When Prime Minister Mark Carney met with oil and gas executives in June, he touted “partnerships” to make Canada an “energy superpower,” but disclosure reports show industry leaders had something else in their crosshairs: the federal climate plan.
On that day, and throughout the two months on either side of it, the oil and gas industry lobbied Carney and his ministers not only on economic issues, like U.S. tariffs — but also on several of former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s climate policies in the Emissions Reduction Plan, according to The Narwhal’s review of lobbying activity disclosures.
These include: the clean fuel regulations, passed in 2022, which require oil and gas companies to slash the amount of carbon pollution they generate as a byproduct of producing fuel; the clean electricity regulations, put in place at the end of 2024 to achieve a net-zero power grid; the 2018 rules for methane, the main component of natural gas and a potent heat-trapping compound; and the proposed oil and gas emissions cap, the draft rules for which were released last year.
The filings on the federal lobbying commissioner’s website don’t show whether companies are for or against policies when they lobby. The Narwhal reached out to all the oil and gas companies and industry organizations that filed disclosure reports during the time period studied to ask what policy changes they wanted to see.
Pipeline company Enbridge, which lobbied Carney over both the clean fuel and clean electricity rules, responded that the firm believes it’s “important to keep governments at all levels informed about our business and operations.”
The company regularly engages with government and elected officials on “a variety of topics,” spokesperson Jesse Semko said, including oil and gas, renewables and emissions policy. Semko said Enbridge respects and follows transparency rules. Other oil and gas organizations did not respond to The Narwhal’s queries.
Alex Cool-Fergus, national policy manager at Climate Action Network Canada, a non-governmental organization which has been tracking the implementation of Trudeau’s climate plan, said public commentary from the industry suggests it’s not particularly interested in trying to improve the climate plan.
“These are long-standing demands from these various industries: ‘Get rid of these things, we don’t want to be a part of this,’ ” Cool-Fergus said.
“I think it’s important that these policies are not just based on who has the money to get the lobbyists, but really based on what, ultimately, is going to make Canadians safer and healthier.”
The oil and gas industry’s lobbying on Canada’s climate plan
Elements of the Emissions Reduction Plan that oil and gas industry representatives lobbied on during May and June 2025, according to federal disclosure records reviewed by The Narwhal.
Clean fuel regulations
Suncor Energy
Enbridge
Shell Canada
Canadian Natural Resources Limited
Cenovus Energy
Methane regulations
MEG Energy
Tourmaline Oil
Enbridge
Canadian Natural Resources Limited
Cenovus Energy
Carbon capture, utilization and storage
MEG Energy
Shell Canada
Pathways Alliance
Enbridge
Cenovus Energy
Hydrogen strategy
Suncor Energy
Shell Canada
Enbridge
TC Energy
Carbon pricing
Enbridge
Cenovus Energy
Imperial Oil
Suncor Energy
Net-zero emissions
Suncor Energy
Canadian Natural Resources Limited
Cenovus Energy
Emissions cap
TC Energy
Tourmaline Oil
Imperial Oil
Clean Growth Program
Clean electricity regulations
Aside from the consumer-focused side of the federal carbon pricing regime, which was removed by Carney effective April 1, and some programs that have run their course, many elements of the climate plan remain in place under his government.
The plan, legally required under Canada’s net-zero law, was published in 2022 and called for a “cap and cut” on greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas sector, in order to get the country to net-zero emissions by 2050.
The Carney government is preparing to “provide an update” to the federal climate plan, “taking into account the evolving global and economic context,” Keean Nembhard, a spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Minister Julie Dabrusin, said in response to The Narwhal’s questions.
Nembhard said the government would provide an update to the climate plan “by the end of the year” but did not say what that would involve.
“Canada continues to work towards its 2030 targets, and we’re committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 — not just because it’s essential for the climate, but because we cannot ignore the reality at home,” he said.
“Canada is warming at twice the global average and up to three times faster in the North. Building climate resilience and meeting our targets is economically smart, fiscally responsible and essential to protecting Canadians and the places they call home.”
Oil and gas lobbying on rules for cleaner fuels, electricity, methane
The climate plan pays particular attention to the oil and gas sector because it’s the single largest industrial contributor to the country’s carbon pollution.
In 2023, the most recent year of available data, the industry accounted for almost one-third of all national emissions. Oil and gas emissions have also surged 77 per cent since 1990, mainly due to massive oilsands expansion.
Emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are driving climate change, which is making extreme weather and air quality worse in Canada and around the world. Federal climate scientists said 37 extreme heat events in Canada last year were exacerbated because of human-caused climate change.
“If you speak to your average person who has experienced the incredibly horrific events of the past couple of months, in terms of wildfires and heat waves and air pollution, they want to see action,” Cool-Fergus said.
The lobbying comes in the wake of a public push by fossil fuel organizations this year to see the federal government knock down key Trudeau-era environmental policies, noted Keith Stewart, senior energy strategist at Greenpeace Canada.
The industry has portrayed this push as a prudent response to the country’s changing relationship with the United States, including tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration is trying to sweep away most U.S. climate regulations.
