Ottawa under pressure to ban fossil fuel ads on OC Transpo and rink boards

The oil and gas sponsorship contracts bring in just $5,700 revenue for the parks and recreation department and $7,000 for OC Transpo.

Published Mar 05, 2024 • Last updated 15 hours ago • 3 minute read

Capital Ward Coun. Shawn Menard. Photo by Errol McGihon /Postmedia

Councillors on Ottawa’s finance and corporate services committee want to review the city’s sponsorship policy after advocacy ads for the oil and gas industry began appearing on OC Transpo vehicles and shelters and on rink boards at city arenas.

The motion, brought by Capital Ward Coun. Shawn Menard, asked city staff to review a change to the city’s advertising policy around “fuel advocacy advertising” and how it aligned with city policies regarding greenhouse gas emissions as well as the legal implications involved. The motion passed unanimously.

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The appearance of the ads was a touchy subject in a city that had declared a climate emergency and was itself moving toward a zero-emissions policy, and it drew more than a dozen public delegations in support — and one against — on Tuesday.

“I think this is what city staff needed as a first step so that they can consult on the motion and the proposed ban on fossil fuel advertising in our facilities, and they also needed to make sure they had the legal authority to look into this,” Menard told reporters.

“It’s a testament to the groups that came out and spoke about this and the concerns they raised around their children and the future in what is probably the largest threat to Ottawa and our infrastructure,” Menard said.

He said an oil and gas advertising ban would be similar to the city’s existing ban on advertising for tobacco and guns.

The oil and gas sponsorship contracts bring in just $5,700 revenue for the parks and recreation department and $7,000 for OC Transpo, he said.

Speaker after speaker spoke in support of the move, citing the effects of climate change, noting the shortened Rideau Canal Skateway season, tornadoes, the devastating 2022 derecho and record-setting Ottawa River floods in 2017 and 2019.

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Dr. Hussein Moloo, a colorectal surgeon at The Ottawa Hospital and Director of Planetary Health at the University of Ottawa medical school, appeared via video between patients from his medical clinic.

“Climate change is the No. 1 threat to the health of humanity,” Moloo said. “For example, air pollution kills more people now than smoking does. Banning fossil fuel advertising just makes sense.”

William Van Geest of Ecology Ottawa provided councillors with examples of the green and white signs for climateactioncanada.ca that had appeared at rinks and on bus shelters to promote Canadian oil and gas as a solution to climate change.

“These ads are urging our complicity, even our co-operation, with our planet’s trajectory toward climate disaster,” Van Geest said.

One speaker, however, offered a counterpoint. Robert Lyman, a retired federal energy analyst, said banning the advertising, even eliminating Ottawa’s greenhouse gas emissions, would have no effect on climate change.

“Climate change is a global, not a local, phenomena,” Lyman said. “The action that council is being asked to do has nothing to do with saving the planet. It’s simply an attack on oil and gas companies and the people they serve.”

If the committee’s decision is passed by city council, the staff report would be back before councillors for debate some time this fall.

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