Flames as high as a 30-storey building, ships nearly as long as the Eiffel Tower is tall, $40 billion dollars. Everything about LNG Canada is big — including its promises. 

Often referred to as the largest private investment in Canadian history, the megaproject connects B.C. shale gas reserves near the Alberta border to marine shipping routes on the northwest coast. More than a decade after the project was first approved, Canada’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector is finally up and running: LNG Canada sent its first shipment to Asia on June 30.

As exports start flowing overseas from the Kitimat, B.C., facility, two more liquefaction plants are under construction — Woodfibre LNG and Cedar LNG. Another, Ksi Lisims LNG, could be approved any day. The promise around all this industrial buildout has always been prosperity, but whether the industry can deliver, and for how long, is up for debate.

“An oversupply of LNG is widely expected, potentially starting as early as next year, with a massive wave of new projects coming online around the world, especially in the U.S. and Qatar,” Steven Haig, a policy advisor with the International Institute for Sustainable Development, told The Narwhal. “When it comes to the economic benefits of LNG, Canada is really late to the party — and that party is almost over.”

Haig and his colleagues recently penned a deep dive into the risks of locking in more LNG infrastructure, reporting that Canadian exports are unlikely to achieve “energy security for importers or economic resilience for exporters.”

“What we explain in our analysis is that we are very likely moving into a period of oversupply with lower prices — and those lower prices may well be below what projects need to break even,” Haig told The Narwhal. “If they run at a loss for too long, then they can become stranded assets, with economic implications for the people who work for these facilities or for communities that might become economically associated with them.”

‘Higher domestic prices for Canadian consumers’ are a possibility

As Canadian LNG — the liquid form of natural gas, which is mostly composed of methane and in B.C. is extracted primarily through fracking — starts making its way into international markets, British Columbians and Albertans could also see a spike in their heating bills, according to Deloitte Canada. As the Financial Post recently reported, domestic natural gas prices could jump up by 60 per cent this year, and climb even higher next year. 

Haig said if the price a company can get from exporting LNG is higher than it can get selling natural gas domestically, prices in places like B.C. and Alberta will go up. This happened in Australia, where domestic prices tripled as Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine sent shockwaves through the supply chain.

“LNG links regional gas markets together in the global LNG market,” Haig explained. “So a local supply disruption in one place can lead to skyrocketing LNG prices elsewhere.” 

“When those high prices are in effect, then it can become more profitable for a gas producer in Canada, for example, to export that gas to the international LNG market than to use that gas in Canada’s domestic gas market.” That, he said, can lead to higher domestic prices for Canadian consumers.

LNG Canada is now operating its first phase, which will produce up to 14 million tonnes of supercooled gas per year. It’s already approved and permitted to double production.

Teresa Waddington, LNG Canada’s vice-president of corporate relations, told The Narwhal earlier this month that talks are underway about whether or not to go ahead with the expansion. She said a final decision depends on a number of factors including “overall competitiveness [and] affordability.” LNG Canada did not respond to new questions from The Narwhal by publication time.

When the international consortium of oil and gas companies behind LNG Canada (Shell, Petronas, Korea Gas, PetroChina and Mitsubishi) first started courting Canada to develop an LNG export industry in B.C. in the early 2010s, they said it would boost the economy locally, provincially and federally. With recent trade threats from the U.S. government, that narrative is gaining traction again and politicians like B.C. Premier David Eby and Prime Minister Mark Carney are celebrating the sector as an economic saviour. 

Haig cautioned the narrative should be taken with a grain of salt.

“We’re seeing this big push towards LNG expansion to diversify Canada’s exports beyond the United States, but these are multi-billion dollar and multi-decade projects,” he explained. “Their long-term viability is a serious concern as global markets shift towards cleaner and more reliable energy sources, like renewables. Investing in LNG as a supposed transition fuel in the meantime would be a long, costly detour.”

‘It’s not too late’: Canada can reduce economic and climate risks by putting the brakes on LNG exports, expert says

Alongside promises of prosperity, LNG Canada and other proponents of the sector maintain the gas is a so-called “bridge” or transition fuel — a climate solution. The argument goes like this: burning gas to generate power is less harmful than burning coal, and B.C. exports will help countries like China substantially reduce their reliance on the “dirtier” fossil fuel. The first part is the subject of much debate, especially when the entire lifecycle of LNG is taken into consideration. The second — that Canadian LNG will displace coal — Haig said simply isn’t true. 

“Coal is cheap, renewables are cheap and LNG is not,” he said. “If we look at China’s power sector, for example, it’s renewables — not LNG imports — that are eating into coal’s market share. This is mostly because renewables are cheaper than LNG and because LNG requires expensive new infrastructure, such as re-gasification plants and pipelines, to connect consumers with supply.” 

China, while still responsible for about one third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, is outpacing the rest of the world by leaps and bounds in building renewables. In May this year, the country added the equivalent of 100 solar panels per second. As the Guardian reported in June, “China’s installed solar photovoltaic capacity has now surpassed 1,000 gigawatts for the first time, equivalent to half of the world’s total installed solar capacity.” 

Haig said Canada is at a crossroads as it decides whether or not to approve more LNG projects, but added, “it’s not too late.” 

“LNG exports can delay investments in renewables and generally increase global fossil fuel use, increasing global greenhouse gas emissions,” he said. “Doubling down on LNG projects would likely expose Canadians to more risk and volatility, not less.”

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The phone call to the B.C. premier’s office came on a Saturday in May 2023, one day after a scathing inspection report detailed multiple environmental infractions along the route of a major gas pipeline under construction in the province.

The report, issued by the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office, outlined damage to sensitive wetlands and other ecosystems on Wet’suwet’en territory in northwest B.C. It detailed howTC Energy allegedly failed to protect areas around its Coastal GasLink pipeline project from environmental impacts associated with construction and spring snowmelt.

As a result, the assessment office said in its report that it would keep stop-work orders on pipeline construction in place, potentially triggering delays and driving up costs on a multibillion dollar project already facing significant cost overruns. 

B.C. Premier David Eby’s office told The Narwhal it believes this report triggered the Saturday phone call it accepted from TC Energy executive Liam Illife, who recently resigned over comments he made during an internal call in March about the company’s outsized influence over governments.

Eby’s office said it didn’t keep records of what was discussed and declined to explain exactly what happened during that weekend phone call.

“The premier’s office would not discuss the enforcement activities or approach of the [B.C. Environmental Assessment Office], but companies will sometimes flag to government what their intended public response may be to such an event,” Eby’s spokesperson Bhinder Sajan told The Narwhal in an email.

“To be clear, we don’t have a specific record of the call, but given the timing you provided, we believe it may have been related to this event,” Sajan said, referring to the release of the report outlining Coastal GasLink’s environmental infractions and the assessment office’s decision to maintain stop-work orders on pipeline construction.

‘Call up the premier’s office on a Saturday’

Illife, a former BC NDP staffer, worked for various ministries in former B.C. premier John Horgan’s government between July 2017 and June 2022. Iliffe began lobbying the Eby government in April 2023, less than a year after leaving his government job.

The provincial lobbyist registry indicates Illife lobbied Don Bain, Eby’s deputy chief of staff, five times over 13 months. The filings also indicate Illife lobbied Eby’s office on the weekend immediately following the release of the inspection report about various pipeline infrastructure, including the Coastal GasLink project — considered by the oil and gas industry to be an important part of a plan to ramp up exports of fossil fuels and grow the Canadian economy.

The Coastal GasLink pipeline will supply natural gas for the new LNG Canada and Cedar LNG export projects on B.C.’s coast. Natural gas is a fossil fuel mostly composed of methane, which is 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period in terms of heating the planet. It is extracted mainly by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a process that uses massive amounts of fresh water. Fracking activity in northeast B.C. is poised to escalate as the export projects get underway.

Calgary-based TC Energy described the phone call as lobbying activity, according to filings in a provincial registry.  

The B.C. government’s vague description of Illife’s weekend lobbying of the premier’s office leaves several stakeholders questioning whether fossil fuel executives have privileged access to government, including possible influence on the outcome of environmental inspections and enforcement activity.

