Fatima Syed, Matt Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Narwhal

On March 26, the Owen Sound city council meeting was packed with residents as elected officials discussed whether to support one of TC Energy’s biggest clean energy projects.

The Calgary-based energy giant has proposed a pumped storage project in Meaford, Ont., on the shores of Georgian Bay — a man-made reservoir built on the Niagara Escarpment that would draw (or pump) nearly 7,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of water in and out of the bay to generate and store electricity. TC Energy is awaiting approvals from Saugeen Ojibway Nation, as well as the provincial and federal governments, which are all expected this year pending environmental reviews. 

In March, Owen Sound — the largest community in the region — became the second town to offer conditional support to the project, after Meaford. Municipalities can’t greenlight an energy project of this scale, but such approvals often help companies convince federal and provincial governments that local residents support their plans.

The day after the council meeting, TC Energy touted the vote on its social media accounts as a “milestone alert for the Ontario Pumped Storage Project!” 

And in a company meeting that day, an executive offered a “big congratulations” to colleagues for the city council vote, celebrating the development as “a remarkable reflection of the good and hard work that that team has put in, in Meaford and in the area.”

The comment was made by Liam Iliffe, a former B.C.-based political staffer turned TC Energy senior executive, during a “lunch and learn” session for colleagues across North America about “base tactics” the company uses to persuade politicians and members of the public to support their projects.

“If folks haven’t heard, they received unanimous consent from the City of Owen Sound yesterday. It was so enthusiastic that they actually just wanted to give consent, but city staff had to recommend that it be conditional based on some approvals,” Iliffe said.

The Owen Sound city council vote was among a number of examples, tactics and strategies Iliffe, along with his colleague Dave Forestell, vice-president of external relations, described during an almost-hour-long call. These strategies include meeting politicians and bureaucrats casually, Iliffe said, shaping media stories about the company’s work, “leveraging” relationships with Canadian diplomats so they “deliver a pro-LNG message” and using Indigenous leaders or other stakeholders as “validators” to sway politicians.

“I know that Ontario pumped storage used not dissimilar base tactics,” Iliffe said in the recording of the session reviewed by The Narwhal. 

Such tactics have seemingly given the company direct access to some of the most senior bureaucrats in the country, including those who could be in charge of giving TC Energy the approvals and policies it needs to build its projects. Such officials are not “immune from the opinions of others,” Forestell said. As an example, Forestell suggested the head of an independent federal regulator commended the company on its “great ground game in Meaford.” 

Iliffe has since resigned from the company and did not respond to The Narwhal’s request for comment. Previously, lliffe told The Narwhal in a statement that some comments made in the recording referenced events that did not actually occur. The company also said in a statement that comments on the recording do not reflect how it does business.

To report this story, The Narwhal reviewed the leaked internal TC Energy discussion about the Meaford project, as well as lobbying records and notes prepared by public servants that describe the company’s interactions with government officials. The Narwhal spoke to several politicians, residents and First Nations leaders in the region about the contents of the recording. 

The reactions are mixed, but taken together, the recording and records appear to illustrate how TC Energy seeks to influence municipal, provincial and federal government to greenlight its energy projects. 

‘Communities lead and politicians follow’: TC Energy had concerning level of access to federal regulator set to review its Meaford project 

Owen Sound Mayor Ian Boddy says his community’s support for the project is understandably cause for celebration for TC Energy. 

“I’m sure if you’re working on a project, any positive response is a good thing,” Boddy told The Narwhal, noting that he had “minimal interaction” with the company before council deliberated a motion to support the project. “I don’t feel like I’ve been influenced to do something by TC Energy or my position has been impacted by them.”

Although Boddy downplayed the recording, some local residents say it makes them more skeptical about the level of influence the fossil fuel giant has in ushering through large energy projects with unknown environmental impacts.

Doug Haslam, a Meaford resident and chair of the town’s pumped storage advisory committee, told The Narwhal the recording changes his view of TC Energy. “They’re a sophisticated company with a lot of resources and they seem to be using it to sway public officials and citizens.”

