Canada’s largest oil and gas lobby won’t let a crisis go to waste. As the global pandemic seized economies in 2020, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) went on the offensive, recording hundreds of meetings with government officials — more than any other year on record — data obtained by the Investigative Journalism Foundation and Canada’s National Observer reveal.

Led by CEO Lisa Baiton, CAPP is the fossil fuel industry’s chief lobby organization in Canada. It wields a multimillion-dollar budget and represents 41 oil and gas companies, big and small, involved in fossil fuel exploration and extraction. Fossil fuels are the main driver of climate change.