Last year, Environmental Defence released a report on the fossil fuel industry’s relentless lobbying efforts throughout 2023—and wowza, the response was incredible. People were rightly outraged by Big Oil’s behind-the-scenes push to sway federal decision-making.
With corporate influence still threatening our democracy, we knew we had to act fast. So this year, we’re not just bringing you another report—we’re also breaking down some of the most common questions about lobbying and what it all means.
Without further ado, here are the top 5 things you need to know about fossil fuel lobbying—straight from our new report: Big Oil’s Lobbying Playbook: A Summary of the Fossil Fuel Industry’s 2024 Federal Lobbying.
- 1. The fossil fuel industry’s lobbying is relentless
Fossil fuel companies and their main industry associations had at least 1135 meetings with the federal government in 2024. That means Big Oil lobbied Parliament more than four times per working day!
Big Oil tries its hardest to influence ministries responsible for climate action. The federal ministries most frequently targeted by lobbyists were Natural Resources Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Privy Council Office and Finance Canada.
Environmental Defence just released a report on all the lobbying by Big Oil we tracked in 2024. You can get even more details on lobbying by reading it here.
- 2. Lobbying has an impact on government decisions, and it’s holding us back from climate solutions.
Government decisions and policies will determine if we can reduce climate pollution at the scale needed to stop climate change from getting worse. Big Oil has used lobbying for decades to block, weaken, or delay every major environmental policy in Canada. Big Oil lobbies the government to protect its private interests—extracting and profiting from fossil fuels. The industry advocates against regulations, policies or laws that would limit their pollution or potentially reduce their profits.
We cannot afford to have a government in the pocket of Big Oil that’s willing to roll back our environmental protections and the important progress we’ve made so far to tackle climate change at the fossil fuel industry’s request. We need government leadership to rein in the biggest polluters. Canadians deserve a government that will put people, including future generations, over polluters.
- 3. Lobbying is just one tactic in Big Oil’s playbook
Not only does the fossil fuel industry use lobbying to access and influence political decision-makers, but reports by investigative journalists show that lobbyists are using a whole slate of tactics to keep us dependent on their product and to block the transition away from fossil fuels to clean and renewable energy sources.
We have the right to democratic integrity, and climate policy that’s free from corporate influence.
- 4. The Lobbying we track is just the tip of the iceberg
Only meetings initiated by lobbyists are recorded in the federal Registry of Lobbyists, the system we use to track the fossil fuel lobbyists’ activity. This means government-initiated meetings go unreported, so the reality is that lobbyists have even more opportunities to assert their influence than what is captured by the number of meetings we can track.
- 5. We deserve a government that’s not in the pocket of Big Oil
We don’t need to look far to see how important it is to fight for integrity in our democratic institutions. The current U.S. President is clearly showing how destructive the self-interested influence of multi-millionaire CEOs and billion-dollar corporations can be. When the fossil fuel lobby comes knocking to roll back the regulations, just like they’ve done in the US with support from Trump, our government has to say “no!” – that in Canada, we value the environment. We care about passing down a world to our kids that we can be proud of.
We need to ensure that government decisions prioritize people and are free from corporate influence. Canadians deserve a government that prioritizes people over polluters.
