McLeod Group guest blog by Angela Keller-Herzog, April 28, 2021
The federal government’s Budget 2021 aims “to build a healthier, more inclusive, and more equal Canada” and to address the social issues resulting from the COVID pandemic and the climate crisis. But sadly, the recovery plan set out in this budget lacks ambition in tackling the climate emergency. It is a plan from a government that has already failed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions during the six years it has been in power. Two days later, at US President Joe Biden’s climate summit, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was himself caught off guard and had to present a higher reduction target than the one in his own budget.
Budget 2021 is a plan based on assumptions of unlimited economic growth, with little mention of tax reform or the redistribution of wealth. There are minimal new luxury taxes and taxes on foreign landowners, but none that provides an incentive for a truly innovative approach. In short, the budget more or less proposes that we do the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result.
As Canadians, we need to take ourselves out of this failing loop and begin measuring our success not only or especially with growth in mind, but against our state of wellbeing. A good example of this is the New Zealand government’s Wellbeing Approach.
There are concrete policies already in place that we can build on. The budget commits the government to a conservation target of 25% of our lands and oceans by 2025. It sets aside $2.3 billion to do this. To make this a success, it is imperative that the government engage local communities.
Canada has to move away from fossil fuels. And we must do this while transitioning the workers and their families in the fossil fuel industries to alternative livelihoods. This pandemic has offered examples of how to provide social protection and alternative options to workers and their families during economically difficult times – such as social support and retraining.
The Liberal government has been subsidizing the oil and gas industry for years. The budget continues this practice, allocating $5 billion to the Net Carbon Accelerator Fund. Although it may sound promising, it is actually a subsidy to the fossil fuel industry, which produces 80% of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions. This budget item is premised on the hope that the oil and gas sector will come up with technologies that have been in development since the 1980s, but have provided no solutions. We need to look at reducing investments in the fossil fuel industry and focusing instead on technologies like solar, wind, geothermal and waves.
This shift will require transformational change, inspired by community engagement. It will require working with municipalities, clean technology start-ups and community organizations.
The budget includes an important initiative for homeowners, allocating $4.4 billion for retrofitting homes and reducing energy costs via interest-free loans. This program should be extended to multi-family and residential buildings. More details will be needed on how the Infrastructure Bank will channel that opportunity. And while the government should be commended on its announcement, it does not yet assist Canadians in actually undertaking these retrofits. The proof will be in the concrete programs rolled out.
The budget also makes some regulatory commitments, including for zero-emission vehicles, which are helpful. However, a broader regulatory agenda on greening transport still needs to be laid out.
The budget allocates $17.6 billion over seven years to support a “green recovery”. But the target of a 36% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions outlined in the budget still falls short of what is needed to meet our share in keeping global warming below 1.5-2 degrees by 2030.
In sum, Budget 2021 goes beyond what the Liberal government has aspired to or delivered in the past. But it is not ambitious or transformational enough in the face of the climate emergency’s existential threat.
Angela Keller-Herzog was the 2019 Green Party candidate for Ottawa Centre. She is a community leader on climate change and an activist for social justice and immigrant rights. She presented her analysis at an online event on the budget and Canadian foreign policy, co-organized by the Group of 78 and the McLeod Group and summarized here. Image: NoticiasNet.