The Office of Religious Congregations for Integral Ecology
On August 1, the federal government opened a public comment period on whether to designate the West Coast Oil Pipeline a project of national interest, fast-tracking it past the usual environmental review.
Add your voice.
Send in a short note, a few paragraphs, about why this decision matters to you.
After fifteen months of steady advocacy and education, the Turn Debt Into Hope campaign reached a powerful culmination on April 28 with a Parliamentary breakfast and a rally on Parliament Hill.
The global campaign was led by Caritas Internationalis in 2025 to mark the Jubilee Year around the world. In Canada, it was carried out by an ecumenical coalition of organizations, including Development and Peace – Caritas Canada (DPCC), KAIROS Canada, Citizens for Public Justice, the Canadian Council of Churches, and ORCIE.
For ORCIE, this moment marked not only the close of a national campaign and a recognition of the strength of coalition work, but also a clear demonstration of what becomes possible when Religious Congregations engage their elected leaders with courage and hope.
Through the Turn Debt into Hope campaign, ORCIE shifted its advocacy to a Canadian focus—calling for grants instead of loans for climate finance and the cancellation of unsustainable debts for developing countries.
How we took part
Sasquia Antúnez Pineda, Vickie McNally, Sister Pat Boucher, MP Rob Oliphant, and Sister Janet Speth
A turning point came on March 30, when the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto, accompanied by ORCIE staff Sasquia Antúnez Pineda, met with MP Rob Oliphant, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
This meeting—rooted in the Sisters’ ongoing presence and ministry in his riding—opened the door to everything that followed. MP Oliphant agreed to:
The day began with a Parliamentary breakfast, sponsored by MP Oliphant and the Sisters of St. Joseph, titled “Turn Debt Into Hope: Why tackling sovereign debt matters for global stability and sustainable development.”
MPs from multiple parties attended, including Elizabeth May, Brendan Hanley, and Greg Fergus, along with Parliamentary staffers, representatives from civil society organizations including ONE Campaign, Results Canada, the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability, Climate Action Network Canada, Citizens’ Climate Lobby and KAIROS members. Their presence reflected the broad, cross‑party concern for debt justice.
Speakers
Wesley Chibamba (Caritas Africa); Dean Detloff and Kiegan Irish (Development and Peace–Caritas Canada); Caroline Brouillette (Climate Action Network Canada)
Moderators: Beth Lorimer (KAIROS) and Geneviève Gallant (ORCIE)
At noon, more than 100 people gathered for the rally on Parliament Hill. MP Oliphant accepted 75,500+ Canadian signatures, joined by MP Judy Sgro. Students, sisters, professors, and coalition partners brought energy and justice calls to the moment.
MP Oliphant spoke about Jubilee’s biblical foundations and Canada’s past involvement in sovereign debt cancellation, while also underscoring the urgent need to confront today’s unsustainable and unfair debt burdens crippling developing countries: “Canada has led the way for almost seventy years in debt forgiveness. We don’t forgive all debt, because the reality is that we want a combination of grants and loans—this helps countries establish sustainability, credit ratings, it establishes them as full partners in our global world. But debt can be crippling, can be unsustainable and can drop down the level and standard of living that all of us can benefit from. So, I am pleased to receive these petitions.”
MP Judy Sgro: “We are waiting for you to work with us to ensure that we have a better world”
This campaign showed something important: MPs respond to their local communities. The engagement of ORCIE congregations—your signatures, your meetings with your MPs, your faithful presence—wove an important thread into the wider coalition effort.
Together, this helped nurture:
• The Parliamentary breakfast
• The public petition handover on Parliament Hill
• Cross‑party MP engagement
• A united coalition voice for debt and climate justice
We are deeply grateful to every congregation that participated, and especially to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto for their decisive role in meeting MP Oliphant. Your witness made these moments possible.
The coalition has already held more than 20 meetings with MPs, with a few additional conversations still anticipated. On April 21, MP Brendan Hanley presented the Parliamentary Paper Petition in the House of Commons, and several other MPs are expected to table petitions in the coming weeks.
The coalition has also submitted a request to appear before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development as part of its study on the sovereign debt crisis. If invited, ORCIE would participate as a supporting witness on ecological debt.
As these final petition readings unfold, ORCIE will continue offering accompaniment to congregations engaging their local MPs, recognizing that advocacy grounded in community relationships has the greatest impact.
Watch MP Brendan Hanley read the Parliamentary Paper Petition in the House of Commons: ParlVu
Access to safe, reliable drinking water remains a fundamental human right. In our earlier reflection on Clean Water for All, we explored the promise of Bill C‑61 and the urgent need for federal leadership to ensure that every First Nation has the infrastructure, resources, and authority required to protect this basic human right.
Today, we continue that call.
