By Zak Vescera, Matt Simmons,
Local Journalism Initiative Reporters
A Canadian oil and gas firm successfully pressed Canada’s spy agency to begin sharing government intelligence with powerful private companies, a shift that advocates say will help protect critical infrastructure while critics fear civil rights could be at risk.
TC Energy, a major North American pipeline company, asked the former head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) to create regular “information-sharing” meetings between the agency, the RCMP and representatives of major Canadian corporations, according to internal government documents.
The company argued the meetings would allow for “private, high-level discussions about security threats facing Canadian industry.” It proposed forming a “Canadian Security Alliance Council” through which CSIS could share “unclassified but sensitive” intelligence with corporations generating at least $500 million in annual revenue.
TC Energy said it needed access to such information because of “acute risks from foreign adversaries” seeking to sabotage critical infrastructure. “[G]iven the severity of the present threat, we support immediate action as current law permits,” the company wrote in February 2024.
Emails show then-CSIS director David Vigneault replied that he would help “advance our shared interests.” “We are seized with the issue and we appreciate your support,” Vigneault wrote in May 2024.
TC Energy did not respond to requests for comment.
The federal government has since passed legislation making it easier for CSIS to share intelligence with organizations outside government. Senior CSIS official Nicole Giles told attendees at the Vancouver International Security Summit in October that the agency has briefed members of the Business Council of Canada, which was involved in TC Energy’s proposal. TC Energy CEO François Poirier sits on the council’s board.
The result is that some of Canada’s wealthiest companies now have access to intelligence traditionally held only within government.
CSIS spokesperson Magali Hébert said the agency and the Business Council of Canada “have enjoyed a productive relationship that has advanced the interests of Canadians and of Canada’s economic security.” She said CSIS is considering “formal mechanisms” to expand information sharing with outside groups and that the proposed Security Alliance Council remains “conceptual.”
Hébert said CSIS made 28 disclosures in 2024 to governments, “ethnic, cultural and religious communities” and businesses but did not identify which ones. Sharing intelligence with industry, she said, can protect “Canada’s research ecosystem and economic prosperity from foreign interference, espionage and unwanted knowledge transfer.”
The Business Council of Canada argues companies need threat information to counter increasingly common cyberattacks from hostile states and criminal networks.
“We are being honest with people that businesses are under attack. Our economy is under attack. Our way of life is under attack,” council president Goldy Hyder said at the Vancouver summit, adding that Canadian companies “can’t be boy scouts.”
Hyder called Vigneault, now in the private security intelligence sector, a “dear friend” and said they communicate regularly. Vigneault referred questions to his employer, Strider, an American intelligence company, which declined to comment.
Council spokesperson Michèle-Jamali Paquette said intelligence shared by CSIS is “tightly limited” and can only be used to “strengthen resilience against security threats.”
Civil liberties advocates warn the new access could discourage legitimate political protest, particularly against oil and gas projects operated by companies like TC Energy.
CSIS says it is prohibited from investigating lawful dissent. Hébert said the agency only investigates individuals if there is “reasonable suspicion” they are planning activities that fall under CSIS’s mandate, such as violent extremism.
But BC Civil Liberties Association litigation director Vibert Jack said the information-sharing shift risks silencing critics. “I think the overall prospect it raises is a chilling effect on overall dissent and protest,” he said. “The more data is being collected about people who are voicing dissent and the more that data gets shared between different parties, the more consequences can flow.”
TC Energy has pressed for increased corporate access to CSIS intelligence for years. The company hired former Trump administration officials to lobby CSIS for changes, including at an October 2023 security summit in Palo Alto, California.
The Narwhal obtained recordings from internal TC Energy meetings in which a former U.S. State Department official working for TC Energy said he had directly approached Vigneault about sharing classified intelligence with companies.
In its 2024 proposal, TC Energy called existing information-sharing rules “archaic.” It pitched the working group as an “interim” way to distribute unclassified yet sensitive intelligence. The company suggested the Business Council of Canada act as convenor.
Emails show Vigneault encouraged both TC Energy and the council to bring their concerns to Parliament. The council went on to support Bill C-70, which amended the CSIS Act so the agency can share classified information outside government with approval from the public safety minister.
The legislation also introduced new criminal offences related to sabotaging critical infrastructure.
Paquette said CSIS previously “lacked the legal authority to proactively share threat intelligence with the private sector.” That gap, she said, left Canadian companies “fending for themselves” while countries like the United States and United Kingdom already had intelligence-sharing programs.
Paquette did not detail specific threats council members are concerned about.
Some national security experts welcome the new partnerships. Nitin Natarajan, a former U.S. deputy cybersecurity chief now working as a consultant, said sharing intelligence with private companies helps convince them to invest in cybersecurity.
“We are asking state-level jurisdictions and small cities to use taxpayer dollars to increase their cyber defences,” Natarajan said. “That is more critical today than ever.”
Others see risks.
University of New Brunswick associate professor Tia Dafnos said informal relationships between corporate executives and intelligence agencies create secrecy that undermines accountability. “One of the key concerns here is around the lack of transparency,” she said.
Dafnos said formalizing a space where powerful corporations and security agencies can openly coordinate could allow companies to influence how threats are defined. “Creating these venues is sort of creating space for the blurring of interests,” she said.
Companies like TC Energy already employ private security teams and contractors, she noted, that monitor protests, political opposition and the broader climate around their projects. Those resources, she said, could influence law enforcement priorities.
The BC Civil Liberties Association previously accused CSIS of spying on environmental groups opposed to a northern B.C. pipeline project. Jack worries greater intelligence sharing with industry could help quash similar protests in the future.
“I think it is fair to assume that part of the goal here for TC Energy is to find ways to prevent protest or lessen their impact at least on their operations,” Jack said.
He also criticized the tone of communications between CSIS and TC Energy. “It really seems as though CSIS views oil and gas companies as their partners,” Jack said. “They do not see [protesters and Indigenous land defenders] as having shared interests.”
Editor’s note: This story is a collaboration between the Investigative Journalism Foundation and The Narwhal.
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