TORONTO — Toronto city council has taken a step toward banning misleading fossil fuel advertising on city property, building on recent federal anti-greenwashing rules and a similar proposal approved by the city’s transit agency.
It’s latest in a series of city-level moves across Canada, including in Ottawa and Montreal, to look at greenwashing, a term for ads that make misleading or false environmental claims.
The motion passed Thursday directs city staff to report back next year on a possible draft ban, but it stops short of asking for an outright prohibition on fossil fuel advocacy ads.
The motion suggested an ad could still be accepted if it’s consistent with the city’s net-zero emission plan and complies with new federal anti-greenwashing rules.
Those rules added to the Competition Act in June puts the onus on advertisers to back up their environmental claims.
Research has suggested greenwashing is a pervasive issue, with a 2021 sweep by European authorities of hundreds of online claims from various business sectors that found nearly half were either false or deceptive.
The Toronto Transit Commission voted last month to bring in a new pre-screening policy for fossil fuel advocacy ads and report back next year with a proposal to ban those ads.
An Ottawa city committee also directed staff earlier this year to review possible changes to its advertising policy to single out fossil fuel advocacy, and the board chair of Montreal’s transit authority says its advertising subsidiary was directed last year to crack down on fossil fuel ads.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.
Jordan Omstead, The Canadian Press
