Even as federal Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre was publicly denouncing lobbyists, he and his staff were being lobbied dozens of times by oil and gas interests, according to an analysis by The Narwhal.
For the 12-month period that ended June 2024, the Narwhal found 46 records on the federal lobbying commissioner’s online registry that showed either Poilievre or staff in his offices communicating with oil and gas interests. One company confirmed that in April, Poilievre’s staff participated in a Hill Day, a type of Parliament Hill lobbying event their boss criticized just days later. Another told The Narwhal Poilievre’s office proactively reached out to set up what would become a lobbying session.
“My experience with corporate lobbyists in Ottawa, the main groups there, is that they have been utterly useless in advancing any common sense interests for the people on the ground,” Poilievre said in a speech to business leaders in Vancouver in March. “A good solution,” he wrote in a National Post opinion piece two months later, “would be to fire these lobbyists, stop talking with politicians and start trying to win the support of the population.”
The opinion article goes on to tell companies trying to advance policy proposals not to bother with him, but instead go “directly to workers, consumers and retirees.”
“To be clear, that will not happen because you testify at a Parliamentary committee, host a ‘Hill Day’ to meet MPs and Senators, hold a luncheon 15 minutes from downtown Toronto/Ottawa, or do media no one sees,” he wrote. “Your communications must reach truckers, waitresses, nurses, carpenters — all the people who are too productive to tune into the above-mentioned platforms.”
Notably, Poilievre’s anti-lobbying sentiment hasn’t stopped the former Harper government minister from communicating with lobbyists dozens of times over the last year, as well as allowing federal lobbyists to pay to attend his fundraisers in tony neighbourhoods and clubs.
The Narwhal’s review of federal lobbying records shows staff members in Poilievre’s parliamentary office have communicated with a parade of lobbyists, including those representing oil and gas interests. So have staff in another office that falls under Poilievre’s oversight and operates closely with his own, called the Conservative Research Bureau.
The 46 records found by The Narwhal show 13 current or former Poilievre staff members, including principal secretary Matthew Antonitti, chief of staff Ian Todd and manager of stakeholder relations Jwane Izzetpanah, were lobbied by 25 entities with a relationship to oil and gas during this time. None of the three returned requests for comment before publication.
In all, there were eight oil and gas lobby groups, five oil and gas producers and 12 companies involved in either producing power from natural gas or marketing, trading or distributing oil and gas or petroleum products, including pipeline companies.
Maya Papineau, an associate professor of economics at Carleton University, said the full scope of the lobbying activity suggests Poilievre’s comments about lobbyists are simply a vote-grabbing tactic.
“Pierre Poilievre is a very focused politician. All he cares about is getting elected. He's very focused on becoming prime minister of Canada, and he's going to say anything that gets him closer to that,” Papineau said.
“I don't think [his comments are] a sign that he's actually not going to listen to lobbyists, or he's not going to meet with lobbyists … I'm quite confident it will be business as usual if and when he gets elected.”
Papineau said Poilievre’s op-ed suggesting corporations fire lobbyists does not actually commit the Conservative leader to take steps to avoid lobbyists. Doing so would be “almost impossible” in his role as leader of a major party and potentially next prime minister, she said.
Poilievre’s office, his spokesperson and a spokesperson for the Conservative Party of Canada did not respond to requests for comment.
The Narwhal reviewed hundreds of lobbying records in the federal registry to identify interactions between Poilievre’s staff and lobbyists representing the oil and gas industry. To determine which companies were from the oil and gas industry, The Narwhal considered those that produce, market, trade or distribute oil and gas, as well as power generation companies that advertise natural gas in their portfolios.
Companies that produce coal, another fossil fuel, were excluded, save for one company, Glencore, which was included due to its oil and gas division, though the lobbying concerned its coal business. Other mining activities and electricity transmission companies without an easily discernible relationship to oil and gas were excluded. While several other Conservative MPs were lobbied by oil and gas entities during this time, those records are not included in this analysis. Many registered lobbyists are given two months to report their activities, so lobbying that occurred in May or June may not have been entered into the system at the time of this writing.
The federal registry is a public database that tracks lobbying in the weeks and months after it happens. Lobbyists submit reports about each communication with a public office holder, including ministers and senior public servants, as well as MPs and other staffers. Lobbyists do not need to report requests for information or public submissions they make to a parliamentary committees or tribunals. However, they are generally required to report activity in which they are seeking to influence government decisions, including through emails, calls or in-person meetings.
The registry does not record the type of communication, nor does it identify specific topics that were raised in lobbying activity.
The Narwhal reached out to all 25 entities with an oil and gas relationship identified in the records by our search criteria to confirm whether meetings actually occurred, how the lobbying came about and what issues, laws or policy proposals it was focused on.
