December 11, 2020

Ottawa, Ontario

 

As we continue to address the challenges of today and the impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Canada remains focused on meeting the tests of the future. Climate change is the biggest long-term threat of our generation, but it is also the greatest economic opportunity. By accelerating action to fight climate change and rebuilding a more sustainable and resilient economy, we can create new jobs and opportunities for Canadians, while also ensuring cleaner air and water for our kids and grandkids.

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced Canada’s strengthened climate plan, A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy, which will help achieve our economic and environmental goals. The proposed plan, supported by an initial $15 billion in investments, will make life more affordable for Canadians, make communities more livable, and, at every turn, focus on creating jobs, growing the middle class, and supporting workers in a stronger and cleaner economy.

The plan’s measures will:

 

▪︎ Make the places we live and gather more affordable by cutting energy waste: We will cut pollution, make life more affordable, and create thousands of good new jobs by making it easier for Canadians to improve the energy efficiency of the places where they live and gather, including through investments in retrofits.

 

▪︎ Make clean, affordable transportation and power available in every community: We will build cleaner communities and help Canadians get around in more affordable ways, by expanding the supply of clean electricity through investments and other measures to increase renewables and next-generation clean energy and technology.

 

▪︎ Continue to ensure pollution isn’t free and households get more money back: We will give more money back to households in a way that leaves the majority of them better off, and reduce pollution, by continuing to put a rising price on pollution through to 2030.

 

▪︎ Build Canada’s clean industrial advantage: We will create economic growth, cut pollution, and ensure Canadians continue to have good-paying and long lasting jobs by helping Canadian businesses reduce emissions and make low-carbon products that the world wants to buy now and into the future.

 

▪︎ Embrace the power of nature to support healthier families and more resilient communities: We will cut pollution, clean the air we breathe, create jobs, and make our communities more resilient to extreme weather by planting two billion trees, supporting sustainable farming, and better managing, conserving, and restoring our nature.

 

Canada’s strengthened climate plan builds on continuing work with provinces and territories through the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change (PCF), which was released in 2016. When coupled with the PCF, the strengthened plan will do more to cut pollution in a practical and affordable way than any other climate plan in Canada’s history. It means we can exceed our 2030 Paris Agreement emissions reduction target and establish the building blocks to get to net-zero by 2050. The proposed plan will also enable Canada to be an active and constructive player in the global fight against climate change.

Climate change knows no borders. By continuing to work together on this urgent crisis, we will be able to avoid the worst effects of climate change and build a healthier and cleaner future, while also creating new jobs and economic growth for all Canadians.

 

BMO