Meetings show sway of energy sector on climate policy: group
Previous B.C. government accused of ‘a stunning abuse of the public trust’
Provincial government officials held a series of meetings with oil and gas industry representatives in Calgary at the start of 2016 to talk about B.C.’s climate-action plan, which the Canadian Centre of Policy Alternatives argues constituted undue influence over public policy.
Langley MLA Rich Coleman, who was then minister of Natural Gas Development, characterized the sessions as consultation aimed at hitting greenhouse-gas-reduction targets “while maintaining strong economic growth.”
To the CCPA, however, the meetings, which it only found out about through Freedom of Information requests, demonstrate “regulatory capture” of government by the energy industry, argues Shannon Daub, the centre’s associate director in B.C.
“While there’s been a change in government, it’s very clear that the industry is accustomed to having a level of control over climate policy in this province that is unhealthy and stands in the way of us actually dealing with climate change,” Daub said.
On Monday, the CCPA issued a report with the results of its Freedom of Information investigation, which involved requests for documents related to the consultation process for B.C.’s Climate Leadership Team and the government’s subsequent, delayed response.
The meetings took place between January and March of 2016 in the board room of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, according to documents.
To the CCPA, the meetings explain why there was a delay between the provincial government’s initial March deadline to deliver its response and the date in August when it did release a report that was a disappointment to environmental organizations involved in the Climate Leadership Team.
Daub argues the documents show “government spent three months working hand-in-hand with the oil and gas industry to revise and rewrite the Climate Leadership Team recommendations.”
“This was much more than a consultation process,” Daub said. “It’s a stunning abuse of the public trust.”
In an emailed statement, Coleman said “consultations occurred with a number of stakeholders, which is appropriate.”
“These consultations, by civil servants, ensured that the new programs and policies would meet B.C.’s greenhouse gas reduction targets while maintaining strong economic growth and successfully implementing the B.C. Jobs Plan, including the liquefied natural gas strategy,” Coleman wrote.
It is crucial for governments to consult with industry over such policy matters, said University of B.C. political scientist Max Cameron, “because industry has both interests and information that government might not have.”
However, he finds the case highlighted by the CCPA concerning, although the available documents exclude a lot of substance about the details of what was discussed in the meetings.
That is because the private industry meetings in Calgary took place outside of the public process that went into the Climate Leadership Team’s work. And the final result did not follow through on the recommendations of the public process.
“The inference is that while the public consultations were going on, these private meetings undermined what the Climate Leadership Team was trying to do,” Cameron said.
“And that is troubling, particularly set in the context of the substantial sums of money that corporate interests were giving to the (B.C. Liberal) party.
“That’s the other piece of this — it reinforces why we need to get big money out of politics,” Cameron said, explaining that even when consultations are more transparent, “the perception here is hard to avoid.”
An industry representative, however, disagreed that it had a major hand in writing the policy.
“Really, CAPP wasn’t invited to (B.C.’s) climate leadership table, and we are a significant industrial sector in British Columbia,” said Brad Herald, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers’ vice-president for western operations.
In that sense, Herald said it was appropriate for B.C. to hold “sector-specific” conversations with the industry, which were more about how to hit B.C.’s greenhousegas-emission targets.