UCP’s ‘war room’ takes on Netflix over anti-oil Bigfoot Family

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To Alberta’s Canadian Energy Centre “war room,” it’s a big hairy deal warping the minds of children.

But for others, the centre’s attacks on the Netflix Canada kids’ movie Bigfoot Family’s alleged slurs against the oil and gas industry are another oversized stride deeper into embarrassment.

The Canadian Energy Centre (CEC) has launched a campaign inviting the public to censure Netflix Canada for its airing of the animated film it says unfairly demonizes the province’s petroleum sector by featuring a scheme to blow up a valley to extract oil.

“Clean oil? You’ve got to be kidding me,” says one character in the movie first released last summer that features Sasquatch as a family’s father.

“So much for no environmental impact.”

The family’s members then heroically resist an oil company’s destructive operations in Alaska.

The energy centre said the film’s message is dangerously directed at younger, impressionable audiences.

“Our children are the key to the future — but they can’t succeed if they’re filled with misinformation … brainwashing our kids with anti-oil and gas propaganda is just wrong — and Netflix needs to know that,” states a page on the centre’s website which invites the public to express their disapproval to the streaming service by email.

The web page said that by noon Friday, more than 1,200 people had done just that, adding the Canadian petroleum industry’s record of environmental sustainability is among the world’s best.

But in a tweet Friday, University of Alberta energy and environmental economist Andrew Leach ridiculed the centre’s campaign as a display of insecurity.

“Canadian oil and gas boosters are so insecure that they’re worried that a show about Bigfoot might be mistaken for a documentary?,” he said.

“Honestly, it’s a show about A BIGFOOT FAMILY and you’re concerned that people might imagine that it’s otherwise completely accurate?”

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Overcoming the challenge of attracting investment for the industry by providing its environmental sustainability isn’t advanced by targeting a kids’ movie, said NDP Justice Critic Kathleen Ganley.

“It’s a bit of an idiotic use of taxpayer money. Decisions are made by adult investors and I don’t think this movie does much for them,” she said.

“(The war room) has never gotten away from being a maximum embarrassment.”

The war room — which produces content to defend Canada’s energy industry and correct what it calls misinformation directed against it — had already drawn mockery for its repeated faux pas in creating a logo, its own inaccuracies and attacks on journalists.

Its annual $30-million budget has drawn the ire of critics who condemn it as wasteful and counterproductive.

The provincial corporation launched in late 2019 was also taken to task last November by the province’s auditor general for awarding $1.3 million in sole-sourced contracts without justification or documentation.

In a statement, CEC head Tom Olsen defended confronting Netflix Canada by calling the Bigfoot Family an outrageous and dishonest attack on the oilpatch.

“It villainizes energy workers and disparages the industry’s record on and commitment to environmental protection,” said Olsen.

“We have promoted Indigenous opportunity provided by the energy sector, environmental gains by industry, and consistently release peer-reviewed research pieces on the reality of fossil fuels in Canada and around the world.

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 “We intend to continue this important work.”

Ganley said it’s impossible to measure what impact the CEC is having on swaying public opinion and attacking a Netflix film doesn’t look promising.

“Lobbying for pipelines is not an invalid thing for a government to do,” said Ganley, adding her NDP government showed tangible results doing that while in power.

“This seems to be aimed in the wrong direction.”

Netflix Canada didn’t return a request for comment.

Critics have also taken aim at the UCP-launched public inquiry into foreign-funded enemies of Alberta’s oilpatch whose deadline’s been extended three times – now to May 31 – and its budget hiked from $2.5 million to $3.5 million.

BKaufmann@postmedia.com

on Twitter: @BillKaufmannjrn