Weekly Scandal Report: A running list of government scandals and corporate lobbying during COVID-19

The Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy program is meant to help companies through the pandemic by keeping employees on board, where revenues dropped at least 30%. So when companies like Leon’s, who laid off over 70% of its workforce (5800 employees), closed half its stores, and reported its 2nd largest quarterly profit in a century, and increased payments to its shareholders – it raises much concern. One can say it is simple accounting, but Leon’s wasn’t transparent in disclosing when and how many employees were being hired back. Instead, it steadily increased shareholder dividends, and also provided a one time special dividend to company investors. As the article reads: “In the future, when governments give any form of federal aid to companies it must come with clear restrictions on dividend payments and share buybacks. Executive compensation should be limited as well. With a bailout package for the airline industry currently being negotiated, this lesson is as important as ever.”

Are you surprised oil companies are lobbying for a coast to coast federal carbon offset program? We wish we were. These schemes are false solutions that could subsidize oil companies’ pollution, or make consumers pay for it out of pocket. Offsetting allows companies like Shell to continue business as usual by buying their way out the important need to reduce GHG emissions. Planting trees is not the same as restoring a forest ecosystem. Furthermore, the protection of forest ecosystems and carbon stores should
be the priority, and done in parallel with robust emissions reductions from fossil fuels. Planting a tree for every new pipeline just won’t cut it.

Once again, Justin Trudeau wins the fossil leadership award…  he was the first leader to speak to the newly elected US president, Joe Biden, and he did not skip a beat to promote his failing and polluting projects. In (almost) the same breath, Prime Minister Trudeau speaks of the need to fight climate change …and the need for more pipelines. We can read “The Prime Minister looked forward to further strengthening the Canada-U.S. relationship and to engaging on key issues, including trade, softwood lumber, Buy America, and energy cooperation such as Keystone XL.” Nope, nope, nope – this is not what Canadians want! 

Canada is looking to further support airline companies with backstopped loans and other financial aid. While it does come with some conditions, such as higher interest rates and the need for companies to first refund tickets, why are we helping big polluters with our tax dollars? Why not just buy a pipeline while we are at it … oh wait! If you want to be a climate leader dear Justin Trudeau, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. 

The Montreal Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce recently drafted a report and plan for an economic recovery which doubles-down on green tech. This is good news (so long as forest depleting biomass energy is not part of such solutions). Reading the fine print however, we noticed that the plan also supports funding BigOil to clean up its act. While it sounds noble, let’s be clear here, we should bailout people not oil! 

What better way to recognize the invaluable work of individuals on the front line than a pay cut, better yet a lay off to privatize their jobs… This at least seems to be the logic of the Albertan government, which is seeking an across-the-board pay cut of 4%, while ultimately looking to privatize its Health Care Services affecting 4,000 jobs in housekeeping, 3,000 in food services, 2,000 in laboratories, 400 in laundry, 100 in management – all of whom are working alongside nurses and doctors. The intent is to save $600M per year.

In these times when we need more than ever to protect and restore our ecosystems, our governments are continuing their greedy land grabbing and resource destruction. Wetlands are buffer zones for flooding, carbon sinks to help mitigate climate change, and critical habitats for a variety of animal and plant species. That said, today the Ford government is advancing a provincial zoning order, to speed up construction of a casino, and a 4 million square foot warehouse, with 55 acres of wetlands that will be destroyed in the process. All this, despite the mayor and residents of Pickering contesting this project. Disgusted by this decision, a member of Greenbelt Ontario resigned on the spot. We are far from a green and just recovery …

Liberal environmental promises – even when they are bogus solutions – still struggle to turn into concrete action. While Justin Trudeau’s government pledged a year ago that it would plant an additional two billion trees by 2030, Beth MacNeil, assistant deputy minister at the Canadian Forest Service, said there so far still had no specific plan on how these plantations will be financed. Not only has the government failed once again to deliver on its promises, but it is also important to remember that the feds are concentrating their efforts on false solutions that do not serve our climate, on the contrary. According to Greenpeace experts, the priorities should instead be the protection of forests, as well as investments of $ 10B for the creation of 100,000 “nature jobs” allowing the restoration of ecosystems.

Alberta has announced that the province will help cover the capital costs of new petrochemical plants, a move that runs counter to the federal government’s efforts to reduce the use of single-use plastics. Thus, the Government of Alberta is encouraging the construction of new petrochemical plants and the massive production of single-use plastics, despite their known terrible impacts on health and biodiversity. Concretely, one can read on the site of the Government of Alberta their desire to attract new petrochemical plants, thanks to subsidies representing 12% of the investment costs.

The government of Quebec has secretly decided to remove the marine protected area (MPA) project located between Chicoutimi and the fjord from the list of MPA projects. The La Presse report revealed that the “Legault government (would have) discreetly removed from its list of marine protected area projects a section of the Saguenay that covers in particular the port area where GNL Quebec wishes to build a natural gas liquefaction plant”, and this “because of concerns of an economic nature brought to the attention of the Minister”. Greenpeace and a large number of groups have called the government to order, signaling their opposition as the BAPE around the GNL Quebec project is not even completed yet.

