@OilsandsAction posted this TTC streetcar ad on the social media platform X. Such ads now need to be reviewed to make sure they follow the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards.
This article was written by Benjamin Shingler and was published by CBC News on October 10, 2024.
Montreal and Toronto have both taken steps to limit advertising for oil and gas on their subways, buses and streetcars. Toronto city council is also considering a motion to restrict fossil fuel advertising on city property.
These are first but “significant” steps toward tighter restrictions countrywide, according to Melissa Lem, president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE).
“We want to take a stand and — even if it’s a lonely stand at first — show the rest of the country that we don’t want more harmful advertising driven by fossil fuel companies,” said Lem, a family doctor in Vancouver.
Lem’s group, which represents 700,000 health-care workers in Canada, has been pushing for advertising restrictions similar to those on tobacco products, arguing the burning of fossil fuels has significant impacts on health, from polluting to the broader impacts of climate change.
The Montreal transit authority, known as the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) has new guidelines that will limit — but not outright ban — oil and gas-related advertisements on its metros and buses. The ads must be reviewed to ensure they are evidence-based, and don’t amount to greenwashing — a blanket term for misleading statements about an industry or product’s environmental record.
“We wish to contribute to the financing of public transit in a responsible manner, which is why it is so important to establish clear guidelines against greenwashing practices in advertising,” Charles Gratton, a representative from Transgesco, which handles advertising for STM, said in an emailed statement.
Similarly, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) adopted a motion last month banning “misleading” fossil fuel advocacy advertising.
The motion singles out Pathways Alliance, which represents major oilsands producers, and Canada Action, another fossil fuel lobby group — both of which have run advertisements on Toronto streetcars. Greenpeace filed a complaint with the Competition Bureau over the Pathways ad, which proclaimed its “net-zero plan is in motion.”
Going forward, any proposed advertising by these groups will be put to a review to make sure they follow the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards, which states that “advertisements must not distort the true meaning of statements made by professionals or scientific authorities.”
Dianne Saxe, a Toronto city councillor who introduced the TTC motion, said the changes are an attempt to put an end to greenwashing, which is especially harmful when the message is conveyed on public transit.
“It undermines the brand of the transit agency itself,” Saxe told the National Observer.
Fossil fuel groups were quick to denounce the TTC motion.
Cody Battershill, founder of Canada Action, said the motion was an attempt to “further divide the public on important issues of public interest around Canada’s natural resource abundance.”
Kendall Dilling, president of Pathways Alliance, said his group wants to take part in “important conversations about the environment and resource development.”
“We remain committed to communicating, including use of advertising,” he said.
Streetcars, buses and subways aren’t the only spaces where fossil fuel groups are being subjected to greater restrictions.
The Liberal government introduced new rules aimed at cracking down on greenwashing earlier this year, prompting pushback from fossil fuel industry groups — and some of them to strip their websites of their environmental commitments. The NDP wants to go further, banning misleading fossil fuel advertising altogether.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres put the issue in the international spotlight this summer, in a major speech that gave ammunition to critics who have been calling for tighter restrictions.
“Many in the fossil fuel industry have shamelessly greenwashed, even as they have sought to delay climate action — with lobbying, legal threats and massive ad campaigns,” Guterres said.
Mobilize, Canada! 