Gina Pappano is Executive Director of InvestNowSpring is annual general meeting (AGM) season in the Canadian business world, the time of year when the AGMs of publicly traded corporations take place to present and discuss the previous year’s results; to elect, or re-elect, directors to the board; to hear and vote on shareholder proposals; and to discuss any other relevant business. AGMs are designed to approximate a town hall meeting where the corporation presents to the shareholders and shareholders can ask questions of the corporation.In the 2025 AGM season, InvestNow — the not-for-profit organization this writer leads — presented shareholder proposals to the Big Five Canadian Banks (BMO, CIBC, RBC, Scotiabank, and TD) asking them to leave the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) and the Glasgow Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ.) These two, interrelated organizations which were until recently led by Mark Carney, exist primarily to pressure financial institutions to pledge to align their lending and investments with their own decarbonization goals, including achieving Net-Zero emissions by 2050.In other words, by joining these alliances, the banks pledged to restrict capital to, and divest from, oil and gas..Oddly enough, after our proposals were submitted, but before we were able to present them at the AGMs, every one of the Big Five banks left both the NZBA and GFANZ, due to concern that their activities might (and, in my opinion, do) constitute collusion.We also submitted a proposal to Suncor Energy, one of Canada’s largest producers of oil and natural gas, asking them to commission and issue a report itemizing the impacts and quantifying the costs of their Net-Zero commitments. Our thinking goes that if Suncor continues on the path toward currently established Net-Zero objectives, shareholders have a right to know the true impact that this will have on the company.Our assumption is that that impact will be generally negative. Because, in our experience, when this matter is examined objectively, it becomes extremely clear that the ideological commitment to Net-Zero has profound implications for share value. Unfortunately, it is extremely common for corporations to get so wrapped up in the ideological enthusiasm for the concept, its true costs are not fully examined, much less explained to shareholders..But shareholders have a right to know what these implications are. Suncor owes a duty of care to shareholders to explain the situation thoroughly, and we think a comprehensive report is the best way to do this.Now, it isn’t difficult to imagine why the commitment to Net-Zero by 2050 would harm an oil and gas company. The whole concept has been proposed and promoted by environmental activists to be anti-oil and natural gas. Net-zero by 2050 would necessarily entail a massive decline in the use of fossil fuels. But, despite the recent assertion of former Environment Minister Guilbeault, there is no sign that demand for these natural resources will peak anytime soon. In fact, demand for hydrocarbon energy is forecast to only go up in our power hungry world.And if the world’s oil and gas needs are not supplied by Canadian firms like Suncor, they will be supplied by less environmentally responsible authoritarian regimes. That would be bad for the environment and for human rights generally..It would also be bad for Canada, since oil and gas is central to our economic prosperity.Most importantly for the company’s board, whose ultimate responsibility is to their shareholders, it would be bad for Suncor. Why would the company commit to that?As one of our leading energy firms, Suncor should be happy to take advantage of this moment and take pride in producing Canadian oil and gas.Shortly before Suncor’s AGM, 38 Canadian oilpatch leaders penned and signed a letter to Prime Minister Carney asking for his support of the industry. Rich Kruger, Suncor Energy’s CEO was a signatory to this letter calling on the Carney government to “turn us loose.”.But, of course, it isn’t merely the anti-oil and gas regulatory regime, formed by the Trudeau government and continuing under Mark Carney, that is stifling the long-term prospects of the resource sector. It is also the net-zero commitments of the companies in that sector. Abandoning those commitments would be a tremendous boon to that sector, and to the Canadian economy as a whole. Being honest with shareholders about their costs would be a good place to start.Unfortunately, as expected, InvestNow’s proposal was rejected by the board. Nevertheless, our hope is that it will help remind the board why Suncor exists, what it does best, and who it is meant to serve.Pledging net zero by 2050 without a clear and complete understanding of the costs is irresponsible. For both financial institutions like banks, and corporations like Suncor, it endangers profitability and puts at risk the returns of their shareholders. For Canada and Canadians, it threatens our prosperity and our way of life.Gina Pappano is Executive Director of InvestNow.
