Have your say on Canada’s greenwashing rules

An oilsands facility seen from a helicopter near Fort McMurray, Alta., on July 10, 2012. (Jeff McIntosh)

The Competition Bureau wants to know what Canadians think of its proposed guidelines to ensure companies are truthful about environment and climate claims for their products.

On Dec. 23, the bureau opened consultations on its greenwashing guidelines.

Interested parties can submit feedback to the Competition Bureau by email until Feb. 28, 2025, and submissions will be posted publicly.

The Competition Act is a law designed to prevent anti-competitive practices like price-fixing, false marketing and other deceptions. The law was amended in June to specifically address greenwashing. 

There was swift and strong pushback from oil and gas industry players and some politicians.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith took to social media, describing the greenwashing rules in omnibus Bill C-59 as "illegal" and "draconian." Former Alberta energy minister Sonya Savage likened the changes to "green-hushing" at a September carbon capture conference.

In a panel discussion with Savage, Lisa Baiton, president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), said the new rules silence "very lively public policy debate," with too much leeway for those opposed to fossil fuels.

The Pathways Alliance, a coalition of Canada's six largest fossil fuel producers, quickly wiped its net-zero emissions goal and proposal for a carbon capture network from its website and replaced it with a statement that new changes to the act create uncertainty.

Now, some of the scrubbed information is back on the Pathways Alliance website. The net-zero goals remain absent, but some information about the giant carbon capture and storage hub (the group’s flagship project) is back up. 

The bureau said it won't hold anyone liable for a breach that happened before the new law came into force. It said it would also consider the circumstances of each case when exercising its enforcement discretion.

The rules apply to all companies — not just oil and gas.

Companies are free to make environmental claims for promotional purposes, as long as they are not false or misleading, and can be proven by the company. The Competition Bureau already has several greenwashing investigations underway.

It is probing whether the Pathways Alliance's net-zero claims in one of its ad campaigns are false or misleading. Enbridge is also being investigated for allegedly misleading customers about the role of natural gas in the energy transition by calling it "clean energy" and "low carbon." The Canadian Gas Association is under scrutiny for similar messaging. 

In a Sept. 5 submission to the Competition Bureau, CAPP said the "fundamentally flawed" amendments should be repealed and argued that not-for-profit and advocacy groups should be held to the same evidentiary standards as businesses.

CAPP’s request for the legislation to also apply to environmental groups was ridiculed by NDP MP Charlie Angus, who described CAPP’s position as "ludicrous."

"These greenwashing rules deal with corporate claims because people are making money. That's pretty straightforward," Angus told Canada’s National Observer in September.

Anyone who suspects a company or individual is making deceptive marketing claims is strongly encouraged by the Competition Bureau to report it.

With files from The Canadian Press