PRESS RELEASE: Community Groups Call For City To Ban Fossil Fuel Ads at Local Facilities

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OTTAWA/Unceded and unsurrendered Algonquin Anishinaabe territory - A group of fifteen community organizations are calling on the city’s Finance and Corporate Services Committee to consider a ban on advertisements and sponsorship from the fossil fuel industry. The Committee will be reviewing the city’s Corporate Sponsorship and Advertising Policy for the first time in almost 20 years at their monthly meeting next Tuesday.

The group sent out a letter today to the Mayor and members of the Committee outlining the need for this change, quoting the current policy, saying that it is necessary that “all sponsorships and advertising shall be consistent with the City of Ottawa’s vision, mission and values and will not compromise or contradict any by-law or policy of the city, or reflect negatively on the city’s public image.”

The groups argue that the current policy is inconsistent with initiatives and decisions that current and former councils have already approved such as: the declaration of a climate emergency in 2019, the city’s Energy Evolution Plan which commits Ottawa to phasing out fossil fuel combustion by 2050 and the city’s recent signing of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2022 which aims to accelerate a transition to renewable energy, end the expansion of oil, gas, and coal, and wind down existing fossil-fuel production.

“Twenty years ago, the City of Ottawa banned advertising and sponsorship from the tobacco industry because of the public health harms it perpetuated. Now we are asking the city to do the same by using everything in its toolbox to mitigate the health impacts of pollution and fossil fuelled climate change,” said Eugenie Waters, Family Physician at Your Health / Votre Santé clinic in Vanier, General Practitioner in Oncology at The Ottawa Hospital, and Lecturer in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Medicine. “Just like tobacco ads, allowing fossil-fuel advertising in city facilities contradicts the city’s key policy initiatives and public-health commitments.”

With shorter winters and the higher presence of extreme weather events like frequent tornadoes, flooding, the 2022 derecho and high levels of pollution from wildfire smoke there is no argument that Ottawans are feeling the effects of the climate crisis. Activities central to Ottawa’s identity and tourism sector have also been impacted, such as Winterlude and the Rideau Canal Skateway.

With fossil fuel ads only bringing in less than $30,000 in revenue for the city, according to Ottawa city staff, the groups claim that the benefits of banning fossil fuel ads far outweigh the costs.

“The projected lost revenue from climate change outweighs lost revenues from fossil fuel advertising by orders of magnitude.” said Letitia Charbonneau of Seniors for Climate Action Now- Ottawa. “A future of climate disasters will cost our city untold millions in infrastructure, insurance, and health costs, beyond the loss of homes, lives, and livelihoods.”

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For Media Inquiries:

Sam Hersh
613-663-7018
[email protected]

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2025 Osgoode Ward By-Election Report

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PRESS RELEASE: Horizon Ottawa Releases Donor Information from Osgoode By-election Candidates

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

09 June 2025

OTTAWA - Horizon Ottawa has released information about how candidates in the Osgoode by-election have financed their campaigns in an effort to improve transparency. The organization has consistently called on candidates to refuse contributions from the development industry based on the perception that this could create a conflict of interest when elected officials are tasked with decisions that would affect developer profits. The City of Ottawa already requires candidates to release a list of all donations over $100 following the election, but Horizon also stresses the importance of voters having access to this information before casting their ballot.

Of the eleven candidates registered in the by-election, Horizon was able to contact ten, six of whom responded to the request. Horizon’s findings can be seen in this chart:

Three candidates: Dalton Holloway, Jennifer van Koughnett, and Peter Westaway provided a list of their donors and were verified to have not received any funding from those connected to the development industry.

Greg Vail provided a list of donors and was found to have received two $100 contributions from donors who could be construed to be connected to the real estate development industry.

Isabelle Skalski and Dan O’Brien both claim to have received no developer-related funding, but did not disclose a list of their donors.

Doug Thompson, Colette Lacroix Velthuis, Guy Boone, and Bobby Gulati did not respond to Horizon’s request. While this does not necessarily mean that their campaigns were funded by developer-connected donors, Osgoode Ward residents will not have access to this information before selecting a councillor.

Horizon encourages each of these candidates to show voters that transparency matters to them and to make this information publicly available before election day on June 16th.

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For media inquiries:

English

Tom Ledgley

[email protected]

613-663-7018

French

Sam Hersh