Steve MacLellan

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) showed a previously unsuspected sense of humour last week, pitching the federal government for another round of tax breaks that would “level the investment playing field” and help it attract financial support in its moment of greatest need.

CAPP’s call for a 100% tax deduction on its capital expenses comes less than two months after Environmental Defence Canada released and Global News reported on the organization’s 13-page letter to Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan and seven other Cabinet ministers, demanding more than 30 different cuts to the climate, environmental, and safety regulations governing the industry. The “crass attempt to exploit a global pandemic,” one veteran climate advocate, said at the time, gave Canadians an unmistakable view of the fossil lobby’s “radical agenda” on everything from climate regulation to oil train safety, from species protection to the transparency of the federal lobbying process.