Rainforest Action Network

"The World's Boreal Forest, of which Canada is a major trustee, is under siege."

-Canadian Senate Sub-Committee on the Boreal Forest.

Canada is home to one of the world’s three largest remaining intact forest ecosystems, comprising 25 percent of the remaining original forests globally. Providing critical habitat for caribou, grizzly bears, and billions of song birds and waterfowl -- in addition to being home to 600 Fist Nation communities -- this region is truly a global treasure and North America's greatest remaining conservation opportunity.

Across the Canadian Boreal and beyond, Canada's five largest banks - RBC, Scotiabank, Toronto-Dominion Bank, BMO and CIBC - bankroll contentious oil, gas and forestry operations that are fueling climate change, fragmenting Canadian wilderness, destroying critical habitat for threatened and endangered species, and contributing to on-going human rights abuses.

Toronto Dominion (TD)

Until now, none of the Canadian banks have had public environmental or human rights policies. But of all the banks, Toronto Dominion bank was the laggard in the Canadian banking sector. When we brought this to their attention they started to work on changing that. In June 2007 TD took a real leap forward with the release of their public environmental policy. All eyes are now on TD to see how this policy will translate into changes in their financing and operations.

How will these lofty commitments translate into change on the ground? The true test will be in seeing how TD changes its financing of egregious projects such as those named in our investor briefing "Bankrupting the Future, the Truth Behind the Greenwash".

But for now, congratulations are due to TD for being the first Canadian Bank to step forward with a public environmental policy that will serve as an example to their peers.

Read RAN's press release about TD's environmental policy.

Read TD's environmental policy.

With total assets of more than $350 billion (Cdn), TD Bank is Canada’s third largest bank and a major player in Canada's corporate lending market. Through its lending and investments to corporate loggers, miners and oil companies, TD Bank has a significant “footprint” in Canada’s Boreal Forest and around the world.

Take Action!

Send an email to CEO Ed Clark!

Who and what TD Bank is willing to finance has significant implications for the future integrity of the Canadian Boreal. Across the Boreal, the window of opportunity to conserve the many values of these forests for future generations is rapidly closing.

• In the endangered forest of the Alberta Rocky Mountain Foothills region, critical habitats for caribou herds are being clear-cut instead of conserved, and it's being bankrolled by TD Bank.
• Although the Canadian Boreal is one of the most sensitive frontline ecosystems to the effects of climate change, TD Bank is aggressively funding tar sands development, one of the worst climate polluters and dirtiest sources of oil in existence.
• Internationally, TD Bank finances the further development of a socially and environmentally bankrupt Rosia Montana open pit gold mine in Romania that even the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC) has rejected.

TD Bank can do better.

We are asking TD Bank to join with other leaders in the banking industry like Citigroup, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs and take responsibility for the destructive impacts of its investments.

Take Action! Send an email to TD Bank's CEO, Ed Clark!