The Ford government in Ontario has slipped a shocking ban on ranked ballots into its COVID-19 recovery bill. Several municipalities in Ontario were moving forward with the ranked ballot system, which can strengthen democratic mandates and improve civility in campaigns. Ranked ballots are used by every major political party in Canada to elect their leaders, including Ford’s Progressive Conservatives. It’s not too late to stop this, so if you live in Ontario contact Premier Ford and your MPP and ask them to stop this outrageous ban.

What do you do when corporations aren’t paying their taxes? Give them tax breaks! Seems crazy? We agree. But that seems to be the answer coming from Jason Kenney’s government in Alberta. Rural municipalities in Alberta say the oil and gas industry owes them $173 million in taxes, but rather than helping struggling municipalities get what they’re owed the Alberta government has decided to use the pandemic as an excuse to grant oil companies a “property tax holiday”. Alberta desperately needs public investment in a green and just recovery that supports communities in the transition off fossil fuels, and to make sure the government has the resources it needs taxes on the oil sector should be increased, not lowered.

The federal government is giving $20 million to develop new, small nuclear reactors. For decades, nuclear power has been touted as the next big thing, but despite huge public subsidies the technology has remained expensive and failed to live up to the hype (and produced some major nuclear disasters along the way). Read more about why putting public money into this new nuclear technology is a bad idea here.

There are so many examples of oil industry behaviour that could fit this headline that we’ve lost count. But the latest is that Canadian oil giant Suncor is demanding the federal government invest in Suncor’s own (supposed) emissions reduction projects,  including one aimed at burning more natural gas. Where do we begin? Demanding that taxpayers pay to reduce oil companies’ pollution is a direct attack on the polluter pays principle. Demanding public subsidies to increase fossil fuel burning is an attack on sane climate policy, since responding to the climate crisis requires replacing fossil fuels with zero-carbon technologies, not more fossil fuel infrastructure that locks us into higher emissions for years or decades to come. Every public dollar spent propping up Canada’s fundamentally uncompetitive oil industry (since high cost, high carbon oil fairs poorly in a world of climate crisis that’s transitioning off oil) is a dollar stolen from a green and just recovery.

Greenpeace Canada has obtained a leaked copy of a confidential strategy serving BigOil’s devious interests : the three-part strategy, prepared in January 2018 by the public relations firm Navigator, aims at undermining support for the federal government’s proposed Clean Fuel Standard (CFS), by persuading Canadians that “fighting climate change is a losing battle”, while appearing supportive of the fight. More information here. 

Every day the link between BigOil and BigAg is becoming more clear. As if plastic pollution and dirty air wasn’t enough, BigOil’s synthetic nitrogen fertilizers are further driving climate change. Just how much does industrial agriculture’s heavy use of this chemical fertilizer contributes to climate change? According to a new study, nitrogen is said to trap heat 300 times more effectively than CO₂ – pushing us past worst-case scenarios. If we want to meet our climate objectives,  Canada needs to ensure the economic recovery is a truly green one. 

As the pandemic hit the globe, and world markets were crashing, and many lost their jobs and homes, the super-rich only got richer. At the peak of the first wave, the wealth of billionaires rose more than a quarter (27.5%), according to a report by Swiss bank UBS. While many distributed some funds, the growing gap between rich and poor, and the absurd wealth concentrated in the hands of a few raises some important questions. Not only does this raise some ethical questions, but there are some real social and economical issues that come with it. This is one reason why Greenpeace is calling for a #WealthTax as part of a Green and Just Recovery. 

Why change the title to this article in Jacobin, it sums up the greed of the Westons – the billionaires behind the largest grocery chain in Canada. If you recall, Loblaws cancelled the $2 ‘hero pay’ to its frontline workers last June, despite continued health risks, and the company reaching record high profits during the first wave of the pandemic. Instead of making that pay bump permanent, or sharing profits, they are now opposing a decent and livable wage for their employees! And while we are at it, you can add tax evasion to the list… To learn more about rich grocery moguls and pay cuts read our blog here. To read more on this latest scandal, click the newslink above. 

Earlier this summer, Quebec’s Sustainable Development Commissioner had warned of possible delays in the release of the province’s Sustainable Development Plan, not because of COVID-19, but because of government inaction. Low and behold, Quebec is now delaying its release to 2022, but using the pandemic as its excuse. This announcement can be added to the long list of undercut environmental regulations being “justified” by our governments as a result of the pandemic.  