A spokesperson for Epcor, a public utility providing electricity, water and natural gas in Edmonton, confirmed that despite Poilevre’s specific dismissal of Hill Day lobbying on Parliament Hill, his staff were lobbied by the company at a Hill Day event arranged by lobby group Electricity Canada this spring.
Records show a Poilievre policy advisor and stakeholder relations advisor met with Epcor representatives on April 30, three days before the leader’s anti-lobbying article was published.
"Epcor participated in a multi-party meeting arranged by Electricity Canada as part of their annual Hill Day, which brings together Electricity Canada members from across Canada to proactively discuss the current state of the electricity sector and emerging topics of importance,” an Epcor spokesperson wrote.
The organization met with more than a dozen MPs from multiple parties and government officials, the spokesperson said. “We have a multi-party, non-partisan approach to engagement to ensure that members of government and opposition parties are informed about important issues related to the electricity sector, and our other lines of business."
Electricity Canada itself lobbied two Poilievre policy advisors and a stakeholder relations advisor on April 30 and May 1, as well as a chief of staff in November 2023. Not all Electricity Canada members have a relationship to oil and gas.
The April 30 lobbying was connected with the group’s Hill Day, Electricity Canada spokesperson Graeme Burk confirmed to The Narwhal, while the May 1 lobbying was unrelated and concerned a Parliamentary committee’s investigation into hydroelectricity. The November 2023 lobbying was about “issues facing the electricity sector,” Burk added in an emailed response to questions.
Asked to respond to Poilievre’s criticism of Hill Days, Burk said the events provide a convenient way to organize group discussions, since both politicians and representatives from member companies have busy schedules.
“We work to inform decision makers about the electricity sector, so they can make the best decisions for Canadians. To do that we provide information and context that is helpful for all officials, based on the expertise and experience of our member companies on what impacts Canadians,” he wrote.
“This is sometimes logistically easier to do,” he added, “on a day when representatives of our member companies can be in Ottawa.”
Burk said the group’s lobbying of Poilievre’s office was part of Electricity Canada’s outreach to “provide direct briefings to MPs about the major challenges facing the electricity sector at a federal level.” He said the group does this with multiple federal political parties and the November meeting occurred around the same time as meetings with a Liberal government minister and deputy minister.
In another instance, a fossil fuel company suggested Poilievre’s staff was the one to instigate lobbying, by inviting it to present information.
Woodfibre Management, which operates the Woodfibre liquefied natural gas project in Squamish, B.C., lobbied Poilievre, his principal secretary and executive assistant, as well as a number of senior bureaucrats and other MPs in October 2023, records show. The company also lobbied Poilievre’s chief of staff in mid-December 2023 and again in February 2024, where Poilievre himself was again present, along with his natural resources critic Shannon Stubbs.
Those meetings were project updates, according to Woodfibre’s director of communications planning and media relations Sean Beardow. The firm provides information sessions for MPs, their staff, the government and opposition parties “whenever invited to do so,” he wrote in an emailed response to questions.
Beardow did not respond when asked to confirm details about the invitation.
In a third case, a large mining company lobbied Poilievre staffers as “part of our engagement with stakeholders” following its acquisition of a Canadian firm, according to a spokesperson.
Glencore, a multinational Swiss company with divisions in mining and oil and gas marketing, lobbied Poilievre’s director of policy and chief of staff in November 2023, nine days after it acquired the coal business of Vancouver-based mining company Teck, called Elk Valley Resources. The lobbying was related to that acquisition, Glencore spokesperson Charles Watenphul confirmed.
As well, Quebec natural gas distribution company Énergir, formerly Gaz Métro, lobbied a Poilievre staffer in October 2023. Spokesperson Laura-Michelle Marcogliese said the company spoke with government and opposition party members about its push for tax breaks for “renewable natural gas.”
While most natural gas is extracted from deep underground using fracking or drilling, industry has coined the term “renewable” for gas sourced from decomposing food or other biomass at landfills or other similar sources. All natural gas is largely made up of methane, a greenhouse gas responsible for over a quarter of the Earth’s warming.
Marcogliese said Énergir wants gas sourced from biomass to be eligible for a tax credit, which she said Canadian producers need to compete with provisions in the United States Inflation Reduction Act.
Pipeline company TC Energy lobbied four Poilievre staffers on two occasions in 2023-2024. TC Energy owns the Coastal GasLink pipeline, meant to carry natural gas to a major liquefied natural gas export terminal being built on B.C.’s West Coast. While the subject of its conversations with Poilievre’s office is unknown, TC Energy has lobbied the Trudeau government about excluding facilities that liquefy natural gas to reduce its volume for shipping from the federal emissions cap on the oil and gas sector.
Oil and gas lobbying of Poilievre and his team is crucial as the Conservative leader polishes his election platform. If he becomes prime minister, he has vowed to “deliver more” oil and gas projects and roll back several environmental rules that impact fossil fuels, issues in which many of the lobbyists and the organizations they work for have a direct stake.
