(Ottawa) NDP MP Charlie Angus will ask the Commons Standing Committee on Natural Resources to summon the president and CEO of oil sands giant Suncor when the House resumes work next week.
Mr. Angus believes Rich Kruger has a lot of explaining to do following his remarks to investors during a conference call a month ago.
Mr. Kruger, who took over as CEO of Suncor in April, said on August 15 that the company was paying “disproportionate” attention to the long-term energy transition to renewable and low-emission fuels.
He explained to investors that the company needed to review its strategic directions to focus on immediate good business in the oil sands.
Last year, before Mr. Kruger took over as CEO of Suncor, the company had already sold its solar and wind energy assets, and expanded its fossil fuel assets by purchasing a new oil sands mine.
Mr. Angus, who is the NDP’s natural resources critic, called Mr. Kruger’s comments “shocking” and “irresponsible.”
“Thousands of people were evacuated, millions of acres of forest were destroyed, large parts of North America were covered in toxic smoke, and while everyone was talking about the urgency of solving this problem, Mr. Kruger declared that the only urgency he saw was to earn as much money as possible,” explained Mr. Angus in an interview with The Canadian Press on Monday.
” To assume their responsibilities ”
The Ontario MP for Timmins–James Bay believes that Mr. Kruger must come and explain why great leaders “refuse to assume their responsibilities, or even to play a role that can reassure Canadians that they care about our best interests – or any of our interests.”
Mr. Angus will first have to place the motion on the agenda of the Standing Committee on Natural Resources, which has not yet set a date for its next meeting. The MP, who is a member of the committee, will then need the support of at least five other members for the motion to be adopted. In addition to Mr. Angus, the committee has six Liberal members, four Conservatives and one Bloc member.
Liberal committee member Julie Dabrusin said she needed to discuss the motion with her colleagues before deciding whether to support it, but she believes businesses need to show how they will make the fight against climate change a priority.
“The CEOs of Canada’s largest emitters must clearly explain how climate change is an economic and environmental priority, and clearly explain to Canadians the efforts they are making to decarbonize and meet the goals they have set for themselves,” she said in a written statement.
The Minister of the Environment, Steven Guilbeault, does not sit on the committee, but he has already publicly criticized Mr. Kruger’s comments.
In an interview with The Canadian Press during the Liberal cabinet retreat last month in Charlottetown, Mr. Guilbeault believed that the withdrawal of a tar sands company from investments in “clean energy” vividly illustrated why the government must regulate emissions from this industry.
“If I was already convinced that it was necessary to regulate, I am even more so now,” he said on August 22, a week after Mr. Kruger’s remarks.
Ceilings planned soon
Minister Guilbeault is expected to publish draft regulations later this fall that will impose a cap on its greenhouse gas emissions on the oil and gas industry, a cap that will be lowered gradually over time. Companies that exceed this cap would be exposed to financial sanctions, such as the obligation to purchase “carbon credits” from other companies that have reduced their emissions below the cap.
The government has not yet specified where this cap will be set, but the federal plan targets a reduction of around 40% in emissions from oil and gas production by 2030.
The New Pathways Alliance, a consortium of oil sands companies working together to develop carbon capture and storage technology, believes this federal target is unrealistic.
Oil and gas contributed 28% of Canada’s total emissions in 2021, and the oil sands alone account for almost half, at 13%.
Suncor contributed 2.5% to the national balance sheet. Suncor’s emissions in 2021 were 50% higher than they were 10 years earlier, while Canada’s total emissions decreased by 6% from 10 years ago.
Suncor is part of the “New Pathways Alliance” and Mr. Kruger said Suncor remains committed to this carbon capture project.