The Suncor oilsands mine near Fort McMurray, Alberta, seen in a 24 September 2010, file photo. This area was boreal forest, before the mine destroyed it. Bruce Edwards, Edmonton Journal

By Mike De Souza, mdesouza@postmedia.com, Postmedia News
12 February 2012 OTTAWA – A taxpayer-funded pro-oil lobbying retreat, involving Canada’s European diplomats and industry, has urged the federal government to deliver real climate change solutions to restore the country’s sagging environmental reputation. The two-day retreat, held 1-2 February 2011 in London, England, concluded that Canada’s foreign diplomats don’t have enough resources to deliver on the federal government’s aggressive lobbying strategy to promote the oilsands and fight foreign climate change policies. But participants at the meeting, including bureaucrats who travelled from Canada, suggested lobbying is not the only answer. “There was a sense that the sooner the Canadian government is able to roll out information on anticipated new regulations on coal fired generation and the oil sands, the better able Canada will be to demonstrate that it is taking action,” wrote Sushma Gera, a trade adviser at the Canadian High Commission in London, in a widely-distributed e-mail that was released to Postmedia News through access to information legislation. Gera’s email summarized the February 2011 retreat which brought together Canadian diplomats from 13 different European offices, along with officials from other federal departments in Ottawa, industry representatives, and Ron Liepert who was Alberta’s energy minister at that time. […] “Two key messages from day one were: oil sands advocacy in Europe is now recognized as a priority for all concerned; and there is a clear need for regular in-house training to equip those of us on the ground with the expertise to deal with this highly technical file,” said the Feb. 22 email, sent to other diplomats and bureaucrats from Foreign Affairs, Environment Canada and Natural Resources Canada. The email said that James Wright, who was the Canadian high commissioner in London at that time, “stressed the significance and reputational aspect for Canada of the issue in Europe.” The department blacked out sections that described specific activities of its diplomats in engaging with environmental groups and the media to lobby on behalf of the oil and gas industry, arguing that this information can be withheld under access to information legislation. The legislation requires the federal government to release public records upon request to any Canadian who pays the $5 fee. […] A briefing note included in the package explained that the pro-oilsands lobbying team of Canadian government diplomats was created in October 2009 and launched in January 2010 to promote the oilsands across Europe. European officials have said the Canadians have been furiously lobbying to weaken proposed climate change legislation to reduce emissions from transportation fuels with high environmental footprints such as fuel derived from the oilsands. NDP environment critic Megan Leslie said the internal correspondence is troubling. “Canadians would be dismayed to find out that our inaction on climate is hurting our international reputation,” said Leslie. “I think they would also be dismayed to find out that our government has basically become a lobby machine for industry. … It’s really incredible to think that that’s what our tax dollars are going to.” The package released through the access to information request also included a controversial strategy document, previously released through a separate request by environmental groups, that revealed the government had divided “actors” on the oilsands file into groups of “allies” such as oil companies and “adversaries” such as environmental groups and First Nations in Canada. But the release to Postmedia News blacked out the section with this controversial information that the same department had already released. Officials from the department were not immediately able to explain why the two-related requests for access to information appear to have been treated differently. […]

Pro-oil lobby retreat urges feds to deliver climate-change solutions