ORCIE has submitted a new advocacy letter to the Honourable Mandy Gull‑Masty, Minister of Indigenous Services Canada, urging the federal government to reintroduce strong, rights‑affirming legislation in early 2026. The delays surrounding Bill C‑61—and the continued boil‑water advisories affecting communities across the country—underscore the human cost of inaction.
Our message is clear: safe drinking water cannot be postponed.
It is a matter of dignity, health, and reconciliation.
We invite you to revisit our original post on the First Nations Clean Water Act to understand the broader context and the voices calling for change:
👉 Read: Clean Water for All
Together, let us continue advocating for transparent, adequately funded, community‑led solutions that honour First Nations’ inherent jurisdiction over water and uphold the human right to clean water for all.
At the G7 Jubilee People’s Forum in Calgary this past June, ORCIE joined over 100 participants, social justice activists and people of faith from across Canada to call for global debt justice. Just four months after the Turn Debt Into Hope campaign was launched, the People’s Forum offered two key elements that demonstrate practical ways forward for the movement for debt justice.
The G7 Jubilee People’s Forum began with a dynamic Interfaith Service where multiple faith traditions prayed for justice in the Jubilee year. Led by the Calgary Interfaith Council, the service included voices and elements from Muslim, Hindu, Indigenous, Jewish, Buddhist, Bahai, Sikh, Unitarian and Christian traditions, followed by a meal from the community kitchen of the Calgary Sikh gurdwara. The Council, 30 years strong, not only focuses on deepening relationships across faith traditions, but they also urge members of their community to educate themselves, become advocates for peace and justice, and pave the way for integrated coexistence for future generations. Members of the Council did not just participate in the first evening but stayed throughout the Forum and deepened their engagement with the Jubilee campaign. It was a vivid example to the ecumenical movement of the need to expand our relationships and work beyond our own faith and cultural communities.
In Christian communities we often invite one or two other faith traditions to join the existing group, expecting newcomers to adapt to the group’s own history and way of doing things. Instead, what if we reach out to local interfaith groups, to create and build relationships that could lead to collaboration? Or what are the local Christian cultural communities, not necessarily part of the mainline churches, who we have neglected to include in our ecumenical work?
The city of Calgary is on the traditional territories of the Peoples of Treaty 7, which include the Blackfoot Confederacy (comprised of the Siksika, the Piikani, and the Kainai First Nations), the Tsuut’ina First Nation, and the Stoney Nakoda (including Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Goodstoney First Nations). Calgary is also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta.
With a desire to go beyond land acknowledgements, each day of the Forum included dedicated time for an opening session by an Elder from the three main nations. A high point of the weekend was travelling to Mînî Thnî for an interfaith prayer meeting on sacred ground at the Stoney Nakoda First Nations Medicine Wheel. Leaving the classrooms to see the stunning mountains, the prairie flowers and the Bow River allowed for deeper integration of mind, heart and spirit.
Reverend Tony Snow and Elders from the Bearspaw, Chiniki and Goodstoney First Nations joined the interfaith circle at Mnî Thnî to lift up prayers for the Jubilee vision for the world. Rev. Tony: “Built by Elders from the Ecumenical circle, the Medicine Wheel commemorates the journey of restoration that our people have traveled to honour the wisdom of our ancestors. In this space we invite interfaith prayer and ceremony to lead us. In this sacred space we bring hopes and dreams, guided by the wisdom of many traditions.” Alongside education and strategizing at the Forum, creating space for Indigenous Elders to share their wisdom and for each person to set foot on sacred Indigenous land provided us a chance to catch our breath, to taste a decolonized Christianity, and be stunned by the glory of creation. This time of integration set a strong foundation for the action steps where participants spoke about debt justice in local churches and rallied in the streets of Calgary.
Bill C-61, currently in front of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Indigenous Affairs and the North, aims to ensure that First Nations have reliable access to sufficient, adequate, safe drinking water and effective wastewater disposal.
To date Indigenous Services Canada has been unable to provide effective water treatment systems, with sufficient resources and training etc., and there has been little and no regulatory regime. Will Bill C-61 move us forward, where we would see the federal government finally supply each and every community with effective water treatment systems, and commit to a transfer of ownership to give First Nations responsibility for their drinking water? How can the Bill be improved?
Council on Canadians has a briefing note with recommendations and a call to action. Recent media about the 30 year long boil water advisory in Neskantaga First Nation, speaks to the importance of community led solutions to infrastructure challenges. In Neskantaga’s case, Chief Chris Moonias describes a patchwork of short-term solutions over the years that have cost tens of millions of dollars and haven’t addressed the root of the problem.
Let’s keep in mind if the Bill does not make it through the House and Senate before the election it will likely be an issue we can highlight on the campaign trail.