In response to the throne speech, Alberta’s Premier Jason Kenney asked to pause federal environmental policies affecting the oilpatch. Two days later he also revealed his government’s new Natural Gas Strategy and vision to make the province a (gas-fed) hub for plastic recycling (and production), and (gas-fed) blue hydrogen – all false solutions.  The plan is reliant on currently inexistent effective carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology (another false solution). Meanwhile, a $1-billion grant program has been deployed to attract investors looking to expand for petrochemicals in Alberta. There is a reason we call it fossil fuel, it is something of the past! 

With shocking disregard for the severity of the climate crisis, the urgent need to reduce emissions as quickly as possible, and deplorable and continuing efforts of the oil industry to block action on climate change, Minister Wilkinson said it would be “silly” for Canada to not continue producing and exporting oil for decades. In fact what would be silly is not trying to phase out the oil industry as quickly (and equitably) as possible so we can reduce climate risks and remove our biggest obstacle to climate action. The threats posed by climate change to our communities and our economy demand no less.

One of Canada’s biggest oil companies, Husky Energy, has called on the federal government to step in with public money to bail out its floundering West White Rose drilling expansion project. Using the pandemic to demand public money to subsidize fossil fuel expansion in the middle of the climate crisis, when oil companies have already discovered more oil than can be burned if we’re to avoid climate catastrophe, is scandal enough. But Husky Energy also happens to be majority owned and controlled by a billionaire, and since the pandemic was declared it has paid out about $155 million to shareholders. It’s also said it will prioritize raising shareholder dividends ahead of growth spending. So a billionaire’s oil company is demanding subsidies for climate-wrecking activities while it pays out millions in dividends to its billionaire owner. Yeesh!

Urging MPs to block measures to transition our economy to safer, more sustainable energy and to address long-standing economic inequalities adds insult to injury in a world where the most vulnerable among us are already being worst impacted by covid-19 and face the added risk of being least resilient to climate change, driven largely by human-caused fossil fuels. In fact, transitioning the economy can open a host of new opportunities for western Canada, from new jobs in wind, solar, geothermal and green hydrogen to funding for small farmers in growing planet-friendly sectors like oat and pea for plant-based foods.

Minister O’Regan said the best path to a low greenhouse gas economy is to make natural gas (LNG: liquid natural gas) a greener product that can be sold overseas. Essentially, he is calling for more exploitation and exportation of fossil fuels as his “green” recovery. Both Conservatives and New Democrats have also supported LNG in the past. Yet, making fossil fuels cleaner will not solve economic problems or the climate crisis. This is nothing more than a false solution.   

The ever increasing fires in the Amazon are not natural. They are being set by cattle ranchers and land-grabbers to clear land for pastures and crop fields. The Amazon forest is being destroyed at an alarming rate, exasperating climate change, killing off unique wildlife, and posing an existential threat to Indigenous Peoples whole call the Amazon home. Yet, instead of condemning this activity, the Canadian government might actually reward it – by offering Brazil (and Big Agribusiness) a lucrative free trade deal that would up beef imports to Canada. This is the very opposite direction we need to be going in for a Green and Just Recovery, and as climate leaders. More info here.

Canada postponed its plans to ban single-use plastics to 2021. Meanwhile, the plastic industry’s lobbyists are taking advantage of this time, and the pandemic, to convince provinces like Quebec that single-use packaging and containers are a more safe and sanitary option. Despite health experts saying the opposite – endorsing the safe use of reusables – Quebec has opened the door to more talks with industry, and is considering a reduction in single-use plastics versus a ban. 

Oil and gas companies such as LNG Canada, Enbridge, Cenovus and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., and TransCanada have been contributing millions of dollars to police foundations. At a time where there is a growing movement to defund the police, and a call for more social programs and mental health services instead, BigOil’s money is actually paying for SWAT teams, tactical equipment and surveillance tech. All of this under the guise (PR strategy) of supporting public-friendly initiatives.

A government briefing note obtained by Greenpeace, through access to information, sheds light on how the oil industry off the coast of Newfoundland has been using the pandemic to pressure the federal government for subsidies it’s been wanting for years. So far they haven’t gotten these subsidies, but they were successful in getting a major exemption from environmental oversight rules, prompting a legal challenge from environmental groups. More on this here.

Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting Pty has been trying to sway opposition to approve a huge coal mine via annual fundraising parties and local refurbishments at a golf course. While Canada has committed to eliminate coal-fired power by 2030, coking coal is “less of a concern at the present time than thermal coal,” according to Canadian Environment and Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson. The project would produce 4.5 million tonnes of steelmaking coal per year, and set a precedent for new projects in the region. 

Senior Energy Strategist at Greenpeace Canada said, “CAPP is pushing back on the already-minimal climate conditions attached to the federal bailout. This unwillingness to face the future is one of the reasons why global banks are bailing on oil sands.”

If the B.C. government agrees to industry’s demands for a discounted rate, the costs would be passed on to regular British Columbians (who already pay more than industrial customers). The Narwhal has the story.

Billed as an “economy recovery” bill, in reality this is a pure regulatory rollback without public consultation. The National Observer has more info on whether this is legal and the legislative details.

