Commentary: Canada’s Big Five Bank CEOs On Trial

On June 13, 2024, I traveled to Ottawa to watch an unprecedented event.

For the first time ever, CEOs of Canada’s Big Five banks – RBC, Scotiabank, TD, BMO and CIBC – were summoned to Parliament to explain their role in funding climate chaos before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development. 

As part of the Committee’s investigation of the environmental and climate impacts related to the financial system, the hearing made headlines in CBC News, Reuters, The Canadian Press, La Presse, and even the front page of Globe and Mail’s business section.

That day, not only did all of the CEOs double down on the status quo of financing climate chaos-causing fossil fuels, RBC CEO Dave McKay even forgot how-many-millions he gets paid every year! All this as communities across Canada feel the strain of an affordability crisis, and as intensifying climate disasters like fire, floods, and deadly heat wreak havoc.

Days before the hearing, nearly 5,000 people wrote emails to Members of Parliament (MPs), urging our representatives to ask tough questions and hold the CEOs accountable for pouring nearly a TRILLION dollars into fossil fuels since 2016, violating Indigenous and human rights and endangering our climate-safe future.

Thanks to our swift action, the MPs did just that! For two hours, MPs on the federal Environment Committee grilled the CEOs on their dirty energy record, on lobbying against climate action, on their greenwashing, and why oil and gas execs sit on their boards. And for two hours, the CEOs tried to deflect, deny and deceive MPs.

Here are some fiery exchanges… please share far & wide! 

Despite their rampant greenwashing, the CEOs couldn’t hide from their dirty record of profiteering from fires and smoky summers that much of the country is experiencing right now. Together, we made sure the MPs didn’t buy any of it. Government and opposition MPs were equally frustrated with the CEOs’ deflections, and they all told me, across party lines, after the meeting, that relying on voluntary action from the banks is not working. They all said it is time to regulate the banks into action. That’s a big admission. And that is how we will achieve systemic level change.

It’s also a strong affirmation that the campaign we have been running since 2021 is working. We have raised the profile and problem of the issue of the banks bankrolling and enabling fossil fuel companies. We have shown that the banks can’t be relied upon or trusted to take the sufficient (not even ambitious!) actions that we need and now we have collectively opened up the political space for our elected officials to step in and do their jobs. 

Accountability is within reach. But we must keep up the pressure!

The CEOs greenwashing their fossil-soaked record is exactly why we need to keep up the pressure on the Environment Committee. They will publish a report this fall from these hearings, and we must ensure it includes strong recommendations to regulate the banks into climate action. We will be in touch soon with more actions to ramp up the pressure.

Share these videos of Canada’s bank CEOs greenwashing in Parliament: Instagram, Facebook, Threads, YouTube.

We don’t need more deflection and greenwashing from the banks. We deserve accountability, real plans and real action to avoid the worst of climate chaos.