With Canada’s federal budget just one month away, a new analysis from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) and Climate Action Network Canada (CAN-Rac) finds that Canada still is not spending what it takes to respond to the climate crisis – but that effective, achievable solutions are at hand.
Federal climate spending will rise from 0.5 per cent of GDP today to 0.7 per cent over the next five years – still considerably below the 2 per cent target that experts believe is necessary to decarbonize the economy and compete in the global energy transition.
With cost-of-living and extreme weather events both on the rise, investing now in climate action is critical for long-term affordability.
CAN-Rac and CCPA highlight three practical steps that the federal government can take in Budget 2024 to address immediate affordability concerns and bring tangible benefits while cutting emissions:
- Expand the heat pump affordability program to lower energy bills, improve households’ quality of life, and cut emissions from buildings;
- Establish a youth climate corps to fill skills shortages while bridging youth into good green jobs; and
- Extend the windfall profits tax to the oil and gas sector, to ensure that polluters pay their fair share, as countries such as the UK have done, which could raise $4.2 billion or more.
All of these measures are popular: there is more interest in heat pumps than ever, while recent polls have found that 78 per cent of Canadians support or can accept a Youth Climate Corps, and that 62 per cent agree with a windfall tax on oil and gas companies’ record profits.
This report was published in collaboration with Climate Action Network – Reseau Action Climat Canada