Outgoing Premier Dwight Ball said, “I believe support for the oil and gas industry is the only option that the federal government would have to create jobs here in our province. If they don’t do that, the other option would be to put our province back on large equalization transfers.” This is the kind of ‘we need fossil fuels’ to survive the oil industry  wants Canadians to believe.

The news, unearthed through a Global News investigation, contradicts officials’ previous statement that the suspension of dozens of environmental rules in April and May was based on public health concerns. Instead, we see apparent regulatory capture by industry. Other investigations show that key officials were left in the dark about some regulatory decisions.

Worried about a second wave? Well Albertans are worried about a wave of doctors leaving the province. New legislation by the Kenney government would allow the government to sign contracts directly with doctors and permit private companies to administer doctor’s clinics.

Keith Stewart, a senior energy strategist at Greenpeace Canada, said the federal government has been “completely captured by the oil industry.” We unearthed documents prepared for Natural Resources Canada that contains surprisingly little analysis of what a climate-friendly COVID response might look like.

“In my view, it’s inappropriate for workers to shoulder the financial responsibility of keeping co-workers, customers and clients safe,” said McMaster University labour studies professor Stephanie Premji. It’s “particularly concerning for low-income, precarious workers who can’t afford to take the time off.”

While some key ministers were initially assigned to a green stimulus task force, the message from Justin Trudeau’s office has changed, walking back the importance of the task force (whose members likewise went quieter on the subject). The Globe & Mail has the full story (and just days after this broke, the urgency of the climate crisis was underscored by a report on unaccounted carbon emissions from Canada’s disappearing forests).

Read the full story in our just-posted investigation here. Later today, CEOS of major chains like Loblaws, Metro and Empire (the parent company of Sobeys) will appear before a parliamentary committee to account for worker pay cuts, all announced on the same day. Given stores’ history of colluding on bread prices, MPs want to take a closer look at the decision.

If passed, the changes would mean that the provincial government can decide when a project needs an environmental assessment, whereas the current law applies to most projects automatically. This comes after the Ford government suspended environmental oversight during COVID-19 and weakened environmental protections law year. As a whole, the proposed legislation would alter 20 pieces of legislation.

Covid-19 laid bare the consequences of monetizing elder care. Both residents and workers have been hard-hit, including by inadequate conditions impacting their lives and health.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Oil and Gas Industries Association (NOIA) and Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) launched “We Are NL Offshore” on Tuesday, calling on the federal government to provide “incentives to attract more exploration in the region and tax credits to kickstart delayed projects,” iPolitics reports.

Alberta’s blaze of legislative changes during COVID-19 continues. Now, after a court ruling found that the government should be conducting environmental assessments, the Alberta government is trying to change the law to fast-track 500 sand extraction projects. Jason Unger, the executive director of the non-profit Alberta Environmental Law Centre, told the National Observer “(These pits) can be contentious,” he said. “They have a variety of impacts, whether on water, roads, noise, dust, other things like that.”

After using covid-19 as cover for suspending environmental oversight (now restored) Ontario’s provincial government is rubbing salt in the wound by appearing to give into the forestry sector’s whims — this time, that “logging operations already must meet rigorous sustainability standards” and that the extension of their exemption from endangered species law supports the economy. Read more from Greenpeace campaigner Reykia Fick and others in the National Observer about why this isn’t anywhere near enough to protect crucial species — and about the hundreds of comments from the public we’re worried weren’t properly considered in this decision to weaken the law. This seems to be a common theme with the Ford government, since just 5 days before this announcement it also proposed to strip endangered species protection.

While governments around the world consider green stimulus packages, Jason Kenney’s Alberta government is focused on big infrastructure spending and supporting the big corporations. In its initial plans to restart the economy, Alberta is planning expedited corporate tax cuts and creating jobs in the pipeline sector, among other investments and jobs in health, education and social services. “Climate change” appears just once in the plan. Hours following the Kenney government’s new economic strategy, the New York based agency downgraded Alberta’s credit rating to a double-A-minus from double-A (and it’s not the first agency to do so; spending big dollars on a non-renewable resource in economic decline is no recipe for a healthy society).

Senior Energy Strategist Keith Stewart breaks it down in his thread below.

Yes. This came out over the weekend. As if asking for bailouts (check out our blog on the topic here) wasn’t scandalous enough, airlines like Air Canada and WestJet are allowing passengers to buy tickets for adjacent seats. We’re not surprised to see these companies appearing to put profits ahead of Transport Canada recommendations to optimize social distancing. Sadly, it’s now been reported that  3 domestic flights to Vancouver were potentially exposed to Covid-19, underscoring the urgency of a cautious, safety-first approach. People and health, not profits, should be at the heart of the decisions companies are making.

Canadians have been quick to take to Twitter to voice their concerns, including acclaimed musician Jann Arden.

According to the CBC, “most recently he worked for Scotlynn Group … which currently has 217 positive COVID-19 cases involving migrant workers and farm employees.” Support migrant workers’ fight for fair working conditions through the #StatusForAll campaign.

