CALGARY — Shareholders are pushing Canada’s dominant oilsands player to supply more detail on two sticky topics: its intends to thrive under tougher climate policy and it is political lobbying.
Separate shareholder proposals happen to be filed ahead of Suncor Energy’s annual general meeting the following month — with one greeted a lot more warmly compared to other through the company.
The board of Calgary-based Suncor is recommending shareholders vote in favour of NEI Investments’ resolution that the company “provide ongoing reporting on how it is assessing, and ensuring, long-term corporate resilience inside a future low-carbon economy” — a move viewed as unusual.
However, the company is pushing back against an offer by another group of shareholders co-ordinated by Amount of Us, an organization that campaigns for corporate accountability. That one urges Suncor to report annually on its lobbying policies and procedures, the amount it’s paying and also to whom, and its decision-making process and oversight.
NEI chose to target Suncor on the climate proposal for a simple reason, said Jamie Bonham, who led your time and effort.
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“We thought Suncor was the most ready for this,” he said, adding the oil company’s support is “relatively unprecedented” in North America.
Suncor CEO Steve Williams has stumped for tougher carbon pricing and was certainly one of four energy bosses to stand alongside Alberta Premier Rachel Notley last November when she unveiled the province’s new sweeping climate plan, with a $30-a-tonne carbon tax in 2018.
Bonham said while Suncor is a leader around the issue, “it’s still a big question mark as to how this type of big oilsands player will thrive in a low carbon future.”
Similar proposals around climate risk happen to be endorsed by some European energy majors.
“When Shell and BP and Statoil supported the resolutions last year, it wasn’t uncommon, however it really was out of the ordinary,” said Andrew Logan, with Ceres, a U.S. corporate sustainability not-for-profit group.
“I’m able to never remember it happening by having an issue which was so directly related to the company’s core business.”
Suncor’s Peter MacConnachie, who works with environmental groups and socially responsible investors, said as a result of the resolution, Suncor is going to be providing more detail on its plans under a number of different scenarios.
“Given the evolving conversation about climate, we believe it is a worthwhile opportunity to provide additional information to shareholders about how Suncor will flourish in a lesser carbon economy,” he said in an emailed statement.
NEI’s Bonham said the matter is going to a vote because shareholder buy-in is vital.
On the lobbying resolution, Suncor said hello already complies with laws that require it to reveal its activity through federal and provincial online registries.
Sum People enlisted three shareholders with a collective $70,000 in company stock to file the proposal.
Lisa Lindsley, who manages shareholder advocacy campaigns at Amount of Us, said the shareholders had a few conversations with Suncor, but came away unsatisfied.
The shareholders desired to draw more attention to the trade associations that Suncor belongs. The resolution cites “reputational risk” if one of those groups finds itself embroiled inside a scandal or maybe its agenda runs counter to Suncor’s stated green goals — a trade group lobbying against stricter environmental rules, for instance.
“Really what they offered was to list all of the trade associations and organizations that they pay over a certain threshold amount,” said Lindsley.
“We didn’t think that that actually reached the data that shareholders needed to evaluate the perils of Suncor’s political spending.”
MacConnachie, with Suncor, said the organization doesn’t observe how that additional detail is needed investors make smarter decisions, considering that those associations are bound through the same lobbying disclosure laws.
Kevin Thomas, with Shareholder Association for Research and Education, worked with investors in pipeline heavyweights Enbridge Inc. and TransCanada to push for improved lobbying disclosure and wound up working out an offer in the two cases.
The Enbridge proposal was made with respect to the Pension Plan of the United Church of Canada, while the TransCanada one was for the Fonds de Solidarite des travailleurs du Quebec. Both were withdrawn.
Thomas said counting on registries alone means some activity will “come under the radar.”
“I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect investors to go and search every provincial, municipal, federal along with other country levels to understand what their own clients are doing.”
The Canadian Press
