Big Oil’s inside track in Ottawa spelled out in black and white
rbarnes
Posted On February 25, 2014
By PressProgress
Wouldn’t it be nice to be given copies of early drafts of government plans to provide edits and feedback?
Internal documents from Natural Resources Canada, released to PressProgress under access to information, show that’s the kind of access the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) enjoys.
Last July was a particularly active one, the records show.
In one email exchange between NRCan’s Major Projects Management Office and CAPP on July 24 and 25, 2013, the industry group representing the country’s largest oil companies said proposed edits on a draft document were coming.
“We have lots of details in our track changes, but overall we think it is too wordy and not clear,” the policy analyst at CAPP wrote.
“Agreed, but it’s as much a policy clarifying document (for all parties) as it is guidance, per se… but certainly happy to clarify/clean it up where there is space to do so!,” replied the senior policy advisor at NRCan.
In a separate exchange that same month, the government official wrote to CAPP and the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association (CEPA) just before flying from Ottawa to Calgary to brief the two lobby groups in person on July 10 about an “early” draft of a plan.
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