That’s way more access than the average Canadian has, which is why Greenpeace is calling for a Cabinet to hold a national public consultation on a green and just recovery this summer. Most of these communications focused on taxation, finance and the environment. We know that the oil lobby is lobbying for a $27-30 billion bailout from the government along with a host of regulatory rollbacks. Take action here.

The government is opting to start the clean fuels standard lower and raise it faster so that the 2030 goal is still reached.  The problem here lies in the fact that this only works if the next government doesn’t cave to industry pressure as well. It passes the buck, deferring the bulk of emission reductions to the future. This relaxed standard isn’t exactly what the oil and gas lobby asked for in its March 27 letter to the federal government, but it’s a step in that direction. Canadian Press has the story. 

This is nothing but a favour to the oil industry. The audacity and blatant attempt to leverage the pandemic for industry gain is summed up by Dale Marshall of Environmental Defence’s comment: “There are a whole bunch of things opening up … But we can’t get two people going onto a site to do environmental monitoring? This continues to be a pretty flimsy excuse to make an ideological, anti-environmental decision.”

Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program is under intense scrutiny following several coronavirus outbreaks and the deaths of two workers in southern Ontario: Bonifacio Eugenio Romero and Rogelio Muñoz Santos. Learn more about how to support migrant workers, including the people caring for our elders and putting food on our tables during the pandemic. Greenpeace Canada support their fight for full immigration status, including health services, protection from discrimination, paid emergency leave and adequate employment conditions. 

Canada’s largest oil and gas lobby has registered to lobby Premier Legault’s Quebec government to take measures to support the fossil fuel industry. Issues on CAPP’s agenda? Regulatory rollbacks, the clean fuel standard and (you guessed it) financial support. Le Devoir’s Alexandre Shields has the story.

In May, Enbridge announced a quarterly dividend to investors payable on June 1st, this payout comes despite the impacts of the pandemic and oil price tumble on the industry. This news also came at the same time that Ovintiv (formerly Encana) announced worker layoffs in Canada and the US. Ovintiv is registered to lobby the federal government for COVID-19 funding, as is the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, which is seeking a series of tax cuts, regulatory rollbacks and bailout from the government (see below). Learn more about the conditions Greenpeace Canada recommends be attached to any funding to make sure workers and climate are protected.

That’s what an email sent by Franklin Holtforster, company president and CEO, told his employees, CBC’s GO Public reports. Thanks to the investigation, the company offered to return the days. Still, this is a symptom of a larger problem: several big grocery store chains owned by wealthy people recently cut vacation pay (see below), and a new federal report shows that Canada’s 1% own just over 25% of the country’s wealth. It’s time for the wealthy to stop amassing their fortunes on the backs of workers. Canada needs a wealth tax now. Take action.

The ever-growing list of environmental and energy regulatory rollbacks in Alberta makes it clear that pro-industry politicians are doing everything they can to make the most out of COVID-19. But people in Alberta are fighting back: First Nations are appealing the Kenney government’s decision, including for the lack of consultation on these unilateral clawbacks.

It’s been one week since the CAQ released their controversial economic recovery bill, which has drawn fire from opposition, environmentalists, human right activists, anti-corruption watchdogs and more due to the large number of rules it would allow the government to bypass. So, to try to defend the bill, the government launched an even more controversial website, supposed to help people “separate the true from the false” denouncing the conspiracy against them.

But guess what? Following outcry, a few days later the website redirected to a very different page … and as of June 12, the link simply now directs back to the CAQ’s party home page (say “bye bye” to conspiracy theory, and hello to demagogy).

Check out the before and after:

Before:

After (since removed):

The injustice and apparently blatant disregard for economic inequality in such decisions is staggering and must be corrected. Everyone deserves a living wage. And the hazards that low-waged essential workers face to keep society going (especially since states of emergency haven’t ended in all provinces) add urgency to this need. Read more in Press Progress and the Canadian Press. Take action through the link below.

We’re written previously about Newfoundland’s oil lobbying (find the entries below). Now is not the time for the government to bend over backwards to meet oil lobby demands. The lack of a serious environmental evaluation process for such projects threatens not only our climate objectives but also increases the risks linked to oil spills and seismic drilling which further impacts already threatened whales. 

Check out the National Observer’s comprehensive list on environmental regulation rollback during COVID-19.

If passed, the law could put the environment at risk and speed up 202 infrastructure projects. Greenpeace spokesperson Patrick Bonin has been following this economic recovery bill closely. He said “If this is the Legault government’s economic recovery project, it’s clearly a missed opportunity and a missed turn towards what could have been a springboard” to a green recovery. 

Banks should not be profiting from the pandemic-induced hardship its borrowers are experiencing. Even if this doesn’t break any rules, it’s a moral failure. “TD is profiting by collecting this ridiculous amount of penalty, which is only based on the fact that the interest rate posted by Bank of Canada is so low — which was done to help people,” said Kristina Barybina, who was impacted by TD’s decision. CBC’s GO Public has the story.

