Real-time disclosure reveals ongoing oil patch payments to BC Liberals

Last week we added up the payout to Christy Clark and the BC Liberals from Kinder Morgan and friends, which greased the wheels for the province’s flip-flop on the dangerous oil tanker expansion project. We found that Kinder Morgan, its shippers and allied pipeline and petroleum associations pushing the project had given $718,918 to Clark and her party.

It’s actually more.

Under the current fundraising disclosure system, parties release their donor list through Elections BC each April. Which means the public doesn’t have access to the list for a whole year. So that $718,918 number only included contributions before April 1, 2016.

Last Friday, just as the New York Times published a scorching article titled “British Columbia: the ‘Wild West’ of Canadian Political Cash” (which included Dogwood’s calculation of the Kinder Morgan donations), the BC Liberals released their 2016 donor list.

True to Kinder Morgan’s 2015 vow, the company did not donate to the BC Liberals themselves in 2016. But, they didn’t have to — that’s what friends are for.

In 2016, Trans Mountain shippers Suncor, Imperial Oil, Cenovus and CNRL donated another $41,400 to Christy Clark and the BC Liberals.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers gave the BC Liberals $11,225 in 2016, including a $4,000 cheque on November 28, a day before Prime Minister Trudeau gave Kinder Morgan federal approval. Within the same month, CAPP met with the Ministries of Environment and Natural Gas — the very two ministries tasked with issuing the approval on Trans Mountain.

So now we have 52,250 more reasons for Premier Clark to approve Kinder Morgan. And with $771,168 in her party’s piggy bank, it’s no wonder she gave the green light.

*Note: total does not include corporate officers, board members, lobbyists or law firms affiliated with the project. If helping Dogwood dig through donation records sounds like fun to you, please email lisa@dogwoodbc.ca