Our 25 FOIs led to major Alberta revelations. We need 300 members to keep on digging
Prairies reporter Drew Anderson was like a kid in a candy store sifting through piles of documents to break big news on Alberta’s renewables moratorium. Will you help him keep up this work?
Drew’s relentless digging is only possible because of thousands of members who give what they can to support The Narwhal’s investigative journalism.
Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal
This article is more than 6 months old
“Support the minister without reservation.”
It was a stunning turn of phrase that sent shockwaves through the political world in Alberta this spring.
Despite what Alberta Premier Danielle Smith had said, Alberta’s controversial moratorium on all new renewable energy projects did not come from the independent operator of the province’s electricity grid. In fact, the CEO thought it was a “very troubling” idea that would send the industry into a “tailspin.”
In short, the decision wasn’t just political. It was very political, even in the face of clear pushback.
And these troubling revelations? They only came to light thanks to relentless digging by The Narwhal’s Prairies reporter Drew Anderson.
Amid the chaos of last summer, Drew started filing freedom of information requests: 25 of them to be exact. It took months for the first files to land, and as hundreds of heavily redacted pages trickled in, it required patience to find the kernels of news buried in them. But Drew kept digging.
As his editor, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him so excited. A kid in a candy store. A dog with a bone. It takes a certain type to get excited about hundreds of pages of documents. Drew is definitely that type.
Premier Smith was questioned about the documents revealed in Drew’s story. The utilities minister was grilled in the legislature.
Not only that, major media outlets picked up the story — CBC, CTV, Postmedia and more — and ran with it, citing The Narwhal. Once again, our small team was leading the charge on a big story.
An independent, non-profit outlet like ours simply could not punch so far above our weight without our readers’ support — readers like you.
In a place like Alberta, that’s so crucial. This is an oil-rich province staring down an energy transition with massive consequences for our whole country.
Drew’s reporting gives us all the information — the facts — we need to navigate this tricky terrain.
Here at The Narwhal, we don’t use profit, awards or pageviews to measure success. The thing that matters most is real-world impact — evidence that our reporting influenced citizens to hold power to account and pushed policymakers to do better.
And in 2024, our stories were raised in parliaments across the country and cited by citizens in their petitions and letters to politicians.
In Alberta, our reporting revealed Premier Danielle Smith made false statements about the controversial renewables pause. In Manitoba, we proved that officials failed to formally inspect a leaky pipeline for years. And our investigations on a leaked recording of TC Energy executives were called “the most important Canadian political story of the year.”
Here at The Narwhal, we don’t use profit, awards or pageviews to measure success. The thing that matters most is real-world impact — evidence that our reporting influenced citizens to hold power to account and pushed policymakers to do better.
And in 2024, our stories were raised in parliaments across the country and cited by citizens in their petitions and letters to politicians.
In Alberta, our reporting revealed Premier Danielle Smith made false statements about the controversial renewables pause. In Manitoba, we proved that officials failed to formally inspect a leaky pipeline for years. And our investigations on a leaked recording of TC Energy executives were called “the most important Canadian political story of the year.”
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