Five years after the heat dome, a deal worth signing

A note before I get into it. It's late Wednesday night and there was no Langley Roundup today. My apologies. I have been putting the finishing touches on a longer feature article that should publish tomorrow. It is worth the wait. Keep your eyes on the site. What follows is an editorial piece highlighting the start of something I do not want to let pass without comment.

Tomorrow is June 25. Five years ago tomorrow, an extreme heat event began that would kill 619 people in British Columbia by the end of the week. Most of them died here. Seventy-four per cent of those deaths occurred in Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health, the two health authorities that cover the Lower Mainland. Two-thirds were over 70. Ninety-eight per cent died indoors, in homes that could not cool down.

The BC Coroners Service later called it the deadliest weather event in Canadian history. Climate scientists who studied the dome afterward concluded it would have been "virtually impossible" without human-caused warming. I am thinking about those 619 people because tomorrow, on the anniversary of the day they began dying, climate organizers across Canada will be at their MPs' constituency offices asking them to sign something called The People's MOU. The People's MOU is a citizen's counter-offer to the deal Prime Minister Mark Carney signed with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in Calgary on May 15.

What Ottawa actually agreed to

That deal, the Canada-Alberta Implementation Agreement, commits the federal government to designate a new million-barrel-per-day tar sands pipeline to the BC coast as a project of national interest by October 1, 2026.

It slows the industrial carbon price from a previously planned $170 per tonne by 2030 to $130 per tonne by 2040.

It ties pipeline approval to a carbon capture project the federal government's own analysts have questioned.

Coastal First Nations, whose territory the pipeline must cross to reach tidewater, were not consulted before the deal was signed. The Implementation Agreement sits on top of the Building Canada Act, which the Carney government passed in June 2025.

That law lets cabinet exempt favoured projects from 13 federal statutes, including the Fisheries Act, the Species at Risk Act, the Impact Assessment Act, and the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.

This morning, the federal government referred its first three projects to the new Major Projects Office for fast-tracking. More will follow. Alberta is expected to submit its pipeline proposal on July 1. In May, Ottawa proposed going further.

A federal discussion paper released the same week as the Carney-Smith meeting suggested limiting federal review of major projects to one year, exempting pipelines from impact assessments entirely, and granting cabinet authority to override the Species at Risk Act's last-resort protection against driving a species extinct. Public comment closed June 6.

Made in Canada, owned in Houston

Here is a detail the federal government does not lead with when it talks about "Canadian energy sovereignty". A significant amount of the fossil fuel projects the government is driving forward are owned by the same American oil and gas companies who represent an integral pillar of the larger structure of the MAGA-driven project of American imperialism (i.e. the 51st state bullshit).

Take Ksi Lisims LNG, one of the BC projects already flagged for fast-track treatment.

On paper, Ksi Lisims is a partnership between the Nisga'a Nation, Rockies LNG, and a company called Western LNG.

In practice, every asset the project builds will be constructed, owned, and operated by wholly-owned subsidiaries of Western LNG, which is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Western LNG is funded by two Wall Street private equity firms, Blackstone and Apollo Global Management. Blackstone's CEO, Stephen Schwarzman, is one of Donald Trump's largest political donors.

The floating LNG facility itself is slated to be built in Korea by Samsung Heavy Industries.

Of the six First Nations beyond the Nisga'a whose consent was sought, four declined to give it.

The Carney-Smith pipeline is a similar story.

The four oil sands companies that would supply it, known collectively as the Pathways Alliance, account for 80 per cent of Canadian oil sands production.

They are 73 per cent foreign-owned and 60 per cent American-owned. Imperial Oil, one of the four, is 70 per cent owned by ExxonMobil.

Between 2021 and 2024, those four companies paid out $79.7 billion in dividends and share buybacks to their shareholders. About 62 per cent of that money went to American shareholders.

That is roughly $12 billion a year in profits leaving the country, never to return, while Canadian households were squeezed by the same energy prices that generated those profits.

US ownership of Canadian oil and gas companies overall has climbed from 56 per cent at the end of 2024 to about 59 per cent today, according to BMO Capital Markets.

Canadian ownership has slipped from 37 per cent to 34 per cent over the same period.

