The letter was due to be published at 9 AM November 17, but it was already making waves by then.
“A senior member of one minister’s team contacted me to discuss the letter and defend [the budget],” Canada’s Clean50 Executive Director Gavin Pitchford told The Energy Mix in an email. “I responded that we were not meeting the moment. And we aren’t. We have someone in the midst of a heart attack. The moment requires an ambulance, stat! Instead, the Liberals have called Uber—but are defending that, by saying [other parties] would make the patient walk.”
The signatories commend the government “for the few budget measures that take meaningful steps toward addressing the climate emergency,” including methane regulations, maintaining the federal industrial carbon pricing framework, public transit electrification, tax measures to advance clean energy investment, and establishment of a Youth Climate Corps. But they list five areas where the budget falls short:
• Insufficient support for the clean economy sector;
• Cuts to national reforestation and nature restoration efforts, including the decision to cancel the 2 Billion Trees initiative;
• Rolling back federal anti-greenwashing rules;
• Setting the stage to abandon the government’s watered-down, long-delayed cap on oil and gas emissions;
• Dropping existing climate risk mitigation measures and failing to introduce new ones, “leaving communities at significant risk for future forest fires and extreme weather.”
The signatories urge Liberal climate caucus members and MPs from all parties to advocate for restoring and strengthening climate policies and programs. “’Elbows up’,” they declare, “means skating to where the puck is going. Not sitting back in our own end, defending an aging goalie.”
