Jun 06, 2024 - 20:21
By cbc.ca

'How do you sleep at night?': NDP calls oil and gas executives to Parliament

Canadian oil and gas executives are expected to face tough questions in Ottawa this afternoon over their companies' record profits and track records on greenhouse gas emissions.

Leaders from Suncor, Imperial Oil, Cenovus Energy, Shell Canada and Enbridge were called by the NDP to appear before the standing committee on environment and sustainable development.

«These rich oil and gas CEOs have been raking in record profits, fuelling the climate crisis, and yet still continue to come to the government, cap in hand, asking for more handouts,» Laurel Collins, the NDP environment critic, said ahead of the afternoon testimony.

Collins said she plans to ask the CEOs a question many Canadians have told her they want answered: «How do you sleep at night?»

In 2022, oil and gas extraction companies made $270 billion in total revenue and $63 billion in profits in Canada, according to Statistics Canada. (Last year's data has not been released).

Given their high earnings at a time when many Canadians struggle to make ends meet, major oil and gas companies should be subject to an excess profits tax, Collins said.

The revenue could be used to invest in «climate solutions and to make life more affordable to Canadians,» she said.

The Liberal government introduced an excess profits tax on banks and life insurance firms whose revenues grew during the pandemic.

The Canada Recovery Dividend applies a 15 per cent one-time tax on average taxable income above $1 billion in 2020 and 2021.

A report last year by the Parliamentary Budget Officer concluded that applying the Canada Recovery Dividend to fossil fuel companies in 2022 would generate $4.2 billion in revenue over the next five years.