Leading into the update, the Trudeau government downplayed expectations for serious investment in a “greener and more just Canada,” MacDonald writes. But “other countries have delivered budgets and other countries have committed huge stimulus packages to climate goals, recognizing that the pandemic represents a once-in-generation opportunity to embrace the challenges and the opportunities around climate change.”
While “certainly, near-term spending needs to focus on the pandemic,” he added, “governments should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time.”
Climate Action Network-Canada said the fiscal update contained “many encouraging signals,” along with “a few areas we will watch with close scrutiny”, in a statement that acknowledged the “exceptionally difficult COVID-19 pandemic year” the country has faced.
“Today’s statement reflects the need to protect people, communities, and workers as we strive to build back better. In doing so, it affirms the calls from hundreds of civil society organizations earlier this year, including Climate Action Network-Canada and many of its members and allies, for governments to support a just recovery for all,” CAN-Rac said in a release. It applauded Freeland for positioning climate action “at the heart of the federal plan to create a million jobs,” adding that “green job creation through post-pandemic recovery goes far beyond specific climate policies.”
Environmental Defence Climate and Energy Program Manager Julia Levin acknowledged the green economy commitments in the update as an “important step in the right direction”, but stressed that “far greater investments are necessary to truly tackle the scale of the climate crisis.” After months of civil society advocacy for a just, green recovery, she said groups are “glad to see important commitments to tackle the social injustices people in Canada endure every day, which are critical to ensuring a healthy and safe society for all.”
Our Last, Best Chance for a Green Recovery is Disappointing
Photo by Johannes Plenio from Pexels
Last September it was announced that Freeland, Carney may be Canada’s last, best chance for a green recovery. As appearances go, it was starting to look promising.
So when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau travelled to Houston in March 2017 and declared fealty to a fossil fuel industry already entering its sunset years, he showed it was bound to be a long, hard climb back to more sober-minded policy-making.
“No country would find 173 billion barrels of oil in the ground and just leave them there,” Trudeau (video) told participants at the big CERAWeek oil and gas conference. “The resource will be developed. Our job is to ensure this is done responsibly, safely and sustainably.”
The question for Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland as she settles into her new cabinet portfolio is whether that statement still rings true in the context of a global health emergency, an accelerating climate crisis, a mounting wave of fossil fuel divestment and stranded assets, and the meteoric rise of clean energy alternatives.
‘The restart of our economy needs to be green’: Freeland on de-carbonization of Canadian economy pic.twitter.com/9yYk37pi2c
— BNN Bloomberg (@BNNBloomberg) August 18, 2020
It was believed she would have an understanding of how the poor have had to live in pollution and how these communities have been marginalized with no-one to speak for them. She will be well aware of the health affects oil, gas, and coal have imposed on people and how it has affected the health of the world’s population. She will be more attuned to Trudeau’s vision of creating a greener recovery than Mr. Morneau was. He was more of a capitalist and was more apt to direct funds, unaligned with the prime minister’s vision.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Bill Morneau, former finance minster, was the problem. Then, perhaps Trudeau didn’t have the vision he claimed to have. It’s thought the U.S. election outcome could affect Canada’s environment and energy future. It depends on how well President Biden and Trudeau work together,