“The fact that the company could call up the premier’s office on a Saturday and have a discussion about it is rather infuriating,” Shannon McPhail, executive director of Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition, told The Narwhal. “I wish I had [had] that kind of access when I filed concerns with the various regulators, managers, agencies [and] ministries at both the provincial government and federal government level.”

Iliffe lobbied the government 12 times in total from the spring of 2023 to the spring of 2024 when he left his job, according to the provincial lobbyist registry. This includes lobbying Eby’s office five times.

The filing in the registry indicates one of the intended outcomes of Iliffe’s lobbying was the “development, establishment, amendment or termination of any program, policy, directive or guideline of the government of British Columbia or a provincial entity.”

While the registry doesn’t require lobbyists to disclose exactly what they discuss during their interactions with government officials, Iliffe and other TC Energy officials suggested on their internal call they succeeded in persuading different government officials to weaken some environmental policies and loosen regulations that may cut into the company’s profits.

Iliffe, the company and the B.C. government have all said some of the former TC Energy executive’s claims on the internal company call were not true, but they did not elaborate or specify which claims were unfounded. 

The Narwhal first approached the B.C. government in June with questions about Iliffe’s claims on the company recording. The premier’s office subsequently said it conducted an internal review of Iliffe’s claims about how the company had influenced the province and concluded they were false. The province’s attorney general subsequently asked a provincial watchdog to conduct its own review of lobbying activity by TC Energy.

Companies are allowed to lobby governments about public policy and decisions in Canada and governments generally keep track of the activity by requiring companies to report each interaction on public registries. In B.C., the registrar of lobbying is a watchdog empowered to enforce a lobbying transparency law and ensure lobbyists and public servants comply with the legislation.

Environmental assessment office inspections and regulatory orders are normally carried out and implemented without any involvement of elected officials. However, B.C. regulatory agencies charged with enforcement activities, including the environmental assessment office, are accountable to cabinet ministers who have some decision-making powers on regulatory matters.

Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’moks said he doesn’t see why TC Energy would talk to the premier’s office about an inspection conducted by compliance and enforcement officers with the environmental assessment office.

“Absolutely it’s improper … because that is an independent enforcement arm,” he said in an interview.

The premier’s office noted that Bain’s job required him to engage with representatives from industry, environmental groups, local governments and First Nations. Based on the deputy chief of staff’s “recollection, Mr. Iliffe would at times relay his company’s commitment to fully respond to issues raised by regulatory agencies,” Eby’s office said.

In an emailed response to questions, the B.C. Environment Ministry also said it is not uncommon for industry to update government officials about how companies are responding to inspections.

Eby’s office did not respond to questions about why it didn’t keep records of Bain’s weekend discussion with Illife. Bain declined an interview request about the lobbying, but the premier’s office emailed a statement on Bain’s behalf.

“I make recommendations about further engagement and all other recommendations based on the priorities of Premier Eby which are focused on the best interest of British Columbians,” Bain said in response to The Narwhal’s questions about his conversations with Iliffe.

In 2018, Bain was among at least five B.C. government staffers who allegedly engaged in the improper deletion of government records under former premier Horgan. The story came to light when requests made under freedom of information legislation revealed Bain and other senior staff had been deleting their sent emails for months, according to a report in Victoria’s Times Colonist newspaper.

At the time, the government said new staffers had been learning their roles and responsibilities, and had subsequently received training and would take a “more cautious approach to the management of email,” the newspaper reported.

Bain did not directly comment about his weekend phone call with Iliffe, which followed the inspection report.

“Throughout his time at TC Energy, I did not have any private meetings with Mr. Iliffe,” Bain said in the statement sent by the premier’s office. “On a few occasions, Mr. Iliffe and I spoke on the phone on issues relevant to TC Energy and my role as lead on various energy-related files including the sale of the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission line from TC [Energy] to the Nisga’a Nation.”

In March, TC Energy announced it was selling the transmission project, an approved gas pipeline, to the Nisga’a Nation. Construction of the pipeline, which will supply the proposed Ksi Lisims LNG project co-owned by the Nisga’a, is set to start in August.

‘A small class of political insiders who move back and forth between industry and government’

The absence of any records about Illife’s communications with the premier’s office leaves some stakeholders questioning whether the company was trying to circumvent the regulator.

“That could have been an email,” McPhail said. “And why would you need to keep the premier’s office updated when you have all these regulatory and management agencies whose responsibility it is to do that? We’re supposed to have this system in place to deal with this stuff — but what was very clear with Coastal GasLink is the system was broken at every single level.”

McPhail said she still hasn’t received answers to questions she put to officials with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the BC Energy Regulator and the BC Environmental Assessment Office in 2022 regarding potential impacts of pipeline construction on fish habitat.

B.C. Environment and Climate Change Strategy Minister George Heyman and the environmental assessment office both declined interview requests from The Narwhal about TC Energy’s lobbying activity.

In a statement, the ministry said the office operates independently from government and neither the office nor Heyman were aware of any of Illife’s phone calls to the premier’s office.

The environmental assessment office said it has conducted nearly 100 inspections along the Coastal GasLink pipeline route by air and ground since construction began in 2019, leading to multiple fines, more than 50 warnings and 30 orders, including 13 stop-work orders.

Drew Yewchuk, a former staff lawyer at the University of Calgary’s Public Interest Law Clinic, said he was not surprised TC Energy was able to access the B.C. premier’s office so readily. 

“Is having a lobbyist contact the executive branch to have an unrecorded discussion probably asking for special treatment good governance? No — but you don’t need a legal expert to tell you that,” he told The Narwhal. “It reflects the Canadian tradition of a powerful and secretive executive branch, and decision-making involving a small class of political insiders who move back and forth between industry and government.”

TC Energy did not directly respond to The Narwhal’s questions about the lobbying activity. Previously, the company told The Narwhal its role is to advocate for the changes needed to ensure energy security, job creation, affordability and sustainability and that the leaked calls included comments that portrayed a “false impression” of how it does business.

“We continue to engage policy makers and the public in an ethical and compliant manner while meeting our regulatory obligations, including lobbying registrations across various jurisdictions in Canada and the U.S.,” TC Energy senior vice-president of external relations Patrick Muttart said in a statement on June 26.

“We are proud of our company and the work that thousands of employees do each day to safely move, generate and store the energy that our families, neighbours and businesses rely on. We are driven by our purpose: delivering the energy people need, every day.”

When pressed for more details, the company said it had nothing further to add to its previous response.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and B.C. Premier David Eby beamed with praise as they celebrated the Haisla Nation in late June.

The northwest B.C. First Nation and its business partner, Pembina Pipelines Corp., had just announced a final investment decision on their proposed fossil fuel project — meaning construction will proceed.

Haisla Nation has a 51 per cent stake in the project, Cedar LNG, while Pembina controls the remaining share. The project consists of a new natural gas liquefaction plant in Kitimat, B.C., which will receive gas shipped from the province’s northeast through the Coastal GasLink pipeline and cool it to liquid form at -162 C, reducing its volume for export.

Calling it the “first project of its kind,” Haisla elected Chief Councillor Crystal Smith said the liquefied natural gas (LNG) project is “trailblazing a path” toward economic independence.

Eby and Trudeau appeared to agree.

“Cedar LNG is a shining example of how natural resource development should work in our province — in full partnership with First Nations and with the lowest emissions possible,” Eby said in a video.

Trudeau echoed those remarks, calling the project and partnership “a model for economic reconciliation.”

“The world is evolving,” he said, also in a video statement. “The way we get our energy is evolving. The way we do business is evolving. Everyone involved in this project saw this and you all saw the opportunities that come with it.”

As political leaders lauded the decision, another business executive, François Poirier, was also celebrating the announcement. Poirier is CEO of TC Energy, the Calgary-based fossil fuel giant that built the Coastal GasLink pipeline, which will supply fuel for the Cedar LNG project.

