Alberta landowner asks for probe into Premier’s top energy adviser over potential conflict-of-interest breaches

An Alberta landowner has asked the province’s ethics commissioner to investigate Premier Danielle Smith’s top energy adviser for possible conflict-of-interest rule breaches.

At the heart of the complaint is David Yager, a long-time oil and gas executive and policy analyst who was a driving force behind the Wildrose Party, once led by Ms. Smith. Mr. Yager was appointed chair of the Premier’s Advisory Council on Alberta’s Energy Future and, since 2023, has received four sole-source government contracts through his company, Yager Management Ltd. One of those, for $156,000, was to help develop Alberta’s mature-asset strategy on how to clean up the nearly 80,000 inactive oil and gas wells littering the province, according to the document filed with the commissioner.