US fund managers tell financial reporters they are buying in because Ottawa's rhetoric on energy has gotten friendlier and they expect more cash returned to shareholders.

So when you hear "Canadian energy superpower," it is worth asking who actually owns the power.

The Carney government has spent significant political capital positioning itself as a counterweight to Donald Trump.

The Building Canada Act, the Carney-Smith MOU, and the fast-tracking of projects like Ksi Lisims tell a different story.

The capital flowing out of these projects, in many cases, ends up in the hands of the same American billionaires who write the cheques that keep Trump in power.

The flag on the box is Canadian. Most of the profits inside it are not.

Why this is not a "climate people" issue

I want to say something plainly.

A liveable climate is not a left-wing issue or a right-wing issue.

It is a "do you eat food, drink water, and breathe air" issue. The heat dome did not check anyone's voting record before it killed them. It came for ecosocialists, milquetoast moderates, and people with Fuck Trudeau stickers on their pickups , all the same.

Wildfire smoke does not care if you have read Naomi Klein or if you think she is a crank. Drought does not give farmers a partisan pass. The atmosphere is not running an opinion poll. If you eat food, that food grows in soil that needs predictable water and predictable weather.

If you drink water, that water comes from watersheds that depend on snowpack, glaciers, and intact forests.

If you breathe air, you are breathing what the wildfires put in it every summer now, and your lungs do not have a political affiliation. You already care about the climate. You might not know it yet, but you do. The federal government, meanwhile, is structuring its agenda around protecting the wealth of the companies that profited from the emissions that cooked British Columbia in 2021.

That is not a hot take. That is what the Implementation Agreement says on paper.

The deal locks in policy concessions for one industry. The pipeline it greenlights is engineered to ship product through territory whose Indigenous nations have explicitly withheld consent.

The fast-track law underneath it lets cabinet override the legislation that was supposed to protect the rest of us. The People's MOU is what a deal would look like if ordinary Canadians, instead of oil and gas executives, were on the other side of the table.

The text

Here it is, in full. 350.org is asking every MP to sign it.

We, the people, commit to defending the safety of our communities, the wellbeing of our ecosystems, and the future of our planet. And we urge you, as a representative of the Government of Canada, to commit to:

• Stop fast-tracking destruction: Abandon the dangerous recent proposal that exempts mega-projects from safety and environmental regulations. Protect our communities and the land: Uphold Indigenous rights, environmental protections, and ensure meaningful consultations with impacted communities.
• Stop building climate-burning pipelines: Reject the proposed toxic tar sands pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific coast, and end all new oil, coal, and gas extraction in Canada. Accelerate the energy transition: Deliver a strong climate action plan and launch a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels while supporting workers and communities.
• Stop letting Big Oil profit at our expense: Impose a 75% excess profits tax on the wartime windfall of fossil fuel companies and end subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. Fund our future: Invest in East-West-North electricity grids that bring affordable, renewable energy to all, while uplifting Indigenous leadership and creating tens of thousands of good, green jobs.

Where to be tomorrow

There is no action in Langley. The closest events are scattered across Surrey, Burnaby, and Vancouver. If you can make it to one, here is the list.

• Surrey Centre, 10:00 AM at the office of MP Randeep Sarai, 10362 King George Boulevard, Suite 170
• Burnaby Central, 10:00 AM at the office of MP Wade Chang, 4940 Kingsway
• Vancouver Centre, 12:00 PM at the office of MP Hedy Fry, 112-1030 Denman Street
• South Surrey-White Rock, 1:00 PM at the office of MP Ernie Klassen, 135-1959 152 Street
• Vancouver Quadra, 1:30 PM at the office of MP Wade Grant, 4440 West 10th Avenue

A full directory of actions across Canada is at 350.org/mou.

How to reach your own MP

If you cannot make it to an action in person, the second-best thing is a phone call or an email. Constituent contacts get logged.

They matter, especially when they come in numbers. Langley is split across three federal ridings. All three are currently represented by Conservative MPs. Here is where to reach each of them.