COVID-19 has exposed how the most economically disadvantaged and precarious workers are most at risk. This needs to change. Please support organizations leading the fight for migrant justice, like the Migrant Justice Workers Alliance.

This could be another step towards decimating species at risk, like caribou. Greenpeace nature and food campaigner  Reykia Fick said, “We’re concerned they’re taking the COVID moment to undermine environmental legislation that has nothing to do with the pandemic itself.”

Our colleagues at Greenpeace USA exposed how Big Data companies like Amazon, Google and Microsoft are enabling oil companies to profit from the climate crisis with their Oil in the Cloud report last month. Amazon has also faced criticism of its labour practices during the pandemic (see also previous entires). The news of the TC Energy partnership was released on May 13, but flew under the radar. OneZero has the full story on Keystone XL here.

Not only did the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) log 41 meetings in April (including 1 with Environment Minister Wilkinson and 3 with Natural Resources Minister O’Regan), but we’ve also seen politically-connected developers reported to reap rewards in Ontario, while for-profit nursing home and health services lobbyists with ties to Doug Ford’s government and Canada Proud have also entered the lobbying fray. Meanwhile, Newfoundland oil interests have also renewed pressure on Ottawa to incentivize drilling and exploration.

With the climate emergency and biodiversity crisis not going anywhere, now is the time to scale up climate action that will kickstart our economy, not recklessly rollback important protections and incentives for a green and just economic transition.

And despite much trash-talk about the rest of the world’s oil by Canada’s pro-oil movement, Savage also came out supporting OPEC. Amnesty International’s Alex Neve aptly captured some feelings about Savage’s pipeline comments …

David Thomson, Joseph Tsai, Galen Weston, David Cheriton and Mark Scheinberg saw their wealth increase by 9% since mid-March ($5.5 billion), found Quebec-based TaxCOOP. It’s no wonder 75% of Canadian want a wealth tax. 

Now, a longer list of companies than before no longer have to do things like monitor fumes, test surface wasters in their operations, or monitor groundwater and soil until September. They also don’t need to do any wildlife monitoring. As the Canadian Press reports, “A University of Calgary professor of resource law said the list of exemptions is similar to the longtime wish list of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. Shaun Fluker suggested the pandemic is being used as an excuse to grant concessions.”

After their first memo was leaked last month, CAPP posted some of their other correspondence on their website. Their April 15 memo laid out more detailed demands around a federal loan program and tax breaks. In a shot across the bow against Alberta strengthening regulations to ensure polluters deal with their messes, the oil lobby was asking for the feds to set aside even more money for future orphan wells (letting investors walk away with profits while taxpayers are left holding the mop). Sources say that any new money for abandoned well clean up will only flow once the feds and Alberta agree on the new polluter pay regime. They also asked for some shiny new tax breaks and fee waivers:

Not only is the bank investing in pharmaceutical companies poised to do business during the pandemic, but it increased its exposure to Suncor, the largest Canadian producer, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips. Journal de Montreal has the story. Caisse de Depot has a history of supporting fossil fuels and has long been the target of civil society efforts to have the bank divest or de-finance its fossil fuel liabilities.

The company has a host of lobbyists registered, and so far, the government has not closed the door to the possibility. Le Devoir has the story. Alongside other environmental groups, we’re calling for the Quebec government to officially decline to fund this project, which is at odds with Canada’s climate commitments. 

Want to stop GNL Quebec? Take action here.

Workers have tested positive at Amazon facilities in Canada, including an outbreak in the Balzac, Alberta warehouse.The company has also told workers it will limit the amount of unpaid time workers can take off. PressProgress has the story. Earlier this month, Canadian software developer Tim Bray resigned due to Amazon’s firing of workers fighting for Covid-19 protection.

Opposition members and health professionals are wondering why health and epidemiology experts, such as from local universities, weren’t invited to advise on the planning, according to Quebec French-language newspaper Le Devoir. Ethics experts caution against the lack of public tender in the deal and the lack of transparency that goes with it.

The call came in a letter to the Prime Minister and several Cabinet members. Despite seeming to shrug off the sector’s duty to pull its weight on climate action (Canadian and global aviation emissions are on the rise), the association somehow insists we’re #InItTogether. Airline workers deserve protection and support, but companies should still hold up their end of responsibilities to stop climate change. Even if economies are starting to re-open, the climate crisis hasn’t gone anywhere.

The Alberta Energy regulator posted the new rules yesterday. What’s new? Well, as of mid-March, companies still had to monitor environmental data but didn’t need to report it to the public (citing difficulties of reporting due to the public health crisis); now companies are even off the hook in monitoring. The Canadian Press reports that methane leak testing and almost all wildlife and bird monitoring has been suspended, while air quality programs (including those affecting Indigenous Peoples) have been reduced. This is deeply concerning for human and environmental health. We don’t know of any other place in the world that has taken environmental rollbacks as far as Alberta. Not. Good.

