Major Canadian environmental organizations, as well as an assortment of civil society organizations with considerable stakes in the fight against climate change, are using the services of lobbyists who also represent some of Canada’s biggest polluters.

This, according to a groundbreaking new report published by FMinus, an American accountability monitor that tracks lobby groups that count environmental organizations as much as major polluters among their clients. The report was prepared in conjunction with Environmental Defence, Canada’s leading environmental advocacy organization, and re•generation, a youth climate advocacy organization focused on accelerating the transition to a clean economy. 

“As the climate crisis gets worse for Canadians, there’s a hidden cause,” James Browning, founder and executive director of FMinus, said in an interview with DeSmog. “The fact is that lobbyists trying to help groups cope with climate change are actually working for some of Canada’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters.”

This conflict of interest is possible because of Canada’s disclosure laws. According to the report, Canada’s Lobbying Act does not require lobbyists to disclose compensation received from clients. 

The act does insist lobbyists disclose “particulars to identify any relevant legislative proposal, Bill, resolution, regulation, policy, program, grant, contribution, financial benefit or contract.” However, Canada’s near non-existent enforcement of the provision permits fossil-fuel and other lobbyists to avoid references to bill numbers in their monthly disclosures. 

“Disclosure of positions taken on bills or the substance of amendments is also not required,” the report says.

Browning adds that while this problem isn’t uncommon in many other countries, including those of the European Union as well as the United States, “it’s especially bad in Canada because the lobbying disclosure system is so weak.”

“Really, the point of the report is that Canada has a lobbying disclosure crisis on top of the climate crisis,” Browning said.
 
In total, the report found 282 civil society organizations, including 100 nonprofits that have activities that are either directly impacted by climate change — such as conservation groups — and/or have clearly articulated climate change goals, who use the services of lobbying firms that also count major polluters from Canada’s oil and gas sector among their clients. This includes nine conservation organizations and six environmental organizations.

As an example, Crestview Strategy, which lobbies for several fossil fuel companies — including Equinor and Capital Power — currently or recently simultaneously lobbied on behalf of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA), and the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP). All three of these organizations have worked on issues around the negative health impacts of disasters caused or exacerbated by climate change.

Crestview Keeps Canada Dependent on Oil and Gas

According to the report, the CMA has issued statements in recent years identifying the link between wildfire smoke and asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and anxiety and depression. Crestview Strategies, which represents the CMA, also lobbies on behalf of Equinor, the 11th largest oil and gas company in the world, as well as Tourmaline, Canada’s largest gas producer, with over 300 fracking wells.  

“Crestview represents some of the biggest oil and gas companies in Canada. It’s a big reason for Canada’s continuing dependence on oil and gas,” Browning said. 

“But what’s really outrageous is that Crestview also lobbies for groups like the Canadian Medical Association who say things like ‘the climate crisis is a health crisis.’”

Browning indicated that, according to Crestview’s disclosures, they take pro-climate positions for the Canadian Medical Association. 

This means “they’re getting paid by the companies who are causing the climate crisis, but then they’re also getting paid by the Canadian Medical Association, which is trying to deal with all of the terrible health impacts from the crisis,” Browning said. 

“I mean, it’s just so profoundly unethical,” Browning added, describing the situation as a “huge win” for Crestview.
 
 “If they face criticism for representing companies like Equinor, they have this cloak of respectability and they can say ‘Yes, of course, but we also work for the Canadian Medical Association, or the Ontario Hospital Association, and we’re trying to deal with some of those health impacts.’”
 
In response to a request for comment on this conflict of interest, CMA president Dr. Margot Burnell sent DeSmog a statement that read, in part, “The CMA is supportive of efforts to increase transparency among lobbying firms. While Crestview Strategy has at times provided the CMA with analysis and monitoring of government legislation, it’s important to note that all government-facing meetings are managed by CMA representatives, whether elected representatives or staff.”
 
DeSmog did not receive replies from Crestview, the OHA, or HOOPP.
 
In addition to the apparent conflict of interest between Crestview’s fossil fuel clients and those in healthcare, Crestview provides the link between Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre to Canada’s oil and gas industry, namely through two of Poilievre’s campaign insiders — Ginny Roth, and Anthony Matar. Roth served as director of communications on Poilievre’s CPC leadership campaign, while Matar is a member of the CPC’s National Council. Roth is a partner at Crestview, while Matar is a consultant.

