Thank you.
I'm a resident of North Vancouver. I have a master of science degree in nutrition and I have worked most of my years with the United Nations Children's Fund, six years in Guatemala and five in Indonesia.
For the sake of time, I won't go into how I went from UNICEF to salmon farming to an extensive review of the more than 6,000 pages of the U.S. tax returns of the charitable foundations who are funding a campaign against Alberta oil. But I would like to say from the outset that I am not funded by anyone, and I am not part of any industry or any political party.
I would also like to acknowledge the much-appreciated contributions of my colleague, Rob Scagel.
I'd like to focus my remarks on the foreign funding, by American charitable foundations, of what I call the “demarketing” of Alberta oil. Demarketing is reducing demand or shifting demand away from something. We don't hear much about demarketing, because marketing is mostly about selling more, not selling less. But when it comes to Alberta oil, demarketing is precisely what Canadian environmental organizations have been paid to do by American charitable foundations.
Alberta oil isn't the only or first important Canadian export that's been demarketed by million-dollar American-funded campaigns. The same thing has been done with Canadian forest products and farmed salmon. If every negative thing said about Alberta oil were true, I would agree it should be demarketed. But as we heard in the previous session, some of what is said is flagrantly untrue.
So I believe the question needs to be asked, is there a sound scientific basis, a sound case for the demarketing of Alberta oil? And if not, then why is it being demarketed?
According to my analysis of U.S. tax returns, American charitable foundations have granted at least $18 million specifically for the demarketing of Alberta oil and thwarting of the Canadian oil and gas industry. By the way, that figure is up by about $3 million from the $15 million that I reported in an op-ed piece in the Financial Post in October. Some grants were specifically aimed to thwart the Canadian oil and gas industry. For example, in 2006 the Rockefeller Brothers Fund paid $200,000 to the Pembina Foundation and West Coast Environmental Law “to prevent the development of a pipeline and tanker port...”, among other things.
In 2009 the Bullitt Foundation paid the Tides Foundation to get the Dogwood Initiative “to expand outreach campaign to mobilize urban voters for a federal ban on coastal tankers...”. And the Brainerd Foundation, another American foundation, paid the Dogwood Initiative “to help grow public opposition to counter the Enbridge pipeline...”. They're doing what they're paid to do.
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund granted at least $105,000 specifically to the first nations who are right at the mouth of the Douglas Channel, right where oil tankers would need to load if they were export-bound for Asia. That included $70,000 for an anniversary celebration in 2004 and $35,000 for a ceremonial event in 2006. Now, of all the aboriginal people in the world and all the places in the world, why does the Rockefeller Brothers Fund choose to pay more than $100,000 to the first nations at the Kitimat village right at the mouth of the Douglas Channel?
I can see that what they are doing is protecting the environment. I can also see that what they are doing is protectionism in the name of the environment. I believe it's important to look at the campaign against Alberta oil within the broader context of the initiatives that American foundations have funded in our country.
According to my analysis and preliminary calculations, over the past ten years American foundations have spent approximately $300 million on conservation initiatives in Canada and the so-called reform of our resource-based industries—forestry, mining, aquaculture, and oil and gas. About $50 million of that went straight to first nations, especially on the coast of British Columbia, including, for example, one grant for $27.3 million. That was a single grant.
Roughly 80% of that $209 million came from five foundations: the Hewlett Foundation, the Packard Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. These are the foundations I have referred to as “The Big Five”. They have $22 billion in assets. They give away $1.2 billion every year. Their CEOs earn $600,000 to $700,000 a year. Their senior environmental staff are paid in the $300,000 range. Some of these professional environmentalists are paid more than the Prime Minister of our country.
In my remaining time I would like to share with you the three most important conclusions that I draw from my research and analysis.
First, there is no doubt that environmentalists care profoundly about the environment, but there is more to it than that. Some of the same foundations that are funding the demarketing of Alberta oil have made grants that specifically mention reduction in the dependence on fossil fuels as a matter of national security. So obviously this isn't purely about the environment; there are other interests.
Over roughly the same period that the Hewlett Foundation and the Packard Foundation--two separate foundations--granted $83 million for environmental initiatives in Canada, they also paid more than half a billion dollars to the ClimateWorks Foundation and the Energy Foundation.
The Energy Foundation has a clear agenda “to create a robust solar market”. Since 2009 the Energy Foundation has made at least 33 grants to reduce market barriers to solar development; support utility-scale solar power; design solar policy; and support regulatory interventions, long-term transmission corridor planning, and solar finance models.
Growing a solar business takes more than sunshine. It also requires shifting investment capital away from competing industries, especially oil. Sunshine may be infinite, but capital isn't, and scaring consumers, voters, and investors--which is what campaigns do--is a way of swaying investors and their capital.
So the Hewlett Foundation funds the Energy Foundation to create a robust solar market and thwart the coal industry, at the same time that the Hewlett Foundation funds the Tides Foundations and Tides Canada to demarket Alberta oil and thwart the Canadian oil and gas industry.
As I see it, the demarketing of Alberta oil is part and parcel of Hewlett's huge, heavily funded initiative to shift the energy market away from fossil fuels and towards renewables.
The problem with demarketing is that you paint yourself into a corner, because if you've positioned your products and services as being better than those of the competition, which is bad, and all of a sudden you start changing what you're saying about the competition, in the marketplace that changes not only what the market thinks about the competition, but what they say about you. So you have to stick to your positioning, and that's where you're painted into a corner, because even if your competitors reform and improve, you're stuck with de-positioning and demarketing them, which is what we're seeing.
My second point is that environmental activism isn't what it used to be. The new factor is money--millions and millions of dollars. As long as environmental organizations are paid to run multi-million-dollar campaigns, I think it's unreasonable to hope that they won't.
My last point is a suggestion. Considering that American foundations have spent upwards of $300 million in our country--especially $120 million on the Great Bear Rainforest initiative and the boreal forest initiative--it's pretty clear that they're serious about what they're doing. So my hope is that the leadership of government and industry will speak directly with the CEOs of these foundations.
The development of Alberta oil is a billion-dollar opportunity, and I hope we will make the most of that opportunity by minimizing the risks to a level that Canadians can accept. Both at home and abroad we could do a lot of good with that, and in terms of energy security. My hope is that we will.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.