We haven't
owned our resource sector for some time, viz:
Posing as Canadian: How Big Foreign Oil captures Canadian energy and climate policy
Alberta’s recent public inquiry into “anti-Alberta energy campaigns” targeted a molehill and missed the Rockies. Tasked with investigating the vast sums that allegedly flowed from U.S. foundations to Canadian environmental groups, inquiry commissioner Steve Allan followed the trail of money and found a pittance.
Allan’s report identified between $2.21 to $3.46 million a year in “foreign funding directed to Alberta resource development opposition” – a drop in the bucket for the dozens of groups concerned. If, as Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage stated, the aim of the inquiry was to expose the influence of foreign actors over domestic policy, it missed the mark badly.
Right under its nose was a far larger source of outside money influencing Albertan and Canadian politics: Big Foreign Oil. Oil corporations in Alberta and Canada are overwhelmingly foreign-owned.
This report examines how Big Foreign Oil (BFO) hinders climate action in Canada by capturing and controlling the lion’s share of the industry, policy-making, and profits. BFO maintains and asserts much of its power through control over the apex oil and gas lobby group, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP). Through partially successful PR campaigns, CAPP has wrapped itself in the maple leaf and claimed to speak for Canada’s national interest. But as this report reveals, the Canadian-ness of Calgary’s oil patch is an inch deep:
• Of the 48 corporations on CAPP’s board, 30 were confirmed to be fully or majority foreign-owned, while seven more are very likely majority foreign-owned. Combined, that makes up 77 per cent of CAPP’s board.
• The overwhelming majority – about 97 per cent – of the oil produced by corporations on CAPP’s board in 2018 came from fully or majority foreign-owned corporations. Majority Canadian-owned corporations were responsible for less than three per cent of all oil production by corporations on CAPP’s board.
• Most of CAPP’s revenue comes from foreign-owned corporations because CAPP corporate membership fees are based on each member’s oil production. The greater the production, the higher the fees. Since 97 per cent of the oil produced by CAPP’s corporate board members comes from fully or majority foreign-owned corporations, their fees must account for about 97 per cent of CAPP’s revenue. For all its bravado as an independent, Canadian centre of oil and gas in the world, Calgary is in fact subordinate to Big Foreign Oil.