STIRLING: Influence without accountability... Why do we listen to these people?

Alberta and Saskatchewan were blind-sided by Minister Guilbeault’s public announcement from COP 28 that he was imposing a cap on oil and gas emissions. Normally such matters between governments are first worked out in discussion between the provinces and the federal government and with consultation from industry.Now industry and the provinces are scrambling to respond by submitting responses for consultation.They needn’t bother, in my opinion. The Government of Canada listens to other voices.The Trottier Family Foundation, for example, — a charity — lays out its role in an astounding article titled: Good COP, Bad COP — The Role of Philanthropy at COP28. “COP” — Conference of the Parties which are signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) declaration of 1992 are supposed to be about countries making policy to cut industrial emissions and thus not change the atmospheric concentrations of gasses, so as to prevent ‘dangerous’ global warming. But, the Trottier Family Foundation never signed the UNFCCC. Canada did.By contrast, according to the Canada Revenue Agency, which is in charge of tax-subsidized charities and foundations, charities must provide a ‘net public benefit,’ the nature of which must be local, measurable and tangible. One simple (made up) example would be that of the Halifax Food Bank, serving 'X' number of hampers to 'X' number of Haligonians over the course of a year. That’s charitable activity.Back in 2021, an organizing group called 'Philanthropy for Climate' decided to pull together the big philanthropies (many of whom were already generously funding various Environmental Non-governmental Organizations (ENGOs)) to make climate change their common cause. Friends of Science Society issued an open letter to the CRA objecting to this move.Climate change is not a ‘charitable’ activity under CRA definition. It is not a local, measurable or tangible endeavor; and if the activities of such groups are changing public policies, they are doing so in a manner with undue influence outside the democratic process.These foundations and ENGOs are unelected and unaccountable; many are working with transnational connections. Trottier Family Foundation proudly boasts that they “collaborated with other funders and networks like Bloomberg, the Open Society Foundation, C40 Cities, ClimateWorks, WINGS and the Canadian Philanthropy Commitment on Climate Change.”.The Trottier Family Foundation-promoted idea of a cap on emissions was a hit! A ballcap. Get it? With “emissions” written on it. “We were there with our “emissions caps”— baseball caps to show support for Canada’s announcement of an oil and gas emissions cap framework.”Trottier Family Foundation, being based in Quebec, has the Quebec government all on board with their participation in “Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance”… “which our foundation started planning a new initiative on expanding BOGA membership to new Canadian provinces.” BOGA plans to phase out oil and gas. Period.Trottier Family Foundation also brags that they “promoted climate finance by hosting a panel with Senator Rosa Galvez, Ben Caldecott and Catherine McKenna on how Canada can become a leader in this space.” Senator Galvez is the sponsor of Bill S-243 which, if passed, will destroy any emissions-intensive industry’s options for financing or insurance, and which will install by diktat a ‘climate expert’ (read…graduate of an ENGO) on the board of corporations. Likewise, no person who has worked in conventional oil and gas in the past five years would be able to meet the convoluted 'climate alignment' requirements outlined in Section 13, 1 (c) to be permitted to serve on a board.In fact, some commentators seem to think Trottier Family Foundation-funded folks simply wrote that legislation up for Senator Galvez and all the green vested interests are cheering it on.This is how Ayn Rand described life toward the end of then fictional book Atlas Shrugged. People who don’t know how to make things work installed in positions of authority over complex things that need experts, not ideologues. Expect societal collapse.Massive foundations like TIDES/MakeWay, Trottier Family Foundation, McConnell, Ivey Foundations, to name some of the biggies have combined financial strength of billions of dollars. They have an army of ardent climate activist foot-soldiers, they have dozens of registered lobbyists and as Trottier Family Foundation reports, they are chums with senior decision makers!Not only did Trottier Family Foundation attend COP 28, but they brag that: “Additionally, the Trottier Family Foundation was funding the bulk of Canadian ENGOs attending COP and it was inspiring to see the dedication and hard work of these climate leaders, especially from women and Indigenous folks.”According to the CRA:"The 'benefit' aspect of the test concerns whether the charitable purpose under consideration is directed towards achieving a universal good that is not harmful to the public — a socially useful endeavour. The 'public' aspect involves an examination of who constitutes the 'public.' This notion of public benefit has also been called the 'public character' of charity, in that it "seeks the welfare of the public; it is not concerned with the conferment of private advantage."Personally, I can’t see how the ENGO climate activist community serves any net public benefit when they are putting people out of work, destroying investment, skewing markets for green billionaire interests and carbon markets, while operating in a private circle outside the norms of democratic process.So, until this nonsense stops, it's hard to see how following due process in consultation by industry and the provinces will have any constructive impact on the emissions cap at all.Michelle Stirling is the Communications Manager for Friends of Science Society.

STIRLING: Influence without accountability... Why do we listen to these people?

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