The Canadian Energy Centre (CEC) slashed its budget to assist in the fight against COVID-19.
Alberta Energy Minister, Sonya Savage said the CEC will reduce its operating budget, if applied annually, from $30-million to $2.84 million.
That reflects a 90 per cent reduction.
Here’s the government’s release on the 90% funding cut to its ‘war room’ , down from $30M to 2.84M#yeg #yyc #ableg pic.twitter.com/uoOanovfIL
— Courtney Theriault (@cspotweet) March 30, 2020
The CEC intends to operate on subsistence operations and halt its paid advertising campaigns.
Savage said demand will recover, despite reduced consumption from the COVID-19 pandemic and reduced prices from the Russia-Saudi-initiated price war.
“The world still needs reliable energy. While some would like to capitalize on this unprecedented crisis to permanently shut down Canadian oil and gas, we do not believe we should surrender the global energy market to these opponents.”
Savage said the CEC would continue to promote and defend Canadian energy.
The CEC will maintain its new budget for at least three months.
All paid advertising campaigns will end, and the CEC will pause work with outside contractors.
Savage said they hope to resume operations when times are right.
Two-thirds of its allocated budget comes from the Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) levy.
Reallocated advertising funds from previous budgets comprise the last third.
This article includes excerpts from Edmonton CityNews.