In a statement, Poirier said the partnership between a First Nation and a fossil fuel company had “redefined the future of energy development in North America.” 

“Through Indigenous-ownership, Cedar LNG will create opportunities that will support Indigenous and local communities in northern British Columbia and deliver benefits to the world by meeting global demand for more secure, affordable and sustainable energy,” Poirier said, calling the project a “transformative moment for Indigenous-led energy projects in Canada.”  

While both Eby and Trudeau described the project as a “partnership” and a step toward reconciliation, TC Energy executives also discussed internally what this type of partnership means to them. The Narwhal has learned that in at least one case this included a conversation about how Indigenous communities and other stakeholders could be leveraged by fossil fuel companies as a “force multiplier” to increase the value of major projects and secure approvals from governments.

The Narwhal reviewed more than two hours of leaked recordings of internal TC Energy calls that took place in February and March and sent dozens of questions to the company and government about claims made by staffers working for the multinational energy corporation.

On one of the recordings of internal calls obtained by The Narwhal, Natasha Westover, a TC Energy staffer based in Vancouver who manages the company’s external relations team in B.C., described the political landscape on the February call.

“I know at least from our provincial government here that that is going to be the narrative going forward,” she said. “Indigenous LNG is going to lead in terms of public narratives for our governments in getting these projects approved.”

She did not respond to The Narwhal’s questions prior to publication. 

TC Energy did not answer specific questions about comments made on the recordings and told The Narwhal some statements made by one of the employees on the calls were “inaccurate” and “portray a false impression” of how the company does business. 

Patrick Muttart, TC Energy’s senior vice-president of external relations, said the company works to build trust with communities and apologized to “all our partners, stakeholders and rights holders for any impact on our longstanding relationships.”

“For us to build and operate major infrastructure projects, we need to earn the support and trust of local people and local communities,” Muttart wrote in a statement provided to The Narwhal. “That is what governments, Indigenous communities and the public expect from us and it’s the right thing to do.”

‘They can’t use me and my people’: Ontario chief carefully eyes possible partnership with TC Energy

Days after The Narwhal first published details of TC Energy’s recorded meetings, Chief Greg Nadjiwon of Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation in Ontario received a call from TC Energy officials. “They just called to make me aware that I’ll probably be contacted by The Narwhal about this,” he said in an interview. 

Saugeen Ojibway Nation, which includes Chippewas of Nawash and Saugeen First Nations, is currently deliberating offering a green light to another TC Energy project: a pumped storage and hydroelectric project in Meaford, Ont. Alongside TC Energy and energy officials, the nation has been informing their community members about the massive project to draw (or pump) nearly 7,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of water in and out of Georgian Bay to generate and store electricity. 

TC Energy previously told The Narwhal the first people they approached about the project in 2019 was Saugeen Ojibway Nation. They’ve been talking ever since.

The First Nation is conducting its own environmental assessment to understand the impacts the project may have on and around the bay. In this process, Nadjiwon said he has always been “careful,” acutely aware of historically tense and unbalanced relationships between energy companies and First Nations. But watching a surge of energy investments, he’s also trying to change this relationship to benefit his community. 

But to Nadjiwon, the leaked recording illustrates why he must walk even more carefully in this relationship. 

TC Energy’s history with some Indigenous communities is fraught. To construct its Coastal GasLink pipeline, the company secured agreements with elected First Nations governments in northern B.C. but did not get consent from Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs. 

Opposition from the chiefs and their supporters led to years of conflict, and police and Supreme Court intervention. Widespread solidarity protests in early 2020 shut down Canadian ports and railways for weeks.

On the leaked recordings, Liam Iliffe — a TC Energy executive who resigned a few days after The Narwhal approached him in June for an interview — stressed the company’s success in building energy infrastructure hangs on Indigenous involvement. 

“All of this effort is for naught if there isn’t Indigenous support or at least Indigenous non-objection,” he said on a call in March. “A government of any stripe, in British Columbia particularly, is not going to push projects forward unless there’s Indigenous support.”

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, legislated both federally and in B.C., affirms Indigenous people’s right to self-determination and to provide free, prior and informed consent to any development on their lands. In other words, companies are required by law to gain Indigenous consent before they start building.

Iliffe used the word “validators” when talking about how the company should create relationships, including with Indigenous communities, that serve the company’s goals. 

“As cabinets go and governments go and decision-makers go, we always have to make certain that we’re shoring that up and bringing validators through our relationships with communities, Indigenous people, Indigenous leaders and the general public to government to ensure that the government is confident that they can make the positive decisions without affecting their voter base, which drives a lot of decision-making,” he said.

Dave Forestell, previously a senior federal Conservative political staffer who served in former prime minister Stephen Harper’s government, said on the call that company executives need to ask themselves, “How do we make it in the government’s interest to do something?”

“You think first about what would encourage somebody to consent or ideally support and advocate for this project,” Forestell said. He added the goal is to find ways to get Indigenous support “while preserving, or ideally enhancing, the economics of the project.”

“To be clear, what I mean is when you have early Indigenous support on a project, de facto the economics of the project are enhanced because one of the single greatest risks we face as a company is regulatory delays.”

Forestell did not respond to an interview request and emailed questions from The Narwhal.

Muttart, TC Energy’s senior vice-president, said the company believes Indigenous communities should benefit from projects.

“We also believe the projects of the future should be built by Indigenous employees, serviced by Indigenous businesses and owned by Indigenous Nations,” he said in his emailed statement. “Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples requires true participation in Canada’s resource economy.”

Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’moks told The Narwhal he believes First Nations leaders are sometimes used by fossil fuel companies to advance industry initiatives and suggested the comments on the recording are not surprising.

“When they start to refer to [Indigenous Peoples] as ‘validators’ they are taking the path of least resistance,” he said in an interview. He said fossil fuel companies are “targeting people that are in economic need,” thereby forcing First Nations into agreements. Once those agreements are secured, he said he has seen companies use Indigenous leaders to repeat industry talking points.

In the recording, Iliffe noted how TC Energy’s community outreach around the Meaford project in particular is paying off. “The tactics that we use to garner and gain support …  they work everywhere,” he said, providing examples also in B.C. “They’ve been used sometimes just to achieve non-objection … We find ourselves in places where often listening is the best tool so that we can adjust and align.” 

After hearing how Iliffe described Indigenous leaders as “validators” of energy projects, Nadjiwon said, “I don’t know the man, but he needs to validate all that.”

“This is our homeland. We want to be counted in. We want a place at the table, to be taken seriously. Not as validators.” 

Iliffe didn’t respond to The Narwhal’s questions asking for further context and clarification. But he told The Narwhal in a statement that some of his comments referred to events that did not actually happen. He did not confirm which parts of his comments were accurate.

TC Energy did not comment on the specifics of what Iliffe said about Indigenous engagement in Meaford. Since 2019, the company has sponsored bingo nights and information sessions with dinner for members of the First Nations. It has paid for bus tours to similar energy projects in Michigan and Massachusetts. It has also organized a boat tour of the bay and a visit to the project site. 

But Nadjiwon is clear: TC Energy has no influence over him, and he still trusts the company officials he has been speaking to, albeit with even more caution. 

“If I didn’t, I’d walk away,” he said. “I’m not a partner of TC Energy. We’re working toward that. Maybe. But I’m sure they have a fear that there could be a bump in the road that isn’t capable of being resolved … They’re under the microscope with Indigenous people, and they know that.”

“I’ve told them many times: they can’t use me and my people,” he added. “If there’s one bad apple on the tree, you don’t cut down the whole tree.”

TC Energy executive says Indigenous support is a ‘force multiplier’ for fossil fuel projects

B.C. is poised for the biggest fossil fuel boom in the province’s history. The BC NDP government, elected in 2017, has continually promoted the liquefied natural gas export industry, championing the LNG Canada project and offering billions of dollars in subsidies to some of the most profitable multinational oil and gas companies in the world. LNG Canada, a consortium of five multinational oil and gas companies, including Shell, will be the first liquefied natural gas export project in the country when it begins commercial operations next year in Kitimat.