The report also highlights another major Canadian lobbying company — StrategyCorp — which counts among its clients Pathways Alliance, a consortium of six major Canadian oil companies involved in tar sands production. The report reveals that StrategyCorp also represents the Nature Conservancy of Canada — which promotes conservation efforts throughout Canada — as well as Second Harvest, described as “Canada’s largest nonprofit focused on food insecurity and the climate impacts of food waste, such as methane emissions.”

StrategyCorp’s Links to Poilievre

Like Crestview, StrategyCorp is also tied to Poilievre through Stephen Barber, who was part of Poilievre’s inner circle during the 2025 election campaign, owing to Barber’s position as President of the Conservative Party of Canada’s National Council. Barber is vice president of StrategyCorp’s Western Canada region. He is listed on StrategyCorp’s website as a volunteering as President of the Conservative Party of Canada.

Allyson Grant, a director with StrategyCorp, was previously Government Relations and Indigenous Affairs advisor at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP). As previously reported by DeSmog, CAPP has made exceptionally misleading public statements about the Canadian oil industry, including that Canada had increased oil production without increasing emissions. It was later determined that CAPP simply wasn’t including emissions data from the tar sands companies represented by Pathways Alliance. DeSmog also reported that CAPP was leading the fight against the Canadian government’s anti-greenwashing laws.

“There is a revolving door in Canada between powerful lobbying firms, federal political parties, and the fossil fuel industry,” Gareth Gransaull, co-executive director of re•generation, said in a statement to DeSmog. 

“This creates a complex web of potential lobbying conflicts of interest, and due to Canada’s poor disclosure rules, clients are often kept in the dark,” Gransaull said. “Public officeholders should not be ‘pay to access’ for powerful corporations, and should instead focus on serving the best interests of their constituents and the Canadian public, which includes acting on climate change.” 

StrategyCorp also employs senior advisors to Liberal Party leader and current prime minister Mark Carney. The firm’s vice president, Andrew Steele, held the role of Senior Issues management advisor for Carney’s successful 2025 federal election campaign, and had previously held environment portfolios in the government of Ontario.

“In Canada, all lobbying activities at the provincial and federal level are subject to regulation, which includes public disclosure,” John Perenack, a principal with StrategyCorp, said in a statement to DeSmog. “StrategyCorp operates in compliance with this framework and has a detailed compliance process where all our registrable lobbying activity is appropriately registered and searchable with applicable public government lobbyist registries. Our process also includes a conflict of interest management process to prevent conflicts and promote the highest standards of integrity and ethics among our people and within our firm.”
 
Perenack did not respond to questions about whether StrategyCorp had specifically mentioned its lobbying on behalf of Pathways Alliance to the Nature Conservancy of Canada, or Second Harvest. DeSmog reached out to those organizations but did not receive a reply.

Earnscliffe Strategy Lobbying

The report also reveals that Ecotrust Canada, Nature United, and the Canadian Red Cross have all used the services of Earnscliffe Strategy, a lobbying firm that also represents ConocoPhillips Canada. ConocoPhillips produces oil in the Athabasca tar sands, fracks for gas in British Columbia’s Montney Formation, and has also been involved in exploratory oil drilling off the coast of Newfoundland. 

Ecotrust Canada promotes conservation-conscious economic activity and works with climate-impacted Indigenous communities in British Columbia.

Nature United is a conservation group that has lobbied the federal government to support Indigenous conservation efforts and sustainable agriculture. The Canadian Red Cross recognizes the role climate change plays in exacerbating humanitarian crises, “many of which are driven by climate change-related extreme weather events.” 

“Remarkably, Earnscliffe’s paid work for ConocoPhillips Canada is exacerbating problems that the Canadian Red Cross is then paying Earnscliffe to solve,” the report states.

Browning notes that Nature United was Earnscliffe’s client from 2021 through June of 2025. 

In a statement to DeSmog, Leianne Musselman of the Canadian Red Cross’s media relations team said: “Earnscliffe is currently on contract with us. The Canadian Red Cross primarily uses their consultant services to help with research, monitoring, analysis, and advice on government relations to help further our humanitarian mission.”

The statement went on to say that the firm’s other contracts may not be monitored and it has no knowledge of their client list. “Contracts held with Canadian Red Cross are reviewed on a regular basis,” it continued. “The information you have provided will be taken into consideration.”

In response to a request for comment, Jacqueline Nunes, Nature United’s director of communications & marketing, said in a statement: “Nature United no longer works with Earnscliffe. While we don’t comment on the specifics of past vendor relationships, our decision to move on was based on a reassessment of our strategic needs and priorities.” 

