NDP accuses Liberals of 'deceptive advertising' on emissions, asks Competition Bureau to investigate

VANCOUVER — The NDP has accused the Liberals of misleading Canadians by claiming in advertisements that emissions will go down while Prime Minister Mark Carney himself admits they will go up.

MP Don Davies announced Tuesday that he and former NDP MP Peter Julian have sent a letter to the Competition Bureau asking the agency to investigate whether the government is in violation of the Competition Act's "greenwashing" provisions.

"In the midst of this crisis," Davies said, "the Carney Liberal government is spending millions of taxpayer dollars on ads that its major energy project will 'lower emissions' and 'build a cleaner future'."

He pointed out that Canadians were "inundated" with ads during the World Cup and they are still running.

"Yet the prime minister has also publicly admitted that his major energy projects plan will actually increase emissions in Canada," Davies continued, citing a June 30 video entitled "Forward Guidance: Canada's Energy Future," in which Carney "acknowledged that the changes we have made, according to him, will mean our emissions will go up."

He argued that that message is "directly at odds with the government's own advertising program," calling it "deceptive."

Davies went on to note that per the "anti-greenwashing" laws he helped add to the Competition Act, "any person who's making environmental claims to the public back them up with real evidence."

"The federal government is not above the law," he declared, asking that they be "held to the same standard" as other advertisers. "Under Section 74 of the Competition Act, it is prohibited to make a representation to the public about the environment of the benefits of a policy claiming that a business activity will improve the environment and to do so without adequate and proper substantiation."

Davies made it clear that "the burden of proof of that rests entirely on the person making that claim."

He also went after the government for eliminating rules that prevent partisan advertising with taxpayer dollars then "spen[ding] untold millions of taxpayer dollars on high-profile advertising campaigns that echo Liberal partisan messaging."

"Canadians expect that taxpayer-funded advertising will provide accurate and objective information that promotes legitimate public policy objectives, rather than serving as a vehicle for political messaging and misinformation," Davies and Julian wrote in their letter. "It is therefore critical that claims made in government advertising meet the same evidentiary standard the law demands of any private business."