Chief Smith, with the Haisla Nation, has long been a vocal supporter of the liquefied natural gas sector. She is a member of several organizations advocating for LNG development and worked to secure financial benefits for her community from the LNG Canada facility. 

In January, addressing attendees at the annual BC Natural Resources Forum in Prince George, B.C., she explained how those benefits and advancing the Cedar LNG project start to address an economic imbalance between settlers and Indigenous Peoples.

“Something I’m profoundly impacted by is our ability to fund the programs that really connect our people to their culture and our language, a language that has virtually disappeared in my generation,” she said. “We are reigniting our potential through culture and language and that is perhaps the most powerful thing of all.”

Smith did not respond to an interview request from The Narwhal.

An unidentifiable speaker on the leaked audio from TC Energy’s February call said Indigenous support for the liquefied natural gas sector is not unanimous in B.C. 

TC Energy recently completed construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline and is getting ready to start building its Prince Rupert Gas Transmission project, a 800-kilometre pipeline the company is in the process of selling to the Nisga’a Nation. TC Energy secured agreements with some First Nations governments along the route of the pipeline when it first sought — and received — provincial approval in 2014, but not all communities are supportive.

The unidentified speaker said U.S. President Joe Biden’s pause on liquefied natural gas exports was rippling into communities in British Columbia and asked Edward Burrier, a former White House staffer who is now TC Energy’s director of public policy, for advice.

“I support the B.C. team and so obviously we’re in the thick of it with LNG,” the speaker said. “As we go out and start to talk to nations again about the … Prince Rupert natural gas transmission line, we’re really having, in some instances, having problems getting traction with the nations. I think you’re bang on when you say the pause in the States is going to spur on, you know, give more power to people that don’t want to talk to us.”

Burrier characterized Indigenous involvement in fossil fuel development as a competitive edge industry can use to advance projects, describing his observations from the LNG 2023 conference that was hosted in Vancouver.

“Every CEO sits up there and talks about these LNG projects around the world and they all sound the same. But then Chief Crystal got up and said, ‘I’m with Haisla Nation and we used to have to manage poverty, now we have to figure out how to manage wealth.’ ” 

“That’s the force multiplier, to use one of the words of the hour, that we have on our side.”

Burrier did not respond to The Narwhal’s questions about his comments and the recordings.

— With files from Mike De Souza

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In 2017, Michael Evanoff was tapped by former U.S. president Donald Trump to serve as assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security. In his testimony to the Senate foreign state committee, he detailed his previous experience in the foreign service, noting he had completed eight overseas postings, four of which were designated high threat. 

“Among other things, I established the first [diplomatic security] liaison position with a U.S. military regional command, managed the largest Russian spy case and damage assessment in NATO history and designed a post-9/11 informant ‘walk-in’ program at our Islamabad embassy that contributed to the capture of Khalid Sheik Muhammad,” he said at the time.

Evanoff now works for TC Energy, a Calgary-based multinational fossil fuel company with offices in Houston and Mexico City. His official title is director of national security policy, geopolitical intelligence and research. From his home in Washington, D.C., the former Trump appointee uses his extensive geopolitical and military background to protect the company’s interests: crude oil and natural gas pipelines in Canada, the United States and Mexico, which earned TC Energy $11 billion in 2023.

A leaked recording of a February TC Energy “lunch and learn” session featuring Evanoff and his colleagues is now pulling back the curtain on internal company discussions, including its apparent strategies about how to influence governments, benefit from geopolitical crises and leverage existing relationships with a range of senior government officials — including the head of Canada’s spy agency.

The conversations, reviewed by The Narwhal, provide fresh insight into how some senior officials at the company believe they are locked in an existential battle as governments around the world move away from fossil fuels in an effort to address the climate crisis. They cover a wide range of discussions about international events that could seriously affect the business of TC Energy and other fossil fuel companies, such as President Joe Biden’s recent decision to pause new permits for liquefied natural gas exports.

“Our focus as a team is to look at what exposes us to hostile complex threats such as nation-states using asymmetric tactics, cyber-threats exploiting vulnerabilities, geopolitical uncertainties impacting global markets and supply chains and evolving regulatory challenges,” Evanoff said on the recording.  

While there is nothing unusual about a large multinational company recruiting top politically connected talent and prioritizing robust security measures to protect its assets, most details about their strategies are often tightly guarded secrets.

TC Energy did not directly respond to questions sent by The Narwhal about its team in Washington, D.C., and its influence in Canada. 

In an emailed statement, Patrick Muttart, TC Energy’s senior vice-president of external relations, said TC Energy was “disappointed” that recordings of its recent “lunch and learn” sessions “were released externally without authorization.” 

Muttart added TC Energy’s operations include providing energy to customers “in North America and around the globe” but did not elaborate on how the company gathers intelligence about geopolitical issues. 

‘On the battlefield trying to … protect the TC tower’

The recording appears to be from a presentation that took place on or around February 22, 2024. On the call, several TC Energy staffers based in Washington, D.C., spoke about how they support TC Energy’s external relations work across North America.

Julia Nesheiwat, a former U.S. military intelligence officer and homeland security advisor to Trump, said she and her colleagues are “on the battlefield trying to work every day to protect the TC tower.”

“Sometimes of course we’re on the defense and doing damage control and … making the best of those situations,” Nesheiwat, who is now TC Energy’s vice-president of policy and insights, said on the call. She added the company’s goal is to be proactive and stay “on the offense, when we’re taking it to our opponents.” 

Evanoff struck a similar tone. Opening with a military term, he described the team as a “force multiplier.” 

“We’re in challenging times here, we all know that,” he said. “The geopolitical intelligence and research team — the GIR team — is vital, and I would say paramount, in safeguarding … TC’s North American energy division.”

In response to The Narwhal’s questions, Muttart, the company’s senior vice-president,  explained the company’s mission was to deliver secure, affordable and sustainable energy that powers homes and businesses around the world.

“To achieve our mission, we engage with all levels of government and across every community where we operate,” Muttart said. “With governments, opinion leaders and policy-makers across jurisdictions, our role is to advocate for the changes needed to ensure energy security, job creation, affordability and sustainability. We do so for our colleagues, for our customers and for the communities where we operate. We do so with solid, robust and compliant practices and policies for engagement, while always looking for ways to improve.”

TC Energy executive discusses conversations with spy agency

On the February call, Evanoff said the company is actively working to influence global intelligence sharing. 

On the recording, he gave details of a meeting he said happened between company CEO François Poirier and Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) director David Vigneault at an intelligence summit in Palo Alto, Calif., in October 2023. The summit, hosted by U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation director Christopher Wray, brought together leaders of the Five Eyes intelligence partnership, a bloc made up of senior officials from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

“The [detection of] political threats that come out of [Five Eyes intelligence] are shared and … four countries are actually sharing that with the business community,” Evanoff said. “The fifth one, Canada, is unfortunately hamstrung with the CSIS Act law that stops CSIS from sharing actual security intelligence to Canadian companies. This is a miss, a huge miss, that’s been going on since 1984 — way before the internet.”

He said Poirier witnessed discussions between Vigneault and Wray in California that revealed “the sharing of information, especially with [the People’s Republic of China] and Russian threats, [is] not getting to our companies in Canada.” 

Evanoff said Poirier was “pretty charged” about finding a way to change this. According to the leaked audio, a conversation between the TC Energy CEO and the CSIS director ensued.

“The director of CSIS, David Vigneault, basically said, ‘I have a plan, will you work with me?’ ” Evanoff recounted. “And so [Poirier] absolutely said, ‘Yes, what can we do?’ ”

Evanoff alleged TC Energy analysts then supplied the CSIS director with a document supporting amendments to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act that would pave the way for the federal government to share classified security intelligence with industry. He said the approach was consistent with methods used in the United States in the 1980s, with a government department called the Overseas Security Advisory Council.

“We wanted to convey that to the Canadians, to the director. So he’s taken that advice from us to start this,” Evanoff said.

Evanoff said after meetings with the CSIS director and other intelligence officials, Poirier joined a Business Council of Canada committee on national security, and is now in regular contact with Vigneault. 

