“Fossil fuel companies have used their wealth and influence and political connections to slow things down. And they fight tooth and nail against anything that would reduce the burning of oil and gas and coal. They’re much better at capturing politicians than emissions.” @algore
Subject: Bravo Nanaimo City Council!
Date: 24 Sep 2023
From: jessica ernst
To: email hidden; JavaScript is required, email hidden; JavaScript is required
Dear Nanaimo City Councillors,
I commend you your wisdom and courage regarding natural gas….
Please do not let CAPP et. al. and Alberta petro pimpie politicians bully you into changing your vote! Last I read, Canada is still a democracy.
Sincerely, Jessica Ernst
***
Frac to Hell Alberta politicos stealing the public’s money to give to the war room to bully people into remaining enslaved to oil and gas.
In Quebec, Ristigouche Sud-Est, a small municipality (157 people) trying to protect it’s citizens and drinking water from polluting high risk frac’ing, was also bullied and cruelly threatened (sued by Gastem for $1.5 Million; the company lost thanks to a courageous, rule of law abiding judge). The town was just doing what the citizenry paid it to do, much like what Nanaimo is doing.
It’s mafia thuggery extraordinaire by the billion dollar profit-raping, water-destroying, family and environment harming oil and gas industry. Shame on CAPP’s War Room for trying to intimidate Nanaimo city councillors away from doing their jobs. Such anti free market tactics by industry and its pimping politicians happens too often, and needs to be criminalized, as does frac’ing.
Above photo: My water tank frozen in the box of my truck. I am forced to haul alternate water for my home use, thanks to Encana/Ovintiv breaking the law, frac’ing directly into our aquifers contaminating them in 2004, enabled by Alberta politicians, AER, and Alberta Environment (which have not yet made right the harms frac’ers did to me and many other Albertans).
It’s no fun hauling water in winter in Alberta.
No wonder Fortis and CAPP’s war room and Alberta politicians are pissed at Nanaimo City Council’s courage and wisdom:
Sponsorship by Union of BC Municipalities
UBCM gratefully acknowledges and would like to thank the following companies and organizations for their sponsorship of the 2023 UBCM Convention.
Annual Banquet
Platinum: FortisBC
Gold: Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP)
Silver: Coastal GasLink
Bronze: Stewardship Agencies of BC (SABC)
Annual Banquet Entertainment
IBM Canada
Annual Banquet Reception
FortisBC
Annual Banquet Wine
Pattison Food Group
Business Card Laminating Station
British Columbia Professional Fire Fighters’ Association
Business Centre
Lidstone & Company Law Corporation
Coffee Services
BC General Employees’ Union (BCGEU)
BCLC
Coast Capital Savings Federal Credit Union
Crestview Strategy
Enbridge
Community Excellence Awards
Gold: Municipal Finance Authority of BC
Gold: Urban Systems | Urban Matters
Silver: Joint Provincial-UBCM Green Communities Committee
Contributing Sponsors
British Columbia Association of the Appraisal Institute of Canada
KPMG
Nespresso Canada
Real Estate Foundation of BC
Convention Bulletin
Interchange Recycling
Convention Program
BC Assessment
BC Building Trades
Pacific Blue Cross
Cruise Prize Draw Sponsor
Vancouver Fraser Port Authority
Delegates Lounge with WiFi and Charging Station
Young Anderson Barristers & Solicitors
Delegates’ Lunch
ICBC
Delegate Name Badges
Vancouver Fraser Port Authority
Delegate Services Desk
New Car Dealers Association of BC
Electoral Area Directors’ Forum Lunch
Archistar
Event App
Ambulance Paramedics & Emergency Dispatchers of BC
Friday Continental Breakfast
E-Comm 9-1-1
Keynote Address
Municipal Finance Authority of BC
Large Urban Communities Forum Lunch
TELUS
Mid-Sized Communities Forum Lunch
BC Council of Forest Industries
Pocket Program
BCLC
Reception Sponsors
BC Colleges
BC Council of Forest Industries
BC Professional Fire Fighters’ Association
Canadian Union of Public Employees British Columbia
Rogers Together With Shaw
Small Community “Small Talk” Forum Lunch
Municipal Insurance Association of BC
The Compass Special Edition
Stewart McDannold Stuart
Thursday Continental Breakfast
Trans Mountain
Trade Show Guide
Ambulance Paramedics & Emergency Dispatchers of BC
Trade Show Hydration Lounge
BC Hydro
Trade Show Reception
CN
Tuesday Continental Breakfast
Drax
Wednesday Continental Breakfast
PwC Canada
Welcome Reception
Lidstone & Company Law Corporation
When climate’s on B.C. communities’ agenda, fossil fuels firms turn up the heat by Marc Fawcett-Atkinson and Rochelle Baker, Canada’s National Observer, Sept 22, 2023, Yahoo.com
Oil and gas companies are still major sponsors at an annual municipal leaders conference even as B.C. reels from a provincewide drought and a fire season driven by climate change.
