Some Albertans were caught off guard on Friday following Vancouver city council’s decision to allocate up to $660,000 toward a lawsuit against five major oil companies.
“They’re not likely to be super successful, given that they themselves are customers,” Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley said at a news conference in Calgary. “You need to come to these kinds of things with clean hands, and folks who rely on oil and gas… are not necessarily in a position to do that type of thing.”
The movement, spearheaded by the ‘Sue Big Oil‘ campaign and West Coast Environmental Law, works by getting local governments to jointly launch a class action lawsuit against oil companies in order to pay for costs associated with climate change.
“Wildfires, flooding and heat waves have shown us that BC communities face millions, and collectively, billions, of dollars of costs to prepare for and recover from events made worse by climate change,” its website reads. “Fossil fuel companies… have known for decades that their products cause this type of harm.”
In Vancouver, the money would include paying for things such as repairs to the city’s seawall and extreme heat protections.
“I believe we might be the first but there are other municipalities that have indicated interest in this,” said Vancouver city councillor Adriane Carr. “It’s clear Vancouver would not be alone.”
However, some critics believe there’s another way to fight climate change that doesn’t also include going to battle with Canadian oil companies.
“We should be moving to wind and solar and hydrogen and all those things,” said Richard Masson, an executive fellow with the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy. “But in the short term, there is going to be a bigger need for Canada to deliver natural gas and oil to a very thirsty world.”
“I think the oil and gas industry and the hydrocarbon industry, in general, has aligned around the net-zero by 2050 objective,” Masson explained. “That’s where we should be working together. How do we get there?”
The City of Calgary is among those working toward that goal.
Earlier this month, Calgary councillors voted in favour of updating the city’s climate plan, replacing its previous strategy that’s been in place since 2018.
The 99-page document titled Pathways to 2050 includes a mitigation plan to reduce emissions and an adaptation plan to help with the city’s resilience against more damaging weather events, like the June 2020 hailstorm.
“If Vancouver city council has made a decision that is in absence of speaking with the energy sector, that would surprise me,” Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek said. “I would hope we have all begun to understand how important it is for the public and private sector to work together.”
Meanwhile, Vancouver’s decision isn’t final and will need to be voted on again by a new council following a municipal election expected in October.
-With files from Adam MacVicar & Keith Baldrey
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