“Our CEO … co-chairs that with Mastercard CEO Canada and it’s something that we’re very proud of and we’ll continue to feed the information to him twice a year,” Evanoff said. “We believe this is great for TC. It’s also great for us to … be top of mind with the Canadian intelligence service and even with the National Security Justice Department and also with RCMP.”

Evanoff did not respond to questions from The Narwhal about his recorded comments.

Eric Balsam, a spokesperson with CSIS, declined an interview request, but confirmed in a statement that Vigneault and Poirier met in Palo Alto. Balsam said discussions between the two men occurred “in the context of strategic-level engagements with the Business Council of Canada” and its national security group co-chaired by TC Energy’s Poirier. Balsam said the security agency will continue to engage with the business community.

“CSIS works with its partners across the private sector to ensure they are aware of the threat environment and that they have the tools and information they need to protect their interests,” he noted.  

He also said the federal government launched public consultations on possible amendments to the legislation in November 2023 to ensure the spy agency has more tools to defend Canada against security threats including foreign interference.

Public consultations about updating the CSIS Act concluded in February, with a majority of participants agreeing the agency should have more tools to share information about threats with industry, universities, local governments and law enforcement as well as other potential targets. A report summarizing the consultations also said a minority of participants expressed concerns about whether any proposed changes would increase threats to privacy. Some also expressed “the need for strong oversight and accountability.”

President Biden and the ‘the battle to define natural gas’

On the February recording, former White House staffer Edward Burrier, now TC Energy’s director of public policy, told his colleagues Biden’s pause on liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, announced Jan. 26, 2024, is making waves across the industry. (On July 1, a Trump-appointed federal judge blocked Biden’s pause.)

He suggested the Biden administration implemented the pause as a response to worries about the upcoming election and explained how innovative techniques in extracting gas from underground shale reserves pushed companies like TC Energy into the spotlight.

“Thanks to the shale revolution, in just a few short years the U.S. went from importer to exporter of natural gas, becoming the number one last year, surpassing Qatar and Australia,” he said. “The success of [the] industry has definitely put it in the crosshairs of activists.” 

“President Biden has really struggled with key demographics: war in the Middle East, student loans, environmental activism,” he continued. “In some ways we’re kind of laughing but it is an eye opener: the White House had top officials meeting with 25-year-old TikTok influencers that were producing LNG videos. It’s through this prism that it’s clear this was entirely a political decision by the White House.”

He added he believes the decision was “facilitated by a group of activists and academics” and said the impact isn’t limited to the United States. 

“This decision isn’t just important to us but it’s reverberating around the world. Our allies are worried about U.S. leadership and our adversaries are doing a victory lap.”

Burrier noted on the call that Biden’s fossil fuel policies had become an election issue, and predicted  Trump, if elected, would overturn the pause on liquefied natural gas exports on day one of a new mandate.

He said he’s paying close attention to messaging from opponents of fossil fuel development, noting “the battle to define natural gas is on.”

Natural gas is a fossil fuel mostly composed of methane. According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, over a 20-year period, methane is 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in terms of heating the planet.

In B.C., TC Energy recently completed the Coastal GasLink pipeline project which will transport the fossil fuel to the Pacific coast, to be converted into liquefied natural gas and shipped overseas. The oil and gas industry has proposed a number of LNG facilities along the coast to support more production and exports.

Proponents say the gas can help countries like China, Japan and Korea reduce reliance on other fossil fuels, such as coal. That argument is contested by climate scientists who maintain emissions and leaks during extraction, processing and transport make liquefied natural gas worse for the climate than coal.

Burrier isn’t buying it.

“I often wake up and kind of wonder if I’m on a different planet — reading studies that LNG is dirtier than coal is one of those moments,” he said on the internal call, referring to a study by a Cornell University professor who he described as “a long time anti-natural gas advocate.” He noted the paper wasn’t peer-reviewed.

“I grew up as a young staffer on Capitol Hill and the debate was about drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge,” he continued. “It was a major kind of fight. [There’s] not one Democrat who says that they’re for that. Keystone XL — these guys don’t even have to think about it. They said they’re instinctively against it. We are at this spot where we cannot let that happen for natural gas exports.”

‘Success of environmental activism’ in U.S. could inspire action in B.C., TC Energy exec worries

Canada’s first major liquefied natural gas export project is nearing completion. LNG Canada, which will be supplied by TC Energy’s Coastal GasLink pipeline, will start shipping the fossil fuel to Asia next year. 

“In the short term, in Canada, I think we’ll see some renewed interest in LNG Canada as Asian partners look to diversify,” Burrier said of the impact of the U.S. pause. “But I think if we’re talking about a real opportunity, we’d really have to see the Canadians — the federal government [and] the province — really ready to push through the next set of projects. And I think, to be honest, the Canadian government really doesn’t do competitive policy like that all that well.”

He cautioned the impacts of Biden’s pause could be more subtle.

“We do have to be worried that the success of environmental activism in the United States could be a jolt for their brethren in B.C.,” he said. “I know again that they’ve called for a pause of Canadian exports, which I always laugh to myself, since they’re still at zero right now.”

“I think we often have to remember that Canada’s aggressive climate policies can themselves present reliability of supply questions to our partners,” he added. 

Nesheiwat, the former Homeland Security advisor and now TC Energy vice president, said that’s one of the challenges her team helps to address.

In January, The Narwhal reported how TC Energy lobbied the federal government to exempt liquefied natural gas facilities from a proposed cap on heat-trapping pollution from oil and gas activities. At that time, a federal spokesperson said the government would not grant any exemptions, noting the LNG sector was expected to grow.

“In Canada, our team is dealing with stringent and evolving climate policies or regulatory inefficiencies,” Nesheiwat said on the leaked recording. “The fact is, as a company we’re often navigating these public perceptions and again across multiple countries and cultures.”

Burrier, Nesheiwat and other TC Energy executives spent much of their careers developing and influencing policy in the U.S. TC Energy did not respond to questions about why it hired a Washington D.C.-based team to influence Canadian policies.

‘We literally did the government’s homework for them’

Burrier said one example of “successful shots fired” in Canada was how the company lobbied the federal government around the Impact Assessment Act, legislation that gives decision-makers the means to consider environmental impacts when approving or rejecting major industrial development projects. The government is amending the act after the Supreme Court of Canada found it to be unconstitutional last fall, but Burrier suggested TC Energy was behind the government’s openness to changes that benefit industry. 

“As many on this call will remember, early last year the Canadian government had two sentences in their proposal saying that they wanted to make improvements on its permitting process,” he said in the recording. “We used that as our opening. We produced for government a deliberate, thoughtful, 20-plus-page paper with recommendations.” 

He explained TC Energy staffers based in the U.S. capital developed a case study for Canadian government officials that dissected how Germany “built three LNG import terminals in less than a year” by enacting special legislation.   

“We literally did the government’s homework for them,” he added.

Dixie Quintanilla, a spokesperson with the Impact Assessment Agency, said the federal government met with numerous stakeholders, including TC Energy, as part of the process to develop proposed amendments. 

She said the agency “did not receive any submissions from TC Energy on amendments to the Impact Assessment Act.”

When asked by The Narwhal about the claims, federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said Burrier’s statement is “an outrageous claim and it’s so preposterous.” At an interview during a conference organized by the Toronto Region Board of Trade on June 27, Guilbeault said TC Energy was one of 30 stakeholders and 60 Indigenous organizations consulted over the changes and that he didn’t believe the company had put its thoughts in writing. 

A spokesperson said the minister’s office “relied on the best available science and on the unbiased, high-quality advice of the Impact Assessment Agency” for amendments to the legislation. 

The Supreme Court ruling was “the only reason we made changes,” Guilbeault said. “To think that I would take my orders from a company on something like that? I think it’s someone who is grossly overestimating their importance and the role they played … It’s ridiculous.” 

Burrier also said he and his colleagues helped with efforts to weaken a “climate scheme that British Columbia was advancing.”