It’s a contradiction that dismays many municipal and political leaders attending the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) annual convention this week in Vancouver.
Climate change is one of the top issues at the gathering, with local leaders slated to attend a host of workshops and provincial policy sessions on managing the risks and health impacts of wildfires, emergency disaster response and creating climate-resilient communities.
For the second year in a row, FortisBC is the patron for both the convention’s reception and banquet and is deemed a platinum sponsor. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) and Coastal GasLink are gold and silver sponsors, with the BC Recycles association recognized with a bronze designation.
Trans Mountain, the entity behind the contentious pipeline expansion project that may result in taxpayers eating $17 million in debt, is hosting the UBCM’s continental breakfast this morning. Oil and gas corporation ads feature prominently in the convention’s program.
With UBCM sponsorship comes visibility — before, during and after the conference.
Sponsors “gain awareness, recognition and access to over 2,000 local government officials and staff through advertising opportunities, networking events and speaking opportunities,” according to the UBCM website.
In recent years, Fortis has pushed back hard as municipalities consider eliminating natural gas hookups in new buildings, making a shift to electricity — which, generated by hydropower in B.C., produces much fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
As of May 1, B.C’s building code changed to require most new buildings boost energy efficiency by 20 per cent or more. The Zero Carbon Step Code also allows local governments to craft bylaws to require lower emissions, optionally in stages, to meet the provincial target that all new homes are net-zero by 2030.
And earlier this month, Nanaimo city council voted to develop bylaws to phase out natural gas to heat homes and water in new buildings by July 1, 2024 — six years ahead of the provincial deadline.
Given the UBCM convention’s focus on climate impacts, it flies in the face of logic that the convention’s top sponsors continue to be fossil fuel companies, said Vancouver Coun. Christine Boyle.
It’s particularly concerning FortisBC is the key sponsor after it lobbied heavily against the Nanaimo decision, she said.
“Those policies are incredibly important and having fossil fuel companies actively lobby against badly needed climate action damages the work that local governments are doing,” she said.
“I think it also distorts our democracy and the work that locally elected leaders are doing, so I have huge concerns about it.”
Providing FortisBC the opportunity to lobby at the convention is problematic, agreed Nanaimo Coun. Ben Geselbracht.
“The optics are terrible,” he said.
Fortis presented to the council and reached out to individual councillors a number of times prior to council’s decision, Geselbracht noted.
What’s more, the Canadian Energy Centre (CEC), an Alberta publicly publically-funded provincial corporation — dubbed the war room — created to promote the fossil fuel industry, is waging a campaign to push Nanaimo council to reverse its phaseout decision that negatively impacts FortisBC.
While not illegal, it’s questionable behaviour for FortisBC, which already has an influential role in policy decisions in the province, to put up such a fight over eliminating natural gas to heat residences, Geselbracht said.
The technology is already in place to reduce residential emissions through electrification, necessary for the decarbonization targets communities must meet, he added.
Turning the heat on small municipalities looking to achieve their climate goals is counterproductive and contrary to FortisBC’s sustainable messaging, he stressed.
FortisBC has a proposal before the BC Utilities Commission for permission to sell 100 per cent renewable natural gas (RNG) to every new building in the province.More on this methane con job in article below
The company is also seeking to expand the definition of “renewable” to include other gases, like so-called “blue” and “turquoise” hydrogen, both made from conventional natural gas.Scant little conventional natural gas anymore, most [un]natural gas in Canada is frac’d now.
Critics have denounced the scheme as greenwashing. RNG is typically methane captured from sewage, landfills, wood and farm animal waste. However, it is virtually identical to fossil gas in its makeup and is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year span if it seeps into the atmosphere.
FortisBC suggests 15 per cent of its gas supply will be renewable by 2030I highly doubt what FortisBC suggests will turn into reality, reducing customer emissions by 30 per cent and preventing the need for new and more expensive hookups.
