In July 2025, For Our Kids parents from Ontario and Montreal met with BMO’s Chief Sustainability Officer Michael Torrance for the second time.
In our first meeting in 2024, we weren’t satisfied with the answers we received. So this time, we came prepared with detailed questions to better understand BMO’s approach to financing fossil fuels and how, if at all, they’re addressing the climate impacts of their business. 
The conversation was illuminating. What we heard from Torrance is that BMO has no plans to eventually phase out fossil fuel financing, and that they’re focused on “engaging” their big oil and gas clients to help them reduce their climate impact, rather than moving away from these companies to fund actual climate solutions. This is concerning because we know that we must transition off of fossil fuels as quickly as possible, and banks should play a key role in financing this transition. We also know that oil and gas companies are not trustworthy partners in the transition – many are actively engaged in undermining climate policy, greenwashing their activities, and underreporting their emissions (which constituted 31% of Canada’s overall emissions in 2024). None of them intend to move their business out of fossil fuels, the main driver of emissions. By continuing to prop up these companies, BMO is enabling the path to further climate chaos. Meanwhile, BMO says it’s waiting for the government to make the first move and regulate the financial industry. We urged them to take the opportunity to be a leader in this space, and push forward Canada’s banks, who are falling behind globally in the energy transition.
Another key takeaway from our meeting was that the data banks like BMO are gathering and disclosing to assess their climate progress is partial and insufficient, and there’s a lack of transparency with the public. Their “Transition Action Plan” is not publicly available, and they’re unwilling to discuss specific clients, which makes it difficult to hold them accountable for their relationship with polluting projects and companies. While BMO says it’s meeting its targets, these targets often fail to paint the whole picture, allowing them to demonstrate progress while simply maintaining business as usual. As Canadians and customers, we’re deeply affected by these decisions. We deserve more transparency from these institutions, as well as standardized tools to properly understand their progress. For example, we discovered that BMO’s financed emissions reported in its 2024 Sustainability Report (p. 84) only assessed “CO2” in its emissions reduction targets rather than “CO2 equivalent,” which is a measurement that includes all greenhouse gases (GHGs). This means that methane, a massive source of heating emissions, as well as other polluting GHGs, were not even included in the reporting of these downstream emissions! 
Since 2023, BMO has been the main sponsor of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers’ (CAPP) annual symposium. CAPP is known to lobby against climate policy and has been ranked the 6th worst association in the world for obstructing climate action. We also asked Torrance why BMO chooses to sponsor this event. He insisted that sponsorship does not mean endorsement. We countered that any reasonable person would assume sponsorship is a form of support, and if BMO wants to “engage” with CAPP, there are other ways besides providing direct financial support and social licence through sponsorship. In the words of CAPP’s President & CEO Lisa Baiton, BMO was recognized as a partner “who understands the great value Canada’s oil and natural gas industry brings to people across this country.”
We’ve asked to keep the conversation going with BMO, and they’ve said they are willing to continue engaging.
Are you a BMO customer or concerned parent? Send us any additional questions that you want to ask BMO at [email protected], and send an email to BMO HERE calling for ambitious action to stop financing fossil fuels and start funding an equitable, green future for everyone.