“I won’t bore you with the details here because it does get pretty technical but we helped … the team in B.C. with assessing the proposals and providing recommendations and, lo and behold, it worked,” he said. “The final recommendations came out and in the next few years we’ll see savings of hundreds of millions of dollars in compliance costs and it factors up to billions if you look out at 25 years from now.”

It appears he was referring to provincial regulations that restrict emissions from the oil and gas sector. On another leaked recording, a TC Energy executive who resigned after The Narwhal began its reporting said the company was successful in excluding “midstream” infrastructure — namely, pipelines — from the new rules. 

A spokesperson with the Office of the Premier in B.C. did not directly respond to the claim, saying only that the premier maintains a “clear and persistent commitment to B.C.’s climate plan,” which includes an emissions cap for the oil and gas industry.

— With files from Fatima Syed

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The call starts as a run-of-the-mill internal corporate presentation. 

With a cheerful preamble, Liam Iliffe, a B.C.-based political staffer turned industry executive, introduces himself to his colleagues at TC Energy, a major North American energy company that builds and operates crude oil and natural gas pipelines and other energy infrastructure. He summarizes his background working for the BC New Democrats as a senior advisor under former premier John Horgan. He talks about how his work there included ensuring cross-party support for legislative changes needed to push through the Coastal GasLink pipeline and LNG Canada. The call is a “lunch and learn” session for the company’s external relations employees across North America.

Eight minutes in, things get interesting.

Warming to his task, Iliffe starts to outline strategies he says the multinational fossil fuel company uses to influence provincial, federal and state governments in Canada, the United States and Mexico. The corporation employs lobbyists and analysts in key political centres including Ottawa and Washington D.C. In 2023, TC Energy posted earnings of $11 billion.  

Speaking for 42 minutes, Iliffe goes on to claim TC Energy has surreptitiously influenced many major policy decisions. 

“We’ve had some really remarkable results in terms of our message being repeated back to us by key decision makers in government,” he says, adding “we’ve been given opportunities to write entire briefing notes for ministers and premiers and prime ministers and it gets stuck on government letterhead.”

He says TC Energy played a pivotal role in excluding pipelines from key climate regulations in British Columbia, saving the company billions in revenue. He claims TC Energy leverages relationships with Canadian ambassadors, Indigenous leaders and senior government officials to sway government decisions. He suggests the company conducts impromptu lobbying of elected officials by placing its staffers in positions where they can “bump into” prominent decision makers in informal settings. 

Notably, he claims these tactics were successful in persuading B.C. Premier David Eby to change his mind about taking action to address the climate crisis.

“This is a remarkable achievement over the year,” Iliffe tells his TC Energy colleagues.

The Narwhal obtained two hours of leaked recordings from the call on March 28, 2024, that appeared to implicate TC Energy in a concerted effort to influence premiers, ambassadors, cabinet ministers, the media and more. As part of the reporting, the leaked recordings were analyzed for authenticity and The Narwhal reached out to each party that could be implicated, asking dozens of questions. The recording reveals several key tactics allegedly used to influence government and sway public opinion.

• Cultivating relationships with influential bureaucrats to gain political support for corporate initiatives
• Encouraging TC Energy staff to seek out opportunities to meet politicians in casual settings, with the goal of having conversations that flow between “personal and professional, that advances our initiatives”
• Drafting proposed government policies and persuading “underpaid and overworked” public servants to use these and other TC Energy messaging on official government briefing notes for top politicians and decision makers
• Deliberately placing staff at public events to ask scripted questions to politicians and press them to talk about the company’s priorities in front of an audience
• Leveraging relationships with Canadian diplomats to have them “deliver a pro-LNG message” to prominent politicians
• Using “validators” such as “Indigenous people, Indigenous leaders and the general public” to sway government decisions
• Forming partnerships with third parties “who are happy to work with and take direction from TC on shifting government policy”
• Influencing the media to suppress stories that could be harmful to the company’s reputation

Four days after The Narwhal sent questions to TC Energy about the recording, Iliffe responded with an email on June 17 saying that some events he described did not actually occur and that he had resigned from the company.

“My intent was to emphasize the importance of local relationships TC Energy built in support of projects and operations,” he wrote in an email. “It would be remiss of me to suggest that anyone other than our elected representatives make decisions on behalf of British Columbians.” 

“I respect and treasure my relationships with past and present colleagues, partners and elected officials,” the email continued. “Out of respect for those relationships, I have resigned from TC Energy effective immediately to avoid further distractions.”

Two days later, TC Energy said it had reviewed a recording of an internal presentation made by a “former employee.”

“This individual is no longer with the company,” an unnamed spokesperson with TC Energy’s media relations team wrote in an email. “We apologize to the Government of British Columbia, Premier David Eby and all our partners, stakeholders and rights holders for any impact on our valued, trusted and longstanding relationships.” 

The spokesperson did not answer specific questions about the contents of the recording and did not specify whether any of the claims made on the recording were true or not.

In response to follow-up questions, TC Energy provided a second statement on June 26 from its senior vice-president of external relations, Patrick Muttart, who said some statements made on the call were untrue. Muttart also said he was disappointed someone had released recordings “which included inaccurate comments from an employee that portray a false impression of how we do business” and that they were released without authorization.

Muttart later provided additional comments to the National Post about the recording.

“The moment I found out about his comments, he took accountability, we took accountability, he is no longer with the company,” Muttart, a former senior political advisor to ex-prime minister Stephen Harper, told the newspaper.

‘We place people so they can bump into folks’: TC Energy exec

TC Energy has stakes in two pipelines that will supply B.C.’s new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export industry. The recently completed 670-kilometre Coastal GasLink pipeline will send gas from B.C.’s northeast to the LNG Canada project, which was granted billions of dollars of tax breaks and other subsidies by the BC NDP government. The 800-kilometre Prince Rupert Gas Transmission project, set to start construction in August, will supply the Ksi Lisims LNG project currently undergoing environmental assessment. Iliffe noted TC Energy’s natural gas interests are directly linked to expansion of the LNG sector.

“The growth of LNG off the west coast benefits TC Energy: if more gas is coming out of the basin, that benefits us,” Iliffe said on the call.

During his presentation, Iliffe repeatedly emphasized the importance of developing and maintaining relationships with politicians and public servants. He claimed the company regularly engages in lobbying  — activities meant to influence public policy, a common practice governed by both federal and provincial laws — outside of business hours. 

“You’d be surprised how much work I actually get done in the cooler at Costco because I bump into a significant minister or bureaucrat that I really want to spend some time with and I can do that next to the strawberries or the romaine lettuce,” he said, prompting laughter from some of his colleagues on the call.

According to the recording, this approach reflects TC Energy’s corporate strategy.

“We place people so they can bump into folks at the airport terminal or at the Costco cooler and on a Saturday have a remarkable conversation that flows between personal and professional, that advances our initiatives,” Iliffe said.

Speaking to the National Post, Muttart said the company doesn’t lobby at Costco and that TC Energy has a “robust” lobbying framework.

As The Narwhal reported on Wednesday, B.C.’s attorney general, Niki Sharma, wrote to the provincial registrar of lobbying asking it to review some of the claims made by Iliffe after the government learned about them through questions sent by The Narwhal to the premier’s office. Sharma’s letter noted Iliffe’s registration as a lobbyist did not identify him as a former public office holder, which may have been an oversight.

While Iliffe told The Narwhal that TC Energy was responsible for submitting his lobbying registration, the company did not respond to a question about whether it had made an error in its submission.

Sharma’s letter also noted that her office had conducted its own review of Iliffe’s comments and believed his statements were “untrue.”

TC Energy exec takes credits for B.C. premier’s evolving views on LNG and climate goals

On the recording, Iliffe spoke at length of how TC Energy had zeroed in on Eby in what he said were successful efforts to sway the premier’s climate policy — efforts he said intensified shortly after Eby took office in late 2022. 

“We had a new premier with a new mandate and that mandate was described on his very first day in office as ‘we cannot continue to expand the fossil fuel infrastructure and hit our climate goals,’ ” Iliffe said. “This set off alarm bells, of course, across industry.”