Premier Doug Ford’s government created an online portal for business to ask for regulatory changes to help them cope with the pandemic. On the surface, it may sound like a compassionate move, but (yup, you guessed it) there’s a catch: the portal creates a loophole in lobbying laws that help ensure transparency, which we all know is important to a healthy democracy. How? Under provincial lobbying rules, you don’t need to register or publicly disclose lobbying activity if you’ve been invited (in writing) to do so. Learn why a respected democracy watchdog organization is concerned in this National Observer story.

“We have had significant discussions with both the Alberta government and the federal government about the need for incremental liquidity support,” he said on an investor call, as reported in the Financial Post. We looked at the federal lobby registry and found that between March 12 and 31st, Cenovus alone logged 10 different meetings with 12 different government officials, including Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan.

Greenpeace is warning against a large-scale oil bailout and cash funnelled toward investors, which will make Canada’s economy less resilient to the coming transition off fossil fuels. Instead, any financial support should focus on cleaning up the sector’s environmental messes, financial support directly to workers and transitioning them into quality jobs outside the fossil fuel sector.

GNL Quebec is a fossil fuel megaproject that would involve the construction of a fracked gas pipeline from Alberta to Quebec’s Saguenay Fjord (by the company Gazoduq), a gas liquefaction plant (by Énergie Saguenay) and an export terminal for tankers. The proposed pipeline route crosses Indigenous land and would generate 7.8 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

Now, regional economic actors in the Saguenay region are reportedly asking for an accelerated review process, telling local media that they believe the authorities should ‘prioritize the rapid relaunch of major projects under development in Saguenay, including GNL Quebec and other industrial and mining projects. Of course, these projects must obtain the approval of the appropriate environmental authorities, but through an accelerated approach.’

Want to stop GNL Quebec? Take action here.

The Globe and Mail reported that last month, provincial Natural Resources Minister Siobhan Coady wrote to her federal counterpart Seamus O’Regan (who has also been meeting with Canada’s biggest oil and gas lobby group) for support to the oil sector, especially to accelerate oil exploration off Newfoundland’s coast. An estimated 5.1 billion barrels of crude oil lay beneath the ocean floor in this region — oil we can’t afford to burn since Canada is failing to meet existing greenhouse gas reduction targets.

What to do instead? Well, workers in the industry are facing mass layoffs in the face of the oil price crash and COVID-19 — a trend that will likely continue as the world transitions off fossil fuels. This is the time to transition workers into quality clean tech jobs.  For a start, the Sierra Club Canada Foundation suggests that instead of funding Newfoundland’s oil expansion, politicians can support energy efficiency measures for individuals, industry, and municipalities that will create jobs and help save on electricity bills. 

Automakers deserve a shout out for pivoting quickly to produce life-saving ventilators in the face of COVID-19. This is proof that they can change their operations if the need is great enough.

Yet recently, the President of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association (APMA) told a local Windsor, Ontario, radio station that people should keep buying gasoline-powered cars right now, even though renewables are “the future”. APMA President Flavio Volpe says that a return to “a new normal” is coming, which will look a lot like the old normal. 

We say that automakers’ recent switch toward ventilators is evidence of the opposite of what Mr. Volpe says. Let’s call out companies’ attempt to “gaslight” us into thinking we’re stuck with “normal”, instead of being capable of leaping into a better tomorrow. The federal government is already eyeing a green stimulus plan, and more than 60% of Canadians think that the economic recovery from COVID-19 should prioritize climate action, according to a recent Ipsos poll. Plus, the auto industry has been under pressure for decades to transition to electric vehicles due to climate change and air pollution.

Our friends at Environmental Defence uncovered a 13-page secret memo CAPP sent to federal Cabinet Ministers asking for a wishlist of items they probably would never have dared asking for if we weren’t in a public health crisis. In the memo, dated March 27th, CAPP asks for:

• Vital protections against reckless oil and gas expansion to be removed (cynically asking the government to apply the “do no harm principle” — meant to protect people and nature — to industry’s financial bottom line).
• Legislation on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to be delayed.
• Their meetings (and with them, topics of conversation) to be kept off the books by suspending the legal requirement to report all lobby meetings with the government. 
• Suspensions of environmental monitoring, like air pollution emissions (which in the midst of a pandemic from a virus that attacks the respiratory system, seems particularly egregious). 
• Stop progress on all climate initiatives (we’d say it was unbelievable if we weren’t talking about an industry with a rich history of trying to derail climate action).

… and that’s not even all of it. Get the full story with Environmental Defence.

The Toronto Star and other outlets have reported on the injustices migrant workers across Canada have faced during COVID-19. Some migrant farm workers have reportedly been expected to work without the mandatory two-week isolation period, the Star reported. By not enforcing the isolation period, farm owners would put the health of the workers in jeopardy. Workers have also reported a lack of access to food, employment protections and health care.