Poilievre argues “barriers put in place by the Liberal government” have prevented the energy industry from “increasing its own revenues in a free market.” He says his government would restrict or jettison entirely a number of federal laws that require pollution pricing, environmental impact assessments of major projects and standards for cleaner fuels. Instead, a Conservative government would “quickly approve natural gas exports” and “grant rapid permits to liquefied natural gas facilities,” while “rely(ing) on technology to fight climate change,” he has said.
Despite Poilievre's public criticism of Ottawa's lobbying culture, the revolving door between industry and government is as active in his office as any other. A report by the Investigative Journalism Foundation found at least six former Poilievre staffers have become lobbyists in general.
Ian Stedman, an associate professor of Canadian public law and governance at York University, said he believed Poilievre’s remarks were designed to stir up emotions in a particular audience, rather than lay out what his lobbying policy will actually be.
“It's just gobbledygook. It's just stuff to say when the right newspaper is printing the headline for the right people to read, for them to think that he's a man of the people. But it really has no basis in the reality of what his job actually is,” Stedman said.
“He can't not talk to lobbyists, he can't not talk to industry groups. He has to — that's his job as a potential prime minister, to understand how to make the economy go in the right direction, how to create jobs, how to get industry to want to come to Canada.”
The federal lobbying registry only requires the broad subject matter of the communication, like “energy” or “environment,” to be disclosed.
Nevertheless, it’s clear that multiple industry players, from those supporting the expansion of methane-heavy natural gas to crude oil and pipelines, have been trying to reach the people close to Poilievre.
Topping the list of lobbying communications with Poilievre’s staff was the Canadian Fuels Association. The industry group represents major fossil fuel producers and refiners like Imperial Oil. It communicated with four members of Poilievre’s staff over seven occasions between January and March this year.
Asked what those seven lobbying occasions were about, Dany Laferriere, vice president of communications and outreach for the Canadian Fuels Association, said the organization reaches out to “all levels of government” regardless of “political affiliation.”
“While we can’t share specific details of our interactions with officials, we can say that in recent years, we’ve been heavily focused on advising policies that will stimulate investments in producing lower-carbon fuel alternatives in Canada while also ensuring industry competitiveness and strengthening our critical energy infrastructure,” he wrote in an email.
“This is crucial for meeting Canada’s clean fuel regulations targets and we believe there is tremendous potential to further reduce the carbon footprint of liquid transportation fuels while also ensuring dependable transportation energy is accessible to all Canadians.”
Pipeline company Enbridge lobbied three of the Conservative leader’s staff in May 2024. Gina Sutherland, senior advisor for corporate communications and media relations, said Enbridge engages regularly with government and other elected officials “on a variety of topics relevant to our industry.”
AltaGas, a Calgary-based company with natural gas utilities and storage, lobbied three Poilievre staffers in January. A spokesperson said “government[s] of all levels, and the official Opposition, need to consult with impacted industries and stakeholders to make informed decisions.”
Notably absent from the lobbying disclosures was Canada’s main oil and gas lobby group, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. The association lobbied several Conservative MPs and senators during the time period examined, as well as MPs from other parties, ministers and senior bureaucrats, but did not log communications with staff in Poilievre’s office. A spokesperson did not return requests for comment before publication.
Lobbying is a regulated undertaking and all major political parties are lobbied, not just the Conservatives, and not just by the fossil fuel industry. There are several reasons why certain staffers end up becoming more deeply linked to lobbyists than others, such as time commitments or assignments, and they do not necessarily have any direct connection to the businesses.
Stedman called the targeting of Poilievre staffers by the industry a “smart lobbying strategy” given the Conservatives have been consistently polling higher than Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals and the other federal political parties. With electoral projections putting the Conservatives in majority territory if an election were held today, the oil and gas industry wants a handle on not only the leader, but also the people around him, Stedman said.
“You want to get into the Poilievre camp, not only to tell them what you think, but also to get a feel for who's on the inside,” he said.
Oil and gas companies want to connect with Poilievre’s eventual inner circle so they can count on someone answering their call when they want to press an issue, he said. That means establishing relationships now with all sorts of people in Poilievre’s orbit.
“People who are in the leader’s office, who know the files, who are the go-tos, would be the ones that would go with him if and when he becomes prime minister,” Stedman said.
“You spend years and years building these relationships in the political space.”
Get the inside scoop on The Narwhal’s environment and climate reporting by signing up for our free newsletter. Amid wetlands and stunning mountains, at the...
Continue reading
How common is it in journalism for four people, who have the same ancestral language...
Salmon habitat was restored in the Fraser Valley, old-growth forests were protected on Vancouver Island...
As the federal government deals with a political crisis, it has quietly turned down a...