Corporations exist to turn a profit. They care nothing — can only care nothing — about people except for our willingness to open our wallets. We are forced to do business with them because they are a powerful part of our capitalist economy — but we shouldn’t defer to them. And we should never, ever, trust them to have our best interests at heart.

Politicians in at least 15 Ontario municipalities seem to have forgotten these truths. My colleague Abdul Matin Sarfraz has discovered more than a dozen towns have recently passed resolutions in favour of natural gas expansion. The motions were written by none other than Enbridge, Ontario’s natural gas company. Enbridge prepared full lobbying packages including draft resolutions, template support letters and pre-written responses in response to the Ontario government’s consultation on expanding natural gas usage — and the towns just ran with them. 

Using Civic Searchlight, Matin discovered Essex, Georgina, Severn, Wainfleet, Oro-Medonte, Amherstburg and Ramara and others passed near-identical resolutions crafted by Enbridge to support Premier Doug Ford’s mission to expand the gas network to heat Ontario buildings.

This is wrong on so many levels. Politicians are elected to........

© National Observer