Jen Gerson: Who gave the Alberta Prosperity Society $1 million?
Alberta separatists say we're "not entitled" to know who gave them cash.
By: Jen Gerson
So, here’s a fun one.
As an Albertan, I’ve been following separatists on and off for some years, and likewise have been tracking the plan to foist a secession referendum via Citizens Initiative petition. While Alberta separatism tends to be a seasonal trend — rising and waning in popularity in line with the respective Liberal-ness of the federal government — its latest iteration is of a slightly different flavour than what I’ve covered previously.
I could go on at some length about this, but it’s clear that one thing, specifically, is now very different than in previous attempts — the election of Donald Trump has not only emboldened a crew of conservatives who align with the spirit of the MAGA movement, Trump-ism has also absolutely expanded the separatist imagination. The scope of what seems possible in an era of disorganized chaos is nearly limitless.
Last year, you may recall, in a column headlined “We are not sending our best” I noted that an organization called the Alberta Prosperity Project had announced plans to travel to the U.S. to secure some kind of agreement or concession from the incoming Donald Trump administration. Although the leaders at the time refused to say who, exactly, they were planning to meet with, the Financial Times later confirmed that, yes, they met with somebody.
The separatists claim to have met with individuals throughout the U.S. establishment across successive visits, including people within the Trump administration; they claim to have discussed sensitive issues ranging from an Alberta military, to a $500-billion backed loan to secure a transition. And while it’s proven difficult-to-impossible to independently verify much of this — the separatists themselves have declined to offer up any names or proof of their claims — rumours and narratives have certainly taken hold in the absence of clear answers or evidence.
On the extreme end, some are arguing that what we’re seeing here is akin to Russia’s strategy of fomenting discord and political unrest in the Donbas ahead of its annexation attempts in Ukraine. That this is all part of textbook strategy to polarize the region and run a referendum to generate faux democratic support for military action — in this case, of a crucial oil producing region. To that end, it’s widely rumoured that the U.S. is somehow supporting the separatists financially.
This thesis certainly received a boost when U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made an arch comment on right-wing TV station Real America’s Voice in January, noting that he heard rumours that a referendum was underfoot.
“I think we should let them come down into the U.S., and Alberta’s a natural partner for the U.S.,” he said.
“They have great resources. The Albertans are very independent people,” Bessent said, adding there’s a “rumour that they may have a referendum on whether they want to stay in Canada or not.”
By that point, of course, we were well past rumours. His comment came on the heels of an active petition to generate the names required to give the provincial government the political cover to generate such a vote. I’m not sure Bessent’s comment was less egregious than any other kind of foreign interference into a democratic process we’ve seen of late.
So, I do understand why this narrative is a compelling one. And, I want to be careful here, because I think there may even be a nugget of truth to it. At a minimum, I do think there are factions within the U.S. government that may believe themselves to benefit from Canada’s internal instability, perhaps especially ahead of CUSMA re-negotiations. I absolutely buy that there are some in the Trump administration who just really hate us, personally and viscerally, for who we are and what they seem to believe we represent. Certainly, someone is benefitting from a degree of strategic ambiguity about what America wants from Alberta.
But does the evidence really support the assumption that I’ve staked my mortgage in the middle of Donbas v. 2? Like, is it time to start figuring how to blow up bridges and border crossings and teaching my son about the glorious honour of dying for the maple leaf and fleur de lis?
Look, the returns are still coming in, but what I’m seeing so far looks … messier than that. To the extent that there is American interference into an Alberta secession referendum, I think it sits on a spectrum that could range from “full-blown Donbas style conspiracy,” on one end, to “Mere Hegemonic Carelessness,” and “Groypers doin’ it for the lulz” on the other.
So, let’s lay out the evidence and see where we all land:
Firstly, support for Alberta’s independence is neither artificially drummed up, nor is it new. The Western Canada Concept Party elected an MP back in 1982, as tensions ran high over the National Energy Program. The province’s populists got properly riled up in 2015, after the provincial election of the NDP. Hell, I was covering WEXIT in 2019. Alberta isn’t really an inherently Conservative place — rather, it’s always been home to a deep well of populism, which occasionally finds its outlet through secessionist fantasies and other grievances.