When reached for comment, Shannon Lough, senior manager of communications and engagementwith Ecotrust Canada, said the company “has engaged Earnscliffe’s expertise in national fisheries policy to support our efforts at creating more fair and equitable fishery licensing regulations for Canada’s west coast.”

Lough continued, “We were not previously aware of Earnscliffe’s work with ConocoPhillips Canada and we are reviewing this information. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.”

DeSmog reached out to Earnscliffe but did not hear back by press time.

According to Browning, it isn’t clear whether most of these organizations are even aware they’re using the services of firms that actively lobby on behalf of some of Canada’s biggest polluters.

“While I haven’t talked to the Canadian Medical Association, in our experience, big groups like that, either they know and they’ve decided to have this relationship for the sake of the access and influence or they’ve just failed to check their lobbying firms’ other clients,” Browning said. “It can be a very intimidating thing for any organization to try to navigate Parliament or any other level of government.”

Browning also notes that some organizations may be relying on the lobbying firms to inform them of potential conflicts of interest, and may even be unaware that lobbyists are under no obligation to disclose this information.

“Until 2023 there was at least a provision that firms needed to inform their clients if there was a conflict, but then, even that was stripped out,” Browning said in reference to the former Lobbyists’ Code. Canada’s Lobbying Act provides a legal framework for registering lobbying activities in Canada, while the Lobbyists’ Code provides ethical guidelines for lobbyists’ conduct.

From December 2015 through June of 2023, Canada’s Lobbyists’ Code dictated that “lobbyists shall not represent conflicting or competing interests without the informed consent of those whose interests are involved.”

Canada’s Lobbying Leader Loosened Safeguards

According to Duff Conacher of government accountability watchdog group Democracy Watch, Canada’s Commissioner of Lobbying bowed to pressure exerted by powerful lobbyists. “Politicians from all federal political parties approved, removing from the Lobbyists’ Code many of the most important safeguards against unethical lobbying, including the requirement to inform clients of potential conflicts with a firm’s other clients,” he said in the report.

Browning notes that some examples of the apparent conflicts of interest are remarkable. For example, Crestview lobbies on behalf of the Rural Municipalities of Alberta to develop climate-resilient infrastructure in that province. Meanwhile, it simultaneously lobbies on behalf of the fossil fuel companies that not only contribute to the growing threat of floods and wildfires threatening those communities, but that also haven’t paid their back taxes, an amount believed to be $253.9 million CAD as of the end of 2024.

As the report notes, “Crestview is paid by this municipal advocacy group, funded by local taxpayers, to help solve climate-related problems that are being exacerbated by the firm’s fossil fuel clients, a cycle from which Crestview benefits on both sides.”

The report also notes that Crestview profits “off the boom in firefighting technology that is in part a response to the wildfire crisis,” including gains from its client SenseNet, which sells access to AI-powered sensors, cameras, and satellites for fire detection.

“Instead of ‘you break it, you buy it,’ it’s ‘you break it and then you get paid to fix it,’” Browning said.
 
The report outlines a number of recommendations that could fix, at least, the problem of lobbyists representing interests that work at cross purposes. Among others, the researchers suggest strengthening Canada’s lobbying laws to make them more like their American equivalents, such as requiring all lobbyists to disclose compensation received and amounts spent on each lobbying effort. Those disclosures, the report recommends, should further be audited for compliance.

The report also advocates that the Lobbying Act be reviewed every five years — it hasn’t been reviewed since 2012. Researchers also argue that the Lobbying Act should be amended to force lobbyists to disclose details about which bills or regulations were mentioned in their lobbying communications. In addition, they want the Lobbyists’ Codechanged back to force lobbyists to disclose potential conflicts of interest to their clients.

“Fossil fuel industry lobbying in Canada is holding us back,” Emilia Belliveau, program manager, Energy Transition with Environmental Defence, said in a statement to DeSmog. “We know lobbying is just one tactic in Big Oil’s playbook to delay climate action and keep us hooked on their profitable and polluting products. The conflicts of interest revealed in the report show us that the efforts of stakeholders raising the alarm about climate impacts are being undermined by fossil fuel industry interests in hidden ways.”

“We’ve seen the influence of the fossil fuel lobby lower the government’s climate ambition at a moment when the world is looking for Canada to become North America’s climate leader,” Belliveau added. “Big Oil is pushing Canada to go all in on fossil fuel exports while the world is racing toward renewable energy. We have the technology, we just need political leadership to prioritize climate action above the interests of fossil fuel companies who’ve already made billions but still feel entitled to more.”