B.C.’s climate ambitions have long been at odds with its stance on liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. Natural gas is about 95 per cent methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas that is the second biggest contributor to global warming after carbon emissions.

The province approved LNG Canada — a joint venture by Shell, Petronas, PetroChina, Korea Gas and Mitsubishi — in 2015. When its first phase comes online around 2025, it plans to power its energy-intensive operations by burning some of the natural gas it would receive daily from the Coastal GasLink pipeline, according to LNG Canada’s project plans filed with the B.C. government. LNG Canada said a second phase would double production. While this could also double the amount of gas it burns domestically, LNG Canada has previously told The Narwhal it has a team exploring options to reduce emissions through electrification.  

Meanwhile, B.C.’s 2018 climate plan set targets to reduce emissions across the province from all sources to 40 per cent below 2007 levels by 2030, scaling up to 80 per cent by 2050. It also set a 2030 sectoral target of 33 to 38 per cent reductions from oil and gas activities in the province. Iliffe said Premier Eby faced tough conversations around natural gas and opposition to the sector “needed to be quelled” when he took office.

“So we made efforts to do that,” he said.

Those efforts, Iliffe said, had clear results. “We [find] ourselves now in a position where we have a premier who says that LNG is part of our future.”

Jimmy Smith, Premier David Eby’s press secretary, disputed Iliffe’s claims.

“Since the premier was sworn into office in 2022, B.C. has made significant policy changes in relation to the energy sector,” Smith wrote in an email. He said Eby’s “comments and actions” since taking office show a “clear and persistent commitment to B.C.’s climate plan” that included implementing an emissions cap for the oil and gas industry. 

“Premier Eby highlights that these climate commitments are not a hindrance to our economy but rather represent a significant opportunity for growth and prosperity because of how B.C. is positioned,” Smith said.

The premier’s deputy chief of staff, Don Bain, who was lobbied by Iliffe at least four times since 2023 according to provincial lobbying filings, also denied Iliffe’s claims. 

“On a few occasions, Mr. Iliffe and I spoke on the phone on issues relevant to TC Energy and my role as lead on various energy-related files including the sale of the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission line from TC to the Nisg̱a’a Nation,” Bain told The Narwhal in a statement. “Mr. Iliffe’s self-aggrandizing claims have no basis in reality.”

‘Leveraging our relationships allowed us to have Canadian ambassadors abroad deliver a pro-LNG message …’ 

Iliffe claimed TC Energy staffers reached out to “international thought leaders and diplomats” to influence the new premier. He said when Eby and some of his cabinet ministers went to Japan, South Korea and Singapore on a trade mission in 2023, TC Energy’s Ottawa bureau reached out to Canadian ambassadors to brief them on desired messaging to give to British Columbia officials about the natural gas sector. 

“We know that premiers, when they go to countries, have dinners with ambassadors,” he said. “That’s a one-on-one period of time that an ambassador can deliver our message. Leveraging our relationships allowed us to have Canadian ambassadors abroad deliver a pro-LNG message to a premier who was skeptical at the time.”

The result, Iliffe said, was “a marked shift in language when he came home.”

“We have a shift in government position, a clear shift. We have public comments and policy development that are positive for TC Energy’s initiatives being made daily by the British Columbia government. We didn’t find ourselves there a year ago.”

The Narwhal sent a request on June 17 for interviews with Canadian ambassadors who met with Eby on his trade mission in Asia. Global Affairs Canada declined interview requests, but confirmed Canada’s ambassador to Japan, Ian McKay, visited an oil and gas conference hosted in Vancouver in July 2023 and attended a reception hosted by TC Energy.

This occurred after Eby’s trade mission to Asia, a spokesperson with Global Affairs said in an emailed statement. The federal department added McKay did not meet “directly” with any company officials, but did not explain what it meant by that.

The federal department confirmed McKay and Eby discussed the LNG industry and other sectors during the premier’s visit to Japan. 

The federal department also said that Canada’s Trade Commissioner Service helps Canadian oil and gas companies “sell their products and services outside Canada.” 

“Promoting Canadian oil and gas solutions to enable the energy transition is a priority for the [Trade Commissioner Service], which leverages its global network of trade commissioners in over 160 cities worldwide to advance commercial interests,” the statement said.

Muttart, the senior vice-president at TC Energy, confirmed to the National Post that the company is “informing, educating and engaging with not just Canadian diplomats but other diplomats representing other countries.” 

TC Energy exec claims company saved billions after lobbying to be excluded from new climate rules

Saying the company achieved “remarkable results” in exerting its influence over the premier, Iliffe applauded a decision by the B.C. government to approve Cedar LNG, an Indigenous-owned gas liquefaction and export facility that will receive its supply from Coastal GasLink. He also referenced the government’s favourable statements about the proposed Ksi Lisims LNG facility, a Nisg̱a’a-led project currently undergoing environmental assessment.

“All of this effort is for naught if there isn’t Indigenous support or at least Indigenous non-objection,” he said. “A government of any stripe, in British Columbia particularly, is not going to push projects forward unless there’s Indigenous support.”

The NDP government’s endorsement of natural gas had already taken a significant step forward last year, when Premier Eby announced the decision to approve the Haisla-led Cedar LNG project. One the same day, the government said new regulations would require all new proposed LNG projects to have a credible path to achieve net-zero emissions by 2030. The rules would target facilities that liquefy methane-heavy natural gas, but pipelines — including those operated by TC Energy — were exempt. 

Smith said the new regulations were brought in “to ensure oil and gas sector projects fit within B.C.’s climate commitments and create new opportunities for people in clean energy and technology.” 

“This framework ensures some development can occur, while also ensuring we meet our climate goals,” Smith wrote in an emailed statement.

“We were able to cut ourselves out of that,” Iliffe claimed, saying the regulations’ exclusion of pipelines more than halved operating costs, which “saves TC and our partners and our customers billions of dollars over the operational lifetime of their projects.”

It wouldn’t be the first time TC Energy lobbied the government to water down emissions regulations. As The Narwhal previously reported, the fossil fuel company asked the federal government to exclude methane from its emissions cap.

But Iliffe said the company’s tactics go beyond lobbying elected officials. He claimed the company also works with “influential bureaucrats,” internal ministry staff who tend to keep their jobs when an elected government changes, to “make certain that our messaging and our advice is landing on their letterhead.”

“A really interesting thing about government is that you’ve got a lot of people, public servants, who are overworked and underpaid and sometimes they just want the job done for them,” he said. “We’ve had instances where we’ve been given opportunities to write entire briefing notes for ministers and premiers and prime ministers and it gets stuck on government letterhead and put into an envelope and into a briefing package that goes to that elected figure. There’s nothing more powerful than that.”

Robin Librach, a spokesperson with Natural Resources Canada, denied the allegations.

“Briefing notes for high-level political and public officials are developed by public servants,” Librach wrote in an emailed statement. “External stakeholders have no role in drafting briefing notes, and are not privy to them.”

Smith, with Premier Eby’s office, said the B.C. government reviewed Iliffe’s comments and “found no evidence that support his claims.” Smith called them “complete fabrications.”

“In fact, lengthy internal energy and climate policy development processes, cabinet decisions records and briefing note drafting protocols contradict his claims directly,” Smith wrote in an emailed statement.

Smith said public servants draft briefing notes from “extensive consultative work” that involves a wide variety of stakeholders. “This is done to provide the widest range and most accurate advice on the subject under consideration,” he wrote, adding senior government officials review drafts before briefing notes are shared with cabinet.

However, there are cases when industry views make it directly into government briefing notes. For example, in 2022, The Narwhal obtained documents through freedom of information legislation that showed how natural gas lobbyists discussed a landmark Supreme Court decision around Indigenous Rights with provincial public servants. After the court found B.C. guilty of infringing on Blueberry River First Nations Treaty Rights, lobbyists’ warnings about specific economic impacts were passed on to senior B.C. government officials, including the deputy minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation, without analysis or counter arguments.  