Tako Van Popta (Langley Township-Fraser Heights)
Email: Tako.VanPopta@parl.gc.ca
Constituency office: 604-534-5955
Ottawa office: 613-992-1157

Tamara Jansen (Cloverdale-Langley City)
Email: tamara.jansen@parl.gc.ca
Constituency office: 604-575-6595
Ottawa office: 613-992-0884

Sukhman Gill (Abbotsford-South Langley)
Email: sukhman.gill@parl.gc.ca
Constituency office: 778-327-2454
Ottawa office: 613-995-0183

If you are not sure which riding you live in, Elections Canada has a postal code lookup at elections.ca.

If you are not sure which riding you live in, Elections Canada has a postal code lookup at [elections.ca](https://www.elections.ca).

A script for the phone

A constituency office call usually goes to a staffer, not the MP. Be polite and brief. Something like this works.

Hi, my name is [your name] and I am a constituent in [riding]. I am calling to ask [the MP] to sign the People's MOU, the citizen's counter-proposal to the Canada-Alberta pipeline agreement. I am concerned about the rollback of environmental protections in the Carney-Smith deal, and about the Building Canada Act's exemptions from federal laws like the Fisheries Act and the Species at Risk Act. A liveable climate is a public safety issue for our region. Could you please pass that along to the MP? Thank you for your time.

A script for email

Use a clear subject line. Something like "Please sign the People's MOU" works.

Dear [MP],

I am a constituent in [your riding]. I am writing to ask you to sign the People's MOU, the citizen's counter-proposal organized by 350 Canada in response to the Canada-Alberta Implementation Agreement.

I am concerned that the recent agreement and the Building Canada Act weaken climate protections, allow cabinet to override federal statutes including the Species at Risk Act and the Fisheries Act, and proceed without the consent of Coastal First Nations.

The 2021 heat dome killed 619 people in British Columbia, most of them in our region. A liveable climate is not a partisan issue. It is a public safety issue, and our constituency has already paid the price of getting it wrong.

I would appreciate hearing your position on the People's MOU. The full text is available at 350.org/mou.

Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your street address]
[Your postal code]

You do not need to be eloquent. You do not need to be an expert. You just need to be on the record.

A closing thought

Five years ago tomorrow, the dying started.

Those of us who lived through that week in Fraser Health do not need to be convinced that the climate is a community safety issue.

We lived through what the climate is preparing to do to all of us, more often, in more places, if the federal government stays on its current course. The People's MOU is a deal worth signing. The question is whether anyone in Ottawa is willing to.

References and Further Reading

• The People's MOU Day of Action, June 25, 2026 (350.org)
• Canada and Alberta strike agreement to diversify our exports, reduce emissions, and build a stronger economy (Prime Minister of Canada, May 15, 2026)
• Carney, Smith reach energy agreement that could see pipeline construction start in 2027 (CBC News, May 15, 2026)
• Did someone say MOU? Reading between the lines of Mark Carney's plan to build an oil pipeline from Alberta to the BC coast (Greenpeace Canada)
• Beyond C-5: Upcoming New Bill to Fast-Track Federal Approval for all Major Projects (JFK Law, May 19, 2026)
• Feds push to have 3 northern projects fast-tracked under Building Canada Act (CBC News, June 24, 2026)
• Fast tracking major projects puts our environment at risk (Canada's National Observer, June 9, 2026)
• BC Government approves American-owned Ksi Lisims LNG project (Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, September 2025)
• What is the Ksi Lisims LNG project being fast tracked by feds in B.C.? (CBC News, November 2025)
• Ksi Lisims LNG Natural Gas Liquefaction and Marine Terminal Project Overview (BC Environmental Assessment Office)
• U.S.-Owned Oil Sands Giants Send Profits Out of Canada Despite Public Support for Resource Sovereignty (The Energy Mix, December 2025)
• Why U.S. investors are eyeing the Canadian oilpatch, even as oil prices dip (CBC News, October 2025)
• Extreme Heat and Human Mortality: A Review of Heat-Related Deaths in B.C. in Summer 2021 (BC Coroners Service, June 2022)
• MP Tako Van Popta contact and biography (House of Commons of Canada)
• MP Tamara Jansen contact and biography (House of Commons of Canada)
• MP Sukhman Gill contact and biography (House of Commons of Canada)