Alberta opens public submissions for environmentalist foreign funding inquiry

The Alberta government has started a website to allowpeople to submit information to its inquiry into foreign funding of environmental groups.

Inquiry commissioner Steve Allan says he is also planning totravel outside the province, with stops in Toronto, Vancouver, HaidaGwaii, B.C. and Washington, D.C.

The inquiry is to also make use of American investigations intothe activity of Russian social media bots in the United States.

An interim report is expected by the end of next January.

The province says public hearings may or may not be held.

United Conservative Premier Jason Kenney, who has long arguedthat foreign-funded charities are deliberately trying to landlockAlberta resources, has said the inquiry has a budget of $2.5million.

• Alberta to spend $2.5M on public inquiry into 'foreign-funded special interests'