In Alberta, new documents show a huge increase in public funds going to the Canadian Energy Centre, which runs campaigns to change Canadians' attitudes towards oil and gas in the province.

The Canadian Energy Centre is an agency created by Alberta's Conservative government to combat what it calls misinformation about the oil industry in that province. It is also known as the war room.

The latest annual report from the entity shows that it signed a $22 million contract last year to run a media campaign. This amount is approximately three times the total government grant received in the previous year.

For her part, Kathleen Ganley, the energy critic for the New Democrats in the provincial legislature, said there are many things the government could do with this money.

These expenses were only mentioned in a request for proposals line - the registration agency in the center's annual report, which was submitted at the end of last month.

The advertising campaign will take place in the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

Little information is available about how the money is being spent or the results it has produced. It is also unclear what campaigns are still in development.

Most of the information available comes from documents filed with the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act, and these documents are detailed and specific. They show, for example, that Alberta spent $159,593.51 on advertisements in the Wall Street Journal.

They also include the contracts signed between the Alberta government and DDB, a marketing and communications company with offices in Edmonton and Washington.

The contract stated that Alberta spent $1.7 million from a budget of $3.8 million in an attempt to convince Americans that fossil fuels are available to them and that the industry in the province is a safe and well-organized resource.

Experts agree that even with a stronger push for renewable energy, the transition to a low-carbon economy is still decades away, according to the announcement.

When America chooses Canadian oil, it helps provide reliable, responsible, and affordable energy that is committed to environmental excellence, says another advertisement funded by the Alberta government.

Meanwhile, extracting oil from the tar sands in Alberta is one of the most polluting forms of fossil fuel exploitation.