In February, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the country’s largest oil and gas lobby group, called on the federal government to relinquish control of “any emissions reductions policies” to the provinces, arguing this would help keep energy “affordable and competitive.”
That was followed by an open letter in March titled “Build Canada Now” written by 14 oil and gas companies, including many large oilsands firms, asking party leaders to commit to killing federal carbon pricing and the proposed emissions cap in order for Canada to “defend its sovereignty.”
“Canadian oil lobbyists have been remarkably, and appallingly, consistent in demanding that the government of Canada follow Donald Trump’s lead and eliminate federal climate policy in favour of boosting fossil fuels,” Stewart said.
Records show three oil and gas companies lobbied the Carney government concerning Canada‘s proposed emissions cap in recent months. One of those companies was Imperial Oil, whose Strathcona oil refinery is seen here in 2022. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal
At the June 1 meeting, Carney sat down with executives from many of the companies that had written to him in the open letter to discuss their demands in person. The conversation had been framed days earlier by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith as revolving around building new pipelines.
But the disclosure reports for that day, from organizations whose executives were present at that closed-door “energy roundtable” in Calgary, show lobbying on a range of long-established climate rules, funds and programs.
Oilsands company MEG Energy, for example, disclosed that it lobbied Carney on June 1 over two funds that date back to 2017, a $600-million competition for low-carbon projects called the Low Carbon Economy Challenge and a $155-million fund for clean technology research called the Clean Growth Program. Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson, who was also present at the meeting with Carney, is a former board member for MEG Energy.
Along with MEG Energy, the oilsands companies Suncor Energy, Cenovus Energy and Canadian Natural Resources were also participants in the Clean Growth Program. These companies are also all part of the Pathways Alliance lobby group, which wants government funding and favourable regulations to help build a carbon-capture megaproject in the oilpatch.
The Pathways Alliance disclosed that it lobbied the prime minister on “potential collaboration between industry and government” on emissions and carbon capture. The alliance has previously asked the government to delay and weaken the emissions cap and to avoid a federal environmental assessment.
Imperial Oil, another member of the oilsands alliance, said it lobbied Carney on “the global competitiveness of the energy sector.” All of those companies signed the open letter calling for federal carbon pricing and plans for the emissions cap to be abandoned.
Enbridge and Suncor Energy lobbied Carney on the clean fuel regulations, records show. Suncor operates refineries, some of which produce gasoline or diesel, and also sells fuel to consumers under its Petro-Canada brand, while Enbridge operates gas distribution businesses, including a near-monopoly in Ontario.
The clean fuel rules are meant to reduce the energy that goes into making fuel: gasoline produced from the oilsands, for example, would typically begin its life as the sticky tar-like substance bitumen, before being upgraded into synthetic crude oil, then run through a refinery, all of which takes energy. The Pembina Institute has said the clean fuel regulations could cut more than 200 million tonnes of greenhouse gases by 2040.
More than half of oil and gas lobbying records show climate plan communications
A majority of the lobbying disclosures from oil and gas companies that The Narwhal reviewed during the period of May and June involved some kind of messaging about the Emissions Reduction Plan or its components.
An executive from Shell Canada, which runs refineries and petrochemical plants across the country and owns a portion of the LNG Canada terminal in Kitimat, B.C., lobbied on the Clean Fuels Fund during the day of Carney’s meeting, and then the company raised the topic again when lobbying a senior public servant a couple weeks later.
Enbridge lobbied on the clean electricity regulations on June 1, and then the company brought up that topic three more times with officials in the Finance, Environment and Natural Resources departments, records show.
One of several topics oil and gas companies lobbied on in May and June 2025 was carbon capture, utilization and storage technology, as is proposed by the Pathways alliance, a group of oilsands producers. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal
Enbridge also disclosed it lobbied the prime minister on Canada’s regulations on methane. Years of scientific studies have shown methane from oil and gas production has been severely underestimated in Canada.
Tourmaline Oil, a large natural gas producer that runs fracking operations, disclosed it had lobbied Carney on the subject of the Emissions Reduction Plan itself, and the proposed emissions cap. The company filed five lobbying records in June showing it planned to raise the topic of the emissions cap and the climate plan with a range of officials in Environment and Climate Change Canada and Natural Resources Canada.
Other topics the oil and gas companies lobbied on during the May-June period include carbon capture, utilization and storage technology, like Pathways Alliance is proposing, as well as hydrogen fuel, carbon pricing and Canada’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.
Sometimes the subject matter listed in lobbying records are vague. A lobbyist representing pipeline company TC Energy, for example, lobbied on May 23 about “federal emissions policy” without specifying which ones. Companies can also lobby via consulting firms, and larger companies might use both consultants and in-house lobbyists to communicate the same message.
As well, lobbying records only show the date of the communication, the organization doing the lobbying, the person or people being lobbied and the subject matter, and not other information like whether the lobbying occurred in person.
Updated on Aug. 27, 2025, at 9:59 a.m. ET : This story has been updated to include information Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin’s office provided after publication about when the government planned to update the Emissions Reduction Plan.