All of this is unacceptable for a vulnerable group of people who have been essential to Canada’s food security and economy. Farm companies must respect their human rights obligations now and after COVID-19. Healthy food shouldn’t come at the expense of anyone’s rights. To take action, check out Migrant Workers Alliance for Change and the Migrant Rights Network.

Following the lead of Jason Kenney’s government in Alberta, Ontario Premier Doug Ford suspended important environmental regulations in Ontario, particularly the requirements to consider environmental values or consult the public. As reported by CBC, the move allows it “to approve some projects without public consultation”. The rule will be in place until 30 days after the end of Ontario’s COVID-19 state of emergency.

The move was slammed by environmental groups, who worry that projects unrelated to COVID-19 could be green-lighted without adequate oversight. Our friends at Ecojustice called it “the latest in a series of moves the Ford government has made to dismantle environmental protection in Ontario”. The exemption is broad and doesn’t specify what projects really would be affected, which is why Ecojustice termed it an “opportunistic” kind of overreach.

In an op-ed for the Financial Post, the two politicians called for the government to “remove obstacles” that prompted one billionaire investor to pull out of financing the fracked gas export project, reportedly due to “instability” and the “Canadian context”. By this, sources appear to have meant the nationwide rail blockades in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en Nation in B.C. earlier this year. The Nation remains opposed to a different fracked gas pipeline, Coastal GasLink, proposed in B.C.

We say, the best way to make things stable is by making it clear that companies must fully respect Indigenous law, rights and title. No ifs, ands, or buts. Pretty clear, right? Instead, Poilievre and Stubbs (the latter, a Conservative MP from Alberta who has been meeting with Canada’s biggest oil and gas lobby) are asking to “put extra resources into the Impact Assessment Agency, demand it speed up the process and impose legal time limits on decision-making” for GNL Quebec.Take action to stop GNL Quebec here.

When Greenpeace Canada’s Senior Energy Strategist Keith Stewart logged onto the federal government’s lobby registry, he did a double take. Between March 12 and March 31, Canada’s chief oil and gas lobby group, CAPP (the same guys from the secret memo described above), logged 29 meetings on the topics of “Energy, Taxation, Finance and Health.”

CAPP’s lobbyists twice met with (Liberal) Seamus O’Regan, Minister of Natural Resources, and with Conservative MP Shannon Stubbs. CAPP also met with Alberta (independent) Senator Paula Simons, chiefs of staff, policy advisors and more. The Canadian Press called it an “all-hands-on-deck lobbying effort”. If CAPP got their way in convincing the government to suspend lobbying reports, we wouldn’t even know these meetings happened.

For the most part, oil and gas pipeline companies aren’t letting a pandemic get in the way of construction. The Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to Nebraska is going ahead with construction after the Alberta government boosted it with a billion-plus dollars of funding on March 31st. Construction is also underway on the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline and the Trans Mountain Expansion tar sands pipeline. Hundreds of workers in remote areas are currently living in “man camps” supporting energy projects, including new infrastructure — despite concerns of COVID-19 transmission risks raised by the Indigenous leaders.

Sneaky construction getting under your skin? Share our op-ed in the National Observer or find more ways to get the word out on our website here.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s government issued an order exempting all facilities (other than water treatment plants) from reporting requirements under the province’s three main environmental laws. This made the Alberta government the first Canadian government to use the public health emergency as cover for rolling back environmental protections (in the U.S., there are nearly two dozen such initiatives).

One University of Calgary law professor, Shaun Fluker, pointed out that Kenney’s rules go further than a comparable move by the Trump administration, where companies were required to show a causal connection between the inability to report and COVID-19. Reporting in the U.S. is simply deferred whereas in Alberta it is suspended (companies are expected to keep collecting data but will only have to submit it to the government upon request).

Meanwhile, the province is refusing to allow Canadians more time to file statements of concern, even though it’s rolling back oversight. This could put nature and local communities at risk, and is purely in the interests of corporate executives. Read more in our blog here.

As oil prices crashed in Canada and around the world due to geopolitical conflict and the economic slow-down caused by COVID-19, oil companies asked for a 2008-style corporate bailout.  The Globe and Mail reported that Ottawa was mere days away from a $15-billion bailout for the oil sector. And among the sought-after policies were tax suspensions (income and carbon taxes) as well as a credit facility similar to what in the US is called a Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). 

TARPs would mean that the federal government purchases shares of companies in trouble like it did for the auto industry in 2008. These types of schemes put money right in the hands of wealthy shareholders and executives, which is why Greenpeace opposes TARP-style measures for the COVID-19 pandemic. Money should go to workers most impacted by the pandemic.

Update: With the help of tens of thousands of Canadians speaking out, the oil industry’s desired bailout was denied and federal support was limited to supporting employees, reducing emissions and cleaning up abandoned oil wells! Read more here.