AER lies about profusely.

1989: Sour gas and sickness by Peter Hepher, Calgary Herald

“It told them their [sour gas poisoning] problems were psychological. … In 1965, 15 families embracing 82 people launched a suit against Shell and Gulf for $1.5 million in damages. Nearly six years later, the companies broke off court proceedings and agreed to a $700,000 out-of-court settlement. But, that didn’t put an end to the complaints.”

Gag orders/NDAs never do; their purpose is to silence the poisoned and harmed to let the poisonings and harms continue, unimpeded.

1982: Alberta: Sour gas and sickness; Smelly smelly run-around. Regulators/Health authorities, then and now, lie to the harmed, coddle the polluters. Alberta’s Pollution Solution: Discredit the poisoned; call them crazy.