“It’s something we all should be concerned about, especially the officials who now know these tactics may be used on them,” he said. “There’s a need to re-evaluate everything.” 

But others on the ground have been mindful of how big companies often operate from the beginning. 

“It’s a corporate game, right?” Chief Greg Nadjiwon of Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation told The Narwhal in response to the contents of the recording. “It’s old-school thinking. That’s why with some companies, you don’t hand them a shovel because they can dig their own grave.” 

Nadjiwon told The Narwhal last fall that his nation is deliberating greenlighting the project because of their need for clean energy. He said the contents of the recording, including references to Indigenous communities as “validators” of projects, confirms why he needs to walk even more carefully in this relationship.

“This makes me aware there’s a way to go yet,” he said. “If it was someone that I’m involved with that came out and said that, somebody would be paying the price.” 

In a statement, TC Energy told The Narwhal community engagement was integral to its operations, with the company actively setting up a physical presence in the communities hosting its projects. “For us to build and operate major infrastructure projects, we need to earn the support and trust of local people and local communities,” the statement said. “That is what governments, Indigenous communities and the public expect from us and it’s the right thing to do.”

How a company communicates and works with impacted communities is one of the key things considered by regulators evaluating whether to greenlight an energy project. At the federal level, the environmental impact of energy and infrastructure projects is scrutinized by the Impact Assessment Agency, which is accountable to the environment minister. 

Regulatory agencies are driven by public interest so any company looking for their green light should be able to prove they had “responsible, open and honest conversations” with the public, Ian Mondrow, an energy lawyer with the law firm Gowling WLG in Toronto, told The Narwhal.  

“If you have community support, it’s certainly an easier path to approval,” he added.

The contents of the recording raise questions about how a company like TC Energy is meeting and showing proof of community engagement to regulators.

Since proposing the pumped storage project in 2019, TC Energy officials set up shop in Meaford to see it to fruition. Company officials have met members of the community at council meetings, biweekly coffee chats, backyard gatherings and boat rides along the bay. TC Energy officials say they have also prioritized engagement with Saugeen Ojibway Nation, whose members have been invited to company-sponsored bingo nights and information sessions, bus tours to similar energy projects in Michigan and Massachusetts, a boat tour of the bay and a visit to the National Defence lands where the project will be built. 

Five years later, the region and its residents remain divided over the project. Meaford city council’s approval is contingent on support from Saugeen Ojibway Nation, as well as the provincial and federal governments. Members of Meaford city council, including Mayor Ross Kentner, did not answer detailed questions about the contents of the TC Energy recording. A statement from a city spokesperson said Meaford’s conditional support was given after “many months of public engagement and discourse amongst council.” 

But four of the municipality’s Grey County neighbours — the Township of The Archipelago, Township of Georgian Bay, Town of the Blue Mountains and Town of Parry Sound — have passed motions opposing the project due to the potential for significant environmental impacts on the bay and the escarpment. TC Energy officials previously told The Narwhal the company is prioritizing the health of the environment, adjusting the design to minimize harm on aquatic life and water, and is in the process of several environmental studies to ensure the water is not contaminated by the construction or operation of the project. 

Then came Owen Sound’s approval in March, giving the project its second conditional endorsement. 

Four TC Energy officials were present for the vote, including Clark Little, who told council he was “responsible for local engagement” on the project, and Andrew Mitchell, the company’s director of external relations for the project. Mitchell told council his grandparents lived and worked in Owen Sound, so he spent “countless summers” with his cousins “boating in and around Georgian Bay.” Little and Mitchell told the council they had “started engagement very early.” 

In the recording, Iliffe and Forestell speak of this kind of engagement as a new and necessary part of the approval process. “Thirty, 40, 50 years ago, major projects were built differently. You got a permit from the minister and you built your project and that was that,” Forestell said in the recording. “The world has fundamentally changed where now in many ways communities lead and politicians follow and so building that support from the ground up creates the space for politicians, regulators to provide support.” 

