WHISTLER MAYOR APOLOGIZES
Resort backtracks on energy bill
The oil and gas portion of an investors conference in Whistler has been scrapped after the resort town’s mayor demanded fossil fuel companies pay for costs associated with climate change.
Mayor Jack Crompton posted a video apology to Facebook on Thursday after Postmedia reported on his letter to Calgary-based Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.
“I sincerely regret that anyone felt unwelcome here,” he said. “We recognize there are hundreds of thousands of Canadians who work directly and indirectly in the oil and gas sector and they are very proud of the work they do.”
In the letter, Crompton asked CNRL pay a “fair share” of the town’s “costs of climate change,” including part of a $1.4-million wildfire protection budget.
But the apology hasn’t stopped investors from cancelling their trips to Whistler for the 21st annual CIBC Whistler Institutional Investor Conference in January, and Postmedia has learned CIBC has cancelled the oil and gas sector’s part of the conference.
“The Canadian energy industry has been a global leader of responsible energy development,” CIBC said in a statement. “We are committed to our clients in the energy sector as they play a key role in driving the Canadian economy.”
Crompton acknowledged in his apology how the resort community depends on fossil fuels and said Whistler has “a responsibility to respond to the climate change challenge ourselves, and do it locally.”
In a lengthy response to Crompton, CNRL president Tim McKay said on Thursday that the company shares Whistler’s concerns about reducing greenhouse gas emissions but emphasized how Canadian producers have already taken “meaningful action” against climate change.
“At Canadian Natural, we have invested $3.1 billion since 2009 in (research and development) and technologies to continuously improve our environmental performance and deliver results,” McKay said.
Those improvements include scaling back corporate greenhouse gas “emissions intensity ” by 18 per cent since 2013 and a reduction of 17.9 million tonnes of CO2, “the equivalent of taking 3.8 million cars off the road,” over the last five years, he said.
Calgary-based royalty management company Prairie Sky Royalty Ltd. backed out of the conference before CIBC’s cancellation. Andrew Phillips, president and CEO, said the decision not to attend this year’s event was a direct response to Crompton’s letter.
“We’re just showing support and solidarity for the many producers in Canada that have an exceptional track record of producing some of the world’s most ethical and clean energy,” Phillips said.
Brett Harris with Cenovus energy said the company also planned to stay away from the conference “to take a stand against these nonstop unfounded attacks on our industry.”
Fifteen other B.C. municipalities have sent similar letters to oil and gas producers under an initiative by West Coast Environmental Law.
The firm’s campaign started as a motion to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities during its annual meeting this year, but the motion was defeated.
The West Coast Environmental Law campaign carried on with the letter-writing program to “demanding accountability from fossil fuel companies,” the campaign website reads.
Andrew Gage, a lawyer with the firm, said the goal was to start a conversation about who ought to pay for the effects of climate change.
CNRL was the only Canadian company to receive the Whistler letter, but similar requests for funding from the resort were sent to 19 international producers, including British Petroleum, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell and Devon Energy.
“Our intent was to join that call to action,” Crompton said in the Facebook video. “Our aim was never to make anyone feel unwelcome in Whistler.”
The Whistler Chamber of Commerce declined to comment on the impact CIBC’s dropping the oil and gas section of the conference will have on the local business community.