The elected Liberals voted Monday for a motion that asks their own government to stop investing in fossil fuels, after a year of increased direct funding for the oil and natural gas sector.
” [Il faut] that all subsidies, all financial assistance, whether in tax credits, subsidies or other to the oil companies, cease. We have to stop funding these people, ”said Bloc Québécois parliamentary leader Alain Therrien, shortly before a sealed vote of 210 votes in favor and 115 against.
Only the Conservatives opposed the text of the motion by the leader of the Bloc, Yves-François Blanchet, which demands in particular “that the federal government stop investing in fossil fuels”, in the context of an acceleration in the frequency of Forest fires.
This vote comes less than three weeks after the release of the annual report of Export Development Canada (EDC), which shows an increase in its direct financing to companies in the oil and gas sector.
In total, the value of fossil fuel “facilitated activities” nearly doubled in a single year, from $4.4 billion in 2021 to $8.7 billion in 2022, mostly for loans and insurance. However, EDC does not feel concerned by the Parliamentarians’ request, for definitional reasons, judging “does not agree[er] no subsidy.
Definition debate
The federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, also agrees with this reading. “The services offered [par EDC] are on commercial terms,” says its press secretary, Kaitlin Power, who adds that the minister has no role to play in setting EDC’s priorities.
Instead, that responsibility falls to Mary Ng, Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development. Her office declined to say whether the minister agrees with EDC’s increased funding to the oil and natural gas sector.
“We are making clear strides towards a green economy powered by clean energy that supports good, sustainable jobs and a healthy planet,” reads a statement in English sent to the Duty.
In fact, several experts and environmental activists argue that the aid provided by EDC counts as grants, at least in part, heard from a parliamentary committee looking into the matter. This is also the opinion of Julia Levin, associate director of Environmental Defense Canada.
“It is internationally recognized that the definition of a grant includes loans, loan guarantees, risk transfers […]. EDC aid should be considered as subsidies,” she said in an interview.
green oil
The federal government must also table an “evaluation framework” in the coming weeks to decide between “effective” subsidies and those that are “inefficient”, in order to fulfill its promise to get rid of the latter for fossil resources. However, the Bloc Québécois indicated on Monday that the spirit of its motion should be understood as a negation of the idea that there could be a “green oil” that it would be appropriate to subsidize.
In December 2022, the federal government asked EDC to cut its support for international oil and gas operations. For its operations in Canada, however, it is only asked to eliminate “support for new projects in the fossil fuel sector, in accordance with climate objectives [du] country “.
On the strength of this directive, Export Development Canada has instead seen emissions related to its activities explode between 2021 and 2022, from 811 tonnes of CO equivalent2 to 1321 in a single year, reads its annual report entitled: “A better world through trade”.
During the last federal election campaign, in 2021, The duty revealed that EDC provided more aid to the oil and gas industry, on average, during the years in power of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party than under Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.