Fatima Syed has spent four years building trust with powerful people in the energy industry as a reporter for The Narwhal in Ontario.
Photo: Sid Naidu / The Narwhal
“Sure, but you can’t tell anyone you talked to me because I will get fired.”
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard these caveats.
The hardest part about being an energy reporter in Ontario is that very few people in the industry actually want to talk to me — especially those in influential decision-making positions in government or large energy organizations.
I have spent the better part of almost four years at The Narwhal trying to convince energy experts and leaders to simply meet me for coffee to talk about what’s going on. Because there’s a lot!
Take the story we published this week. It’s about the promises energy giants make to provide customers with lower-emissions options — a crucial part of making it possible for all of us to mitigate global warming. It’s also about what happens when those promises go unrealized.
In 2022, Calgary-based behemoth Enbridge, known in Ontario for the delivery of natural gas, created a new entity, Sustain, to offer clean energy options. These included geothermal heating systems, solar panels, hybrid heating and electric vehicle chargers, which it provided for both individual residential customers and big commercial developers. Sources told me Sustain had shut down its commercial operations. If true, it would be a stark shift from Enbridge’s commitment to get Ontario’s buildings, which account for 24 per cent of the province’s emissions, off of heat-trapping fossil fuels.
It took four weeks to turn this confidential tip into a story. That’s four weeks I spent finding sources to confirm the news and then convincing them to let me use the information. Almost all shared what they knew confidentially, because they still work in the industry with or alongside Enbridge. Of the nine sources I spoke to, only one agreed to be named.
I have attended big conferences where some of the top officials in the province have discussed Ontario’s energy uses and needs in broad terms. I’ve heard everyone express concern and promise. I’ve even moderated some of those conversations. But when I ask for more in-depth conversations that could help the public understand how decisions are made — and why they’re important — most people stop talking.
The reluctance runs so deep that I was told by a Sustain official that Enbridge pulled their colleague from a panel that I moderated earlier this year — a conversation about reducing building emissions, actually, at a conference on sustainable development. A different Sustain official told me later, “Sorry, it wasn’t our decision:” Enbridge, they said, didn’t want Sustain to appear in a conversation with The Narwhal. The company declined to comment.
It’s frustrating, but building trust is part of a good journalist’s DNA. It takes time, four years in my case, but eventually, people started talking because they’re concerned about the stakes. Every day, more sources come out of the woodwork because of the trust we’ve built through The Narwhal’s in-depth investigative journalism. If you’d like to talk about energy issues — either on or off the record — please send us a note.
There is a deep fear in the industry about the repercussions of having frank conversations about what it would take to move away from fossil fuels. But as I face another day of smoky skies and extreme heat, I'm still convinced that the people who keep power running through our grids are responsible for being transparent with the public they serve.
As the global race to unearth critical minerals heats up, many companies have their sights set on Nunavut, where the number of mining claims has spiked in recent years. That includes areas where industrial development may be limited under the pending Nunavut Land Use Plan — if and when it gets finalized.
The planning process has been underway for 19 years, with no clear end in sight. It is set to become the largest land use plan in the world — but industry isn’t waiting.
“Honestly, it’s crazy,” Qajaaq Ellsworth, an outfitter and cinematographer in Iqaluit who is also part of a group advocating for the plan’s adoption, told The Narwhal. “There seems to be a concentrated effort to stake as much as possible before any limitations are put in.”
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Under its wing: How Shawanaga First Nation is protecting a key endangered species By Leah Borts-Kuperman READ MORE
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The modern smartphone: a perfect tool for playing games, sending hot tips to The Narwhal — and telling all your friends to subscribe to our newsletter for reporting on the big decisions being made behind closed doors that they won’t find anywhere else.
Here at The Narwhal, we do journalism differently. As an independent non-profit, we’re accountable to you, our readers — not advertisers or shareholders. So we measure our success based on real-world impact: evidence that our reporting influenced citizens to hold power to account and pushed policymakers to do better.
Our stories have been raised in legislatures across the country and cited by citizens in petitions and letters to politicians.
Take our reporting on Alberta’s decision to allow cougar hunting in parks, which was cited in an official ethics complaint against the parks minister. And, after we revealed an oil and gas giant was permitted to sidestep the rules for more than 4,300 pipelines, the BC Energy Regulator started posting the exemptions it grants publicly.
This kind of work takes time, money and a lot of grit. And we can’t do it without the support of thousands of readers just like you.
Here at The Narwhal, we do journalism differently. As an independent non-profit, we’re accountable to you, our readers — not advertisers or shareholders. So we measure our success based on real-world impact: evidence that our reporting influenced citizens to hold power to account and pushed policymakers to do better.
Our stories have been raised in legislatures across the country and cited by citizens in petitions and letters to politicians.
Take our reporting on Alberta’s decision to allow cougar hunting in parks, which was cited in an official ethics complaint against the parks minister. And, after we revealed an oil and gas giant was permitted to sidestep the rules for more than 4,300 pipelines, the BC Energy Regulator started posting the exemptions it grants publicly.
This kind of work takes time, money and a lot of grit. And we can’t do it without the support of thousands of readers just like you.
We’re fighting for our right to report — and your right to know. Stay in the loop about our trial against the RCMP and get a weekly dose of The Narwhal’s independent journalism
We’re fighting for our right to report — and your right to know. Stay in the loop about our trial against the RCMP and get a weekly dose of The Narwhal’s independent journalism