But a critical look at a key study by the B.C. government and FortisBC backing the company’s plan shows biomethane will likely only ever make up a fraction of the province’s overall needs.
At this point, most renewable natural gas sold in B.C. takes the form of credits generated from other companies selling biomethane outside the province, FortisBC told Canada’s National Observer in April.
Rather than throw obstacles in the path of municipalities looking to reach net zero, FortisBC should focus on areas where it can make real reductions, Geselbracht said.
“A more productive use of their resources and the energy behind lobbying could go towards actually working on technologies and things necessary to power the many other sectors where it’s going to be hard to decarbonize,” he said.
The campaign being waged by the CEC to have Nanaimo reverse its decision doesn’t worry him too much, said Geselbracht.
“It’s a strong lobby, but to be totally honest, there’s a much stronger optimism and support in the community for honest, real, and necessary climate action.”Bravo!
The heavy presence of fossil fuels advertisers at the convention is an ongoing topic of debate among attendees, Boyle said.
“It’s reflective of the oversized and inappropriate influence that fossil fuel companies including Fortis have on local government,” she said.
Fossil fuel companies at the convention contributed close to 15 per cent of this year’s total sponsorship revenue, a number consistent with previous years, the UBCM told Canada’s National Observer in an email.
The total corporate sponsorship revenue for recent years was not provided, but from 2014 to 2018, it averaged 20 per cent of the event’s income, ranging between $250,000 and $344,000 annually, according to UBCM documents.
Municipalities and individual politicians are regularly subjected to lobbying at the convention, and elsewhere, to continue the expansion of oil and gas, Boyle said, noting accepting fossil fuel sponsorship was akin to accepting advertising from tobacco companies.
Political debate over banning fossil fuel advertising at the convention typically focuses on the added cost local governments and leaders face to attend being passed on to taxpayers, she added.
Yet, Fortis is spending hefty sums on sponsorships, lobbying efforts and advertising to promote natural gas, and the cost of that is being shouldered by ratepayers, Boyle said.
However, municipal politicians in the southern region of B.C. balked at banning fossil fuel sponsorships at the regional Lower Mainland Local Government Association conference in May.
Peers at the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities convention in April rejected a similar motion that also wanted oil and gas advertising curtailed at the UBCM.
A 2019 UBCM review about possibly limiting corporate sponsorship only led to a ban on foreign sponsorship.
The convention’s sponsors include a diverse range of industries and interests, and delegates can decide if they will attend sponsored events, the UBCM email noted.
Convention delegates hear a wide range of perspectives, and the UBCM welcomes various interests to engage with delegates through the trade show, receptions and other venues, the statement added.
“We know that many of our delegates find it useful to be able to have conversations with organizations and convey their feedback directly.”
Alberta’s fossil fuels ‘war room’ singles out an Island municipality for battle, Nanaimo’s vote to end natural gas hookups has drawn powerful opponents by Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada’s National Observer With files from The Canadian Press, September 23, 2023, Capital Daily
When Nanaimo recently voted to ban FortisBC’s natural gas hookups from new buildings, Alberta’s infamous pro-oil and gas “war room” launched a cross-border political campaign to reverse the move.
The Canadian Energy Centre (CEC) is a publically funded provincial corporation created by former Alberta premier Jason Kenney to protect and promote the fossil fuel industry.It’s typical theft by cons to feed their favourite monsters. I highly doubt Kenney has the brains to create such a propaganda machine, I think industry created it and ordered puppet Kenney to steal from Albertans to make us pay for it. It’s an evil creation of lies and thuggery to further enable harms by oil, gas, frac and bitumen.
The CEC has launched a hardball lobbying push on its associated Support Canadian Energy website urging oil and gas supporters to flood Nanaimo city council with letters to press bully/threaten the local government to reverse its decision.
Horridly abusive, and galling, but typical of a dying severely polluting industry the world has turned against
because of its endless deadly crimes, lies, abuses and wanton destruction of earth’s livability.
The Alberta agency targeted the small municipality of Nanaimo after its city council recently decided to accelerate the phaseout of FortisBC gas hookups in new buildings to meet B.C.’s mandated climate targets.
The Support Canadian Energy website doesn’t openly declare its allegiance to the CEC, however, the connection can be found on its privacy page.
The CEC is funded bytaxpayer money stolen bythe Alberta government to the tune of $31.8 million in 2023, up from $7.7 million in 2022, according to the centre’s annual report and financial statements.