Secondly, when I pull corporate registries, talk to separatists, or pay attention to whose been speaking on the separatists’ behalf, I’m not seeing a lot of new faces. That is, the people involved with organizing separatist sentiment are almost all established, long-standing Alberta activists and politicos. And when I hear them talk, they’re speaking about the exact same problems and grievances they’ve been going on about for as long as I’ve been here — God help me, I’ve written more about “legitimate grievances” against Ottawa than I care to count in the past 16 years. (Save me.) Point is, there’s no alien element to any of this. Anyone who has been covering Alberta for any length of time will be very familiar with the faces and the claims.
Thirdly, while I do think that the legitimacy of these movements has enjoyed a boost as a result of the rise of MAGA down south, the internal forces and pressures that have led to the current petition signing are not opaque to me. Separatist populists comprise a significant chunk of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s power base within the United Conservative Party; she’s said openly that pandering to this group is required to keep her party from splitting again.
Lastly, blaming America is just a little too convenient now, isn’t it?
If this isn’t an actual grassroots movement, well, then nobody in central Canada needs to give any hard look at how their own policy priorities, messaging, or mindset have led a significant chunk of the western population into sincerely believing that it would be better off as a landlocked statelet dependent on the United States. There’s history here, and there’s misinformation, and there’s self-interested political calculation — and also some mistakes have, indeed, been made by the federal government and the Rest of Canada, and I think we’d all do well to own up to that a little more explicitly.
Then we get into the question of the money.
Here’s where the matter of who is actually funding Alberta separatism gets both more and less interesting than one might expect.
For the life of me, I haven’t been able to find any corporate registration for the Alberta Prosperity Project. What I did find was the filing for the Alberta Prosperity Society, which appears to be the non-profit arm under which the APP operates. I just pulled the APS’s financial records from Alberta’s corporate registries and posted them below. (I’ve redacted anything that may be construed as “personal information” so nobody can accuse me of doxxing.)
The APS was incorporated on Oct. 31, 2022 — during U.S. President Joe Biden’s term. The documents report that the society received donations of more than $1 million in 2022, and total revenues of around $1.5 million. The donor or donors were not listed in any of the filings I have yet found. The documents also show that the organization blew through most of that cash almost immediately — about half of its expenditures were listed as “professional fees.” These documents show an organization that has sustained consistent declines in both donations and membership revenue over its first three years in operation.
Naturally, I had some questions after reading the documents. These questions I posed to the entire list of APP senior staff last week, giving them until end of day Monday to respond.
They were as follows:
1) Who gave the APS ~$1 million? I see the society’s date of incorporation was Oct. 31, 2022, so this amount of money appears to me to be a starting endowment of some kind. Is that assumption correct?
2) Was the source of this money domestic (ie; within Canada) or foreign (ie; U.S.?)
3) I see more than $600,000 in professional fees listed under expenses in 2022. That seems high for a not-for-profit society. Especially one registered in the final quarter of 2022. Can you please specify what those expenses were for, exactly?
4) Is APS the main financial vehicle of the Alberta Prosperity Project, or are there other corporate or not for profit entities that you are now using?
5) I see membership sales are a significant portion of the APS’s income. However, as the APS doesn’t seem to have a standalone website, and the APP offers memberships, I’m assuming that the memberships sold through the APP are, in fact, recorded as APS memberships for financial reporting purposes, is this correct?
On Monday, Gregory Hartzler, the VP Finance of the APS offered me a response. To wit: “I can confirm that APS receives its donations from Albertans and a few Canadians across the country. As it relates to the rest of your questions; that is information you are not entitled to.”
And, hey, as far as responses go, that’s perfectly fair. I’m not entitled to anything. If I were a member or a donor, I don’t think I’d be satisfied with those responses, but, hey. That ain’t me.
Anyway, I’m not done on this file, and I expect I’ll be able to share more when I can nail it down. Canada’s a small town of 40 million people — nobody here has secrets. Eventually everything comes out in the wash. This won’t be an exception.
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Didn't the Harper government propose legislation requiring greater financial disclosure by non-profits? Too bad the First Nations Bands, environmental NGOs and unions lost their shit. If passed, that legislation might have provided some transparency from APP.
Since the federal government has marshalled infinite resources, provided by Canadian taxpayers, plus a heavily subsidized and censored media, to oppose Alberta secession, I wouldn't be too worried if the secessionists find a fairy godmother to help them compete.
It's reasonable if they have some resources other than the contempt of Central Canada for Alberta to help them in their struggle.