Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information request show the former BC Liberals wrote the province's Climate Leadership Plan with direct involvement from the oil industry. The documents were uncovered through a Freedom of Information request by the BC Branch of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Associate Director Shannon Daub says the documents reveal secret meetings between BC government officials and a who's who of the oil industry held in the Calgary boardroom of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers -- the most-powerful fossil fuel lobby group in the country:
"And what the documents show is that the meetings that were launched that day, and carried on over a period of 3 months, really constituted an invitation to industry to shape both the substance and language of BC's climate plan."
Documents show over 2 dozen representatives from at least 16 oil and gas corporations and industry groups attended the meetings. Attendees included he BC LNG Alliance (also a member of the government-appointed Climate Leadership Team), Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Encana, Imperial Oil, Nexen/CNOOC, Progress Energy (a wholly owned subsidiary of Malaysian state-owned Petronas), Shell Canada, Suncor, Teck, Woodfibre Energy, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and others.
Daub says it amounts to inviting the fox to guard the chicken coop. She calls it a stunning abuse of public trust, and notes the meetings allowed a top contributor of the BC Liberals to shape policy and regulations of that industry's activities.