‘We’re not going anywhere’: TC Energy exec

After concluding his presentation, Iliffe opened up the call to questions and discussion. 

An unknown speaker asked Iliffe about the recently announced sale of the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline, noting some politicians and public servants in Ottawa are interpreting the deal as “TC Energy’s retreat from LNG.”

Iliffe responded by saying the response in British Columbia has been different.

“We have an advantage in B.C. in that we are pursuing aggressively CGL phase two and Cedar LNG,” he said, referring to Coastal GasLink’s approved expansion which would double the amount of gas it plans to start shipping this year.

“We have delivered a message that we aren’t going anywhere. We’re not going anywhere.”

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma has asked a provincial watchdog to look into a series of bold claims about how an executive at a Canadian oil and gas giant — and former BC NDP political staffer — claimed the company had leveraged political connections to persuade the provincial government to significantly weaken its environmental policies.

“We’ve been given opportunities to write entire briefing notes for ministers and premiers and prime ministers,” a TC Energy executive was recorded saying in a leaked tape from March 2024, adding that sometimes “overworked and underpaid” public servants “just want the job done for them.”

The executive in question is Liam Iliffe, a former senior advisor in the government of ex-premier John Horgan. Iliffe began lobbying for pipeline company TC Energy less than a year after leaving a senior strategic communications position in government, according to the pipeline company’s filings.

Iliffe and other TC Energy employees made numerous claims about how they had influenced the government during a “lunch and learn” session attended by about 150 people in March 2024.

The Narwhal reviewed about two hours of tape from the March call, as well as from a separate internal TC Energy call from February 2024, to report this story. During the course of this reporting, Iliffe informed The Narwhal on June 17 that he had resigned from the company.

“It would be remiss of me to suggest that anyone other than our elected representatives make decisions on behalf of British Columbians,” he wrote in an email. “I respect and treasure my relationships with past and present colleagues, partners and elected officials. Out of respect for those relationships, I have resigned effective immediately to avoid further distractions.”

Recorded TC exec takes credit for influencing climate views of B.C. premier

The recordings included references to how the company has worked to shift the views of B.C. Premier David Eby, who said in October 2022 that it was not possible to continue expanding fossil-fuel infrastructure and still meet climate goals.

This week Eby released a video endorsing the Cedar LNG project as a “shining example of how natural resource development should work with our province, in full partnership with First Nations, in line with our commitments to fight climate change.”

“Every time I have heard Premier Eby speak about Cedar LNG, he has celebrated its commitment to be net zero by 2030 and one of the lowest-emissions facility of its kind in the world,” Eby’s spokesperson Jimmy Smith said in an emailed statement.

The premier’s new video was featured as part of an industry news release about how the Cedar LNG project in B.C. is moving ahead. The release also included endorsements from TC Energy, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, other industry stakeholders and First Nations. Cedar LNG will receive its supply of natural gas from the Coastal GasLink pipeline, a TC Energy project.

“We’ve had some really remarkable results in terms of our message being repeated back to us by key decision-makers in government,” Iliffe said, during the leaked recording from March.

Iliffe also spoke on how TC Energy leverages relationships with ambassadors, Indigenous leaders and third parties as well as “influential bureaucrats” to support its lobbying for favourable changes to government policies, including the claim the company had the opportunity to draft entire briefing notes to be sent on government letterhead. The federal and provincial governments both denied the latter was true. Iliffe declined to go into specifics but told The Narwhal that not everything he told his colleagues during the March “lunch and learn” session was true.

In separate statements sent to The Narwhal, the B.C. government, TC Energy and Iliffe said the recordings included other claims that were not true, without identifying what those were.

In an emailed statement, Smith, Eby’s spokesperson, said “statements from Mr. Iliffe wherein he claims he has direct influence over government policy in any way are complete fabrications. For each ministry that Mr. Iliffe referred to in his comments or could have been in contact with him, senior political and public service staff were spoken to about these claims. No one could provide any evidence in support of his claims. Many provided examples of engagement with stakeholders at odds with Mr. Iliffe’s claims. Regardless, we have asked the registrar of lobbying to review the alleged conduct.”

TC exec’s past government role not disclosed, despite lobbying rules

Iliffe told The Narwhal he left his government position in May 2022, less than a year before David Eby succeeded Horgan as premier in the fall of 2022.

TC Energy filings with the provincial registrar of lobbying reveal that Iliffe was listed as a lobbyist as early as April 2023. However, the filings did not identify Iliffe as a former public office holder.

The filings indicate Iliffe lobbied various government officials 12 times, including at least five occasions in which he lobbied Premier Eby and his office directly, including a meeting involving TC Energy’s CEO, François Poirier. Illife lobbied the premier’s office as recently as May 29 of this year, more than two months after his March presentation.

Under B.C.’s Lobbying Transparency Act, former public office holders are required to identify themselves in their filings with the registrar.

“I am aware of the requirement, but TC Energy completed my registration on my behalf and I am only learning of the error today,” Iliffe told The Narwhal in an email.

TC Energy did not immediately respond to a question about whether it had made an error in its filings.

In some cases, former public servants also must avoid lobbying public officials for two years after leaving office, unless they get permission from the provincial registrar of lobbying. The registrar’s office declined to comment on whether it was investigating the matter.

Government officials were apparently unaware of TC Energy’s claims until prompted with questions sent by The Narwhal on June 13.

The government later shared a letter written by the B.C. attorney general with The Narwhal. The letter was sent by Sharma to the registrar of lobbying, Michael Harvey, on June 19. 

“We understand a representative of TC Energy Corporation has made statements claiming TC Energy Corporation or its representatives significantly influenced Government of British Columbia decisions through their lobbying activities,” Sharma, the B.C. attorney general, wrote in her letter to the registrar of lobbying. “We have conducted an internal review and believe that these statements are untrue.” 

Sharma said Iliffe’s claims could indicate “possible non-compliance with the Lobbyists Transparency Act.” She thanked Harvey for further looking into the matter.

Illife also described himself on the internal recording as a former chief of staff in Horgan’s office, but later told The Narwhal that he was a chief of staff to two ministers.

After this article was published, Smith, the spokesperson for Premier Eby, said Iliffe held six different positions in the provincial government between 2017 and 2022, working in two different advisory roles within the Ministry of Education, one role in the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Training as well as three other roles for a central government communications office. None of those positions were listed as a chief of staff, according to the premier’s office.

Iliffe later confirmed that the premier’s office had accurately listed his official former job titles, including as a senior ministerial assistant, but said that this title was equivalent to what is now known as a chief of staff.

TC Energy declines to say which claims in leaked recordings are true

One of Iliffe’s claims appeared to prompt laughter on the call as he discussed approaching a significant minister or bureaucrat he wanted to spend time with “next to the strawberries or the romaine lettuce” while at Costco.

“Some of the comments were made in the moment and the events and approaches I described did not actually occur,” he wrote in an email to The Narwhal.

When asked to comment on the recording, TC Energy initially told The Narwhal in a June 19 email that it had reviewed the presentation and comments made by a former employee, but the company did not elaborate on whether any of the comments were accurate.

“This individual is no longer with the company,” TC Energy said. “We apologize to the Government of British Columbia, Premier David Eby and all our partners, stakeholders and rightsholders for any impact on our valued, trusted and longstanding relationships.”

In response to follow-up questions, TC Energy provided a second statement on June 26 from its senior vice president of external relations, Patrick Muttart, that also said some statements on the call were untrue, without identifying which ones.

“We are disappointed recordings of internal [meetings], which included inaccurate comments from an employee that portray a false impression of how we do business, were released externally without authorization,” Muttart’s statement said.

As part of our reporting on this story, The Narwhal collaborated with the Guardian to verify whether the recordings were authentic, including an extensive review of lobbying filings and other public information.

The National Post also obtained a copy of the recordings and reported on them on June 26.

Updated June 26, 2024 at 3:51 p.m. PT: This article was updated to add additional statements from Liam Iliffe and Jimmy Smith about which roles Iliffe previously had in government.

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