Toronto should kiss oil and gas advertising goodbye
Just as governments at all levels said no to tobacco advertising in the 1980s, it's time towns and cities stop accepting ads from fossil fuel promoters. This isn't a new idea. Last year, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged all nations to ban fossil fuel advertising. The idea has also been percolating in Canada for some time already; a private member's bill by former NDP MP Charlie Angus to do just that died on the order paper before the federal election.
But cities like Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto now have a window to get tough as they shift their advertising policies to match the new federal anti-greenwashing laws passed in June 2024. Later this week, Toronto city council is scheduled to debate a staff report recommending new guidelines for fossil fuel industry advertising. The report, as written, is not as strong as it should be. With any luck, council will ask for more backbone.
The federal regulations, finalized last month, prohibit companies from making false or unsubstantiated environmental claims and require them to back claims with an assessment of the wording and general impression conveyed by the ads. The new laws effectively shut down advertising by the Pathways Alliance, a lobby group representing the oilsands giants that had once festooned Toronto streetcars in ads trumpeting, 'Our net-zero plan is in motion.' In truth, that motion has been awfully slow. Although Pathways has pitched an ambitious project to capture the carbon emissions during the oil production process, no actual construction has yet begun. By pulling its ads and scrubbing its website, Pathways tacitly acknowledged it couldn't back up its claims.
But Toronto council initially asked for even more than the greenwashing provisions. They also wanted the new policy to ensure all advertising is consistent with the city's TransformTO Net Zero strategy, which aims to make the city net-zero by 2050. Among the steps the city must take to achieve that goal is a 'rapid and significant reduction in natural gas use.'
It's hard to see how, under that rubric, any advertising shilling for gas would be acceptable. Splashy ad campaigns, such as the one recently run by energy giant Cenovus that played up the economic benefits of oil and gas, met the federal advertising standards because it avoided making environmental claims. But it would surely be out of sync with Toronto's net-zero policy.
The staff recommendation went only partway — advising council to adopt anti-greenwashing rules and requiring advertisers to back up environmental claims, which is already required by federal law. But it skirted the council's second request.
This is the right time for Toronto to kiss oil and gas advertising goodbye. @adriennetanner.bsky.social writes
This was deeply disappointing to Leah Temper, who is leading the charge for the Fossil Fuel Ads Make Us Sick campaign on behalf of Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. 'It's missing the point to only look at greenwashing,' said Temper, who was promoting a letter-writing campaign to council days before the meeting.
Without the proviso that all ads must be in line with Toronto's climate goals, fossil fuel companies will find a workaround. Instead of claiming to be green, they simply pivot and claim to be cheaper, a claim that is also debatable, she noted.
Toronto should seize this chance to be a leader. It doesn't have to ban fossil fuel advertising, which has the potential, as happened with tobacco ad bans, to open the door to legal challenges from industry. By demanding that fossil fuel ads don't undermine the city's climate policy, the bar would be high enough to effectively shut the door on fossil fuel advertising.
Someone needs to rein in deep-pocketed fossil fuel companies and their allies hellbent on convincing the public the best course of action is to keep the oil and gas industry alive. Will pushback from cities stop the flow of disinformation? Probably not.
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