As of Thursday afternoon, Alberta’s oil and gas lobby machine website states it has generated 2,377 letters to Nanaimo’s city council.All saying the same thing? Generated by AI? I doubt those letters were written by real people of their own accord.
“The good news is that the vote on Nanaimo [city council] was very tight — it came down to a single vote,” the CEC website says.
“These letters make a real difference. Councillors need to know what the majority of people think.”
Yes, they do – most Albertans hate the war room, and hate that our tax dollars are stolen to pay for lies by deadly polluters and aquifer destroyers that make billions of dollars in profit, and do not need to steal our money to lie to us and our fellow Canadians!~ Many Albertans demanded the war room be shut down and our money put to better and honest use instead, like helping teachers and health care workers suffering with Long COVID. Dear councillors: Do not believe a word the war room threatens you with, or bullies you with, or what their hired goons/mass produced letters say to you!
The campaign appears to be the first the CEC and its associate website have launched against a municipal government making a local political decision that might run counter to Big Oil’s interests.
Nanaimo city councillor and former Green Party MP Paul Manly said CEC’s campaign is clearly being waged, if not in name, on behalf of FortisBC.
CEC’s offshoot website is running a campaign to get Nanaimo City council to reverse its decision to phase out FortisBC natural gas hookups in new buildings to meet provincial climate targets.
The fossil fuel campaign exceeds the bounds of simple lobbying and is an attack on the democratic process and the expectation local governments should run business free from provincial interference — especially when it’s coming from another province.
“Where does the Province of Alberta get off launching a campaign like this?” Manly told Canada’s National Observer on Thursday.Politicians in Alberta, including the NDP, are cowardly bullies serving the oil gas and frac patch polluters. This Albertan is vehemently opposed to the war room and it’s nasty lies and bullying. Ignore the war room and its thugs!
“It’s outrageous. It’s inappropriate. I just honestly haven’t seen this done before.
Alberta, FortisBC and the big fossil fuel lobby have stepped beyond climate denial and greenwashing into the realm of bullying and political intimidation, he said.
CEC’s offshoot website is running a campaign to get Nanaimo City council to reverse its decision to phase out FortisBC natural gas hookups in new buildings to meet provincial climate targets.
It means Goliaths like the Alberta government and corporate oil and gas giants are willing to pit their power against smaller municipalities should they make any decisions deemed counter to their interests — no matter how limited the impacts might be, Manly said.
When Alberta’s United Conservative government founded the CEC in 2019, former energy minister Sonya Savage said the agency’s focus would be to improve the reputation of Alberta’s oil and gas sector and challenge those it believes are delivering misinformation.Never trust a word uttered by any Alberta politician, or by anyone in Canadian oil, bitumen, frac, coal and gas.
Run by a three-person board composed of Alberta’s energy, justice and environment ministers, Savage stated it would not target or demonize specific critics.
“This is about telling our Bullshit, it only serves the rich and steals from ordinary Albertans to lie, bully, and propagandize anyone saying no to the oil, gas and frac industry which is putting at risk all life on earth story, setting the narrative, disputing the narrative opposing our oil and gas sector,” Savage said. “It’s not about going after individual people.”Never trust a con politician, especially not if they’re from or in Alberta.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s office and the justice and environment ministries did not respond to Canada’s National Observer’s request for comment on concerns raised by the CEC’s campaign targeting Nanaimo.
Energy Minister Brian Jean’s office refused to comment if the Alberta government condones the CEC’s campaign or if it’s appropriate for the provincial agency to target individual municipalities for local political decisions.
“The CEC advocates for Canadian energy. Please contact the CEC,” an email from the ministry’s office stated.
FortisBC also declined to respond to CNO’s questions about whether the company was aware of or has any reservations about the CEC’s Nanaimo campaign.
FortisBC is not involved with the Canadian Energy Centre campaign, said Diana Sorace, the company’s senior adviser of corporate communications, in an email.
“We have been clear that we oppose policies that would restrict access to low-carbon energy choices for British Columbians,” she wrote.
“To meet provincial climate targets and maintain affordability, British Columbia needs policies that support a diversified pathway, including electricity and renewable and low-carbon energy options such as renewable natural gas and, in the future, hydrogen.”No such thing as low carbon, renewable gas, most of it’s frac’d, harming families, water and communities; no such thing as low carbon renewable hydrogen – it needs gas, which is frac’d! A vicious circle of pollution, propaganda, lies and devastation. Humans live healthier, cleaner, safer and more economically without natural gas; communities without gas are less likely to blow up like my community’s concrete water tower did after Encana/Ovintiv illegally frac’d our aquifers, with fraud, lying and propaganda by our regulators and frac-pimping politicos.