“People think that regulators, like judges, are immune from the opinions of others; we were on a call with the head of the Impact Assessment Agency a few months ago and he said, ‘I hear you guys have a great ground game in Meaford.’ ” 

Forestell said he believes this means agency head Terence Hubbard was commending the company for having “done the work on the ground to build support which will be relevant to our consideration of this project.”

In an interview, Environment Minister Stephen Guilbeault said he had “no knowledge of any such claim by an employee of the Impact Assessment Agency.”

“We look at a number of different types of impacts — social, environmental, economical — but I won’t deny that, certainly, the appreciation of the community of a project will weigh in the balance,” he said. 

Forestell did not respond directly to questions from The Narwhal. Hubbard declined an interview request with The Narwhal but a spokesperson for the agency confirmed in an email that Hubbard did meet with TC Energy to discuss the planned federal review of the company’s Ontario pumped storage project, which hasn’t started yet. Companies proposing such projects are “strongly encouraged” to communicate with the agency before the review begins, the spokesperson wrote, to ensure they submit all the information needed for “a more timely and efficient” process. The spokesperson also said the agency is aware TC Energy “has been conducting outreach, including with the public, local municipalities and Indigenous communities” — something it encourages “to resolve issues early” as it “can lead to modifications to project design to reduce impacts.”

But TC Energy’s communications with the agency seem to extend beyond this kind of communication. 

Federal lobbying records show TC Energy has lobbied Impact Assessment Agency officials at least five times since May 2023. In general, lobbyists seek to influence policy and policymakers for their organization’s interests. While lobbyists are required to report each lobbying activity so that it can be viewed by members of the public on the federal registry, the individual log entries do not disclose which specific topics were discussed.

The agency described its interactions with TC Energy as an exchange of information and declined to respond to questions about the registered lobbying activity. TC Energy and the agency both declined to confirm whether the pumped storage project was mentioned in each instance. 

Several legal experts told The Narwhal the TC Energy recording raises questions about TC Energy’s interaction with Hubbard and the degree of access TC Energy had to the agency approving its project.

“It’s not the influence, it’s the manner in which they say they’re trying to influence that could be concerning,” Alan Andrews, environment lawyer with Ecojustice, told The Narwhal. It is unclear what Hubbard’s involvement will be in the federal review and final decision on the Meaford project. 

“Look, bias is in the eye of the beholder,” Andrews said. “In my personal opinion, this doesn’t look good. It’s a private conversation with the head of [the Impact Assessment Agency] about a specific project. That feels problematic. If I’m him, I recuse myself from the decision and assure people that there is no bias.”

Ontario instructs TC Energy to secure federal subsidies for Meaford project 

TC Energy’s pumped storage project was expected to get approval from the Doug Ford government last November. But former energy minister Todd Smith withheld the greenlight in January, asking for clarification on how the company would fund its pre-development work. He suggested the company “further engage” the federal government; the provincial cabinet would expect “significant” financial assistance from Canada, he wrote. 

Internal notes obtained via access to information legislation now show the possibility of subsidies may have also come up during a meeting between senior federal officials and the company.

The notes show Annesley Wallace, the company’s president of power and energy solutions, and Chief Conrad Ritchie of Saugeen First Nation met with Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson and other federal officials to discuss the possibility of subsidies. Per the notes, public servants advised senior federal officials to repeat the provincial minister’s message and ask Wallace and Ritchie how much federal funding they were seeking. 

It is not clear from the notes when this meeting was held; access-to-information officers have not responded to The Narwhal’s request for this information.

In a statement sent to The Narwhal, Natural Resources Canada said the federal department has been focused on the “public value of the project and whether it requires additional support to advance.” The department also confirmed it had discussed the project with the Ontario government and provided context about the requests for subsidies to help prepare the deputy minister and another senior government official for topics that might come up during a meeting with company officials and Chief Ritchie.

The federal department also said the company had no role in drafting a briefing note for this meeting. However, it declined to answer a question about whether the Ontario energy minister’s letter was influenced by a third party, saying that this question should be directed to the provincial government.

Newly appointed Ontario Energy Minister Stephen Lecce did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the province’s review of the project or its relationship with TC Energy, including Smith’s instruction to get federal subsidies.

— With files from Mike De Souza

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