A taxpayer-funded climate advocacy group embedded at Simon Fraser University is looking to hire outside consultants to help shape federal government policy on “clean electricity supply chains” because apparently Canada’s army of consultants still doesn’t include enough consultants.

According to a procurement posting from MERX, Clean Energy Canada is seeking a consultant to “identify, prioritize, substantiate, and quantify compelling export opportunities for Canada along global clean electricity supply chains” between 2026 and 2035.

The project calls for a consultant to:

• identify technologies and components for study,
• assess Canada’s electricity supply chains,
• quantify trade opportunities,
• and produce a final strategic report for policymakers.

In other words: a consultant-funded think tank wants consultants to write reports for government officials already drowning in consultant reports.

Clean Energy Canada itself has deep roots in the progressive environmental advocacy world. The organization was originally launched as a project of Tides Canada before embedding itself at Simon Fraser University in 2015.

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Its executive director, Merran Smith, has long advocated for aggressive climate industrial policy and international clean-energy integration. A 2013 profile in Grist described her role in advancing Canadian climate policy messaging tied to projects like Keystone XL.

The contract posting lands at a time when the federal government is already under fire for runaway consulting costs across departments. Ottawa has spent billions outsourcing work to private firms despite employing a massive federal bureaucracy supposedly capable of producing policy analysis in-house.

Now taxpayers are effectively funding activist-adjacent policy shops to hire additional consultants to advise the same government ecosystem that funds them.

It’s the consultant ouroboros: public money endlessly eating itself.