Oil company executives have worked for decades to ensure they have the ear of politicians from all parties and at all levels of government across the country. Some of this happens through official channels, such as lobbying government representatives — which the fossil fuel industry does with alarming frequency. So far, in 2023, the industry as a whole has registered 645 lobbies with federal officials.
But lobbying is just the tip of the iceberg.
A TC Energy executive (the company responsible for projects such as the Coastal GasLink Pipeline and Keystone XL pipeline) was recently recorded instructing a group on how to sway government policy. This shone a light on what observers of the fossil fuel industry already knew: much of the industry’s influence happens off the public record. Many fossil fuel companies and industry organizations use revolving doors of employment, closed-door meetings, casual encounters, and personal relationships to expand their influence on laws and policies, especially when it comes to climate change.
In leaked recordings, the TC Energy executive describes having people bump into politicians outside of work to blend the personal and professional, drafting proposed policies they give to “underpaid and overworked” government staffers to submit as briefing notes on government letterhead, even working to influence Canadian ambassadors abroad to deliver pro-fossil fuel industry messages to politicians.
The executive — who is also an ex-political staffer for the former BC provincial government — credited these and other tactics with swaying Premier David Eby from a position that recognized that combating climate change meant no new fossil fuel infrastructure to a position that supports methane production and export.
These tactics are not unique to TC Energy. It’s just that TC Energy got caught.
In 2020, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) tried to opportunistically leverage the early crisis of COVID-19 to push the federal government for exemptions from environmental laws, regulatory rollbacks, and a full stop to the development of any new climate policy. This was delivered in a 13-page secret memo, leaked to Environmental Defence Canada, that also included a request that the industry be exempt from the requirement to report on lobbying activity.
CAPP has been lobbying governments to obstruct climate action for years. When the Pathways Alliance formed to put a climate-friendly face on the fossil fuel industry, it strengthened the industry’s ties to climate policy — on a podcast by ARC Energy Research Institute, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson noted that they have regular working group meetings with the Pathways Alliance. These kinds of government-initiated meetings don't need to be reported in the Lobbyist Registry.
The overreach of industry is not isolated within a particular government. For example, in 2011, under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, documents acquired by Greenpeace Canada through access-to-information requests showed that within 10 months of lobby groups from the oil and gas industry asking the federal government to change a series of environmental laws, the industry had been granted nearly everything it asked for.
And just last year in Ontario, investigations by the Narwhal revealed that senior officials in Premier Doug Ford’s office strategize to override a decision by the independent energy regulator to protect the interests of Enbridge Gas.
The latest revelations about TC Energy have spotlighted Big Oil’s incessant tactics. However, recognizing this as a part of a pattern by the industry and stopping the outsized influence of oil and gas on our politics is essential to mitigating climate change.
The fossil fuel industry is the problem, not the solution. Instead of handshake deals, we need to stop the revolving door of employment, tighten lobbying restrictions, and increase transparency for all government meetings.
We can’t go back to business as usual — you don’t send a wolf to guard the sheep.
Emilia Belliveau is the Energy Transition Program Manager at Environmental Defence Canada.
Nola Poirier is the senior researcher and writer at Greenpeace Canada.
Comments
We have lost the battle with big business! They provide the money which we cannot. Lobbying and Lobbyists have much more influence than citizens as 40 years of political and economic indoctrination has made all politicians and many citizens think neoliberalism is the only way to move forward. The guts of the bureaucracy has been excised while the politicians have been brainwashed. Yet! Inequality is rising rapidly in Canada, the Middle class is disappearing and those 2 factors mean we are getting less democratic. The Conservative privatization, less social benefits, you r on your own philosophy and agenda will lead to a society controlled by business plutocracy. Those that wield the money, wield the influence and tge simple fact we lack any progressive leadership in any province shows how those weak leaders are most interested in power and donations than voters.