FortisBC booth at the 2023 UBCM trade show. The natural gas corporation is the “platinum” or top sponsor at the annual convention for B.C. local governments.
The CEC’s campaign against Nanaimo, which benefits FortisBC, sends a chilling message to other B.C. municipalities which is why CAPP’s nasty war room did what they did. It’s unforgivable abuse. I am horrified to be Albertan. My apologies to Nanaimo that my tax dollars were stolen to do this to you. Industry and Alberta politicians bullying councillors – no matter how they do it, or who they enlist to do it – for private profit is abuse and ought to be investigated by police— currently gathered for a convention in Vancouver where discussions on how to meet provincial emissions targets and deal with climate disasters are key topics, Manly said.
“I have trouble taking [FortisBC’s] greenwashing about sustainability and renewable natural gas seriously,” Manly said, saying the B.C. corporation lobbied Nanaimo city council heavily in advance of its decision on gas hookups.
“This [CEC campaign] just reinforces that they need to call in more big guns for a fight.”
Critics dismiss FortisBC’s renewable gas strategy, noting the fuel made out of methane captured from sewage and landfills is still 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year span if it escapes into the atmosphere.
FortisBC says 15 per cent so 85% per cent will be frac’d? of its gas supply will be renewable by 2030, reducing customer emissions by 30 per cent and preventing the need for new and more expensive hookups.
But close examination of a study by the B.C. government and FortisBC backing the company’s plan shows biomethane will likely only ever make up a fraction of the province’s overall needs.
The CEC’s recent tactics only underscore the need for the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) to ban oil and gas sponsorship from groups like FortisBC or the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers at the annual convention, Manly said.
“I’m not going to let this behaviour intimidate me. I’m not gonna let it sway my decision on this issue,” he stressed.Bravo! Wonderful courage and integrity. Wish we had more of that in Alberta.
“I would urge my colleagues at the UBCM to stand firm.
“It’s interesting they’ve singled Nanaimo out, but I guess that just shows you they feel like they got their backs to the wall.”
Patrick Johnstone@PJNewWest:
This is chilling. A “foreign” provincial government allying with big oil corporations to bully and harass duly elected officials of a small municipality for taking climate action.
Therese Siemer:
Meddling in another Provinces’ affairs is “outrageous” and “inappropriate”. I agree!
Colette B.:
What a bunch of bozos, wasting our tax dollars tilting at windmills. The UCP needs to go!
Suzanna Keep ALBERTA Canadian@0suzanna10:
Our AB government is an unethical, embarrassment. WHO do they think they are attempting this gregarious OVERREACH!!!
Its almost harassment. By a government agency at that.
Also, my hard earned AB tax dollars should not be used for promoting private business of ANY sort.
Charles Rusnell@charlesrusnell:
Alberta’s govt funded oil and gas propaganda arm, the War Room, meddles in B.C. municipal politics. Incredible hyposcrisy. @abdaniellesmith would go berserk if the BC govt dared meddle in any level of Alberta politics.
Martin Z. Olszynski @molszyns;
Steve Allan is either laughing, crying, or both.
Refer also to:
2023: California v. Big Oil: Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
2023: Frac Canada Dry!
2021: The Good Ole’ Boy Frac Club: A new and particularly virulent form of masculinist entitlement
2020: The Globe and Mail on Kenney’s flop of a war room: “The centre is not salvageable. It should be closed.” Great solution but CAPP will never allow it.Because Alberta dirty politicians, including Dani Smith and her big oil polluted TBA/UCP, are stealing public money to give free lies, bullying and propaganda to billion dollar profiting oil and gas companies (that refuse to clean up their endless toxic messes, and refuse to repair their frac’d and contaminated and or drained aquifers).
2020: CAPP write this patronizing synergy crap? Did KKKenney’s War Room pay for it?
2020: Kenney’s 30 Million dollar Alberta War Room fartin’ up a storm o’ lies ‘n shit on Twitter.
2020: Kenney’s Energy War Room: “Cease Fire!”
2019: Privacy and legal experts question Kenney War Room’s FOIP exemption, raise privacy concerns
2016:
A proportion (25% to 100%) of the water used in hydraulic fracturing is not recovered, and consequently this water is lost permanently to re-use, which differs from some other water uses in which water can be recovered and processed for re-use.