Past Recommendations

Budget 2024

The Green Budget Coalition’s Recommendations for Budget 2024 feature five recommendations focusing on:

1. Financing nature protection and recovery in Canada
2. A renovation wave for climate resilient homes and affordable home energy
3. Advancing a zero-emissions electricity grid based on renewables
4. Sustainable jobs for a net-zero Canada
5. Sustainable agriculture

The document also includes many complimentary recommendations, including on net-zero industrial policy, climate adaptation, and environmental justice.

Budget 2023

The Green Budget Coalition’s Recommendations for Budget 2023 feature five recommendations focusing on:

1. Advancing a zero-emissions electricity grid based on renewables
2. Canada’s renovation wave: a plan for jobs and climate
3. Delivering on Canada’s land and ocean protection commitments
4. Advancing sustainable agriculture
5. Environmental Justice

The document also includes many complimentary recommendations, including on green strings, just transition, freshwater management, and funding the National Adaptation Strategy.

Budget 2022

Building on the major federal funding announcements for climate and nature progress over 2020-2021, the Green Budget Coalition developed its Recommendations for Budget 2022, with five feature recommendations focused on advancing three overlapping objectives:

Net Zero Emissions by 2050

1. Canada’s Renovation Wave: A Plan for Jobs and Climate
2. Phasing Out Fossil Fuel Subsidies & Re-Orienting Public

Full Nature Recovery by 2050

3. Freshwater Management for the 21st Century
4. Permanent Funding for Protected Areas

Environmental Justice

5. Office of Environmental Justice and Equity

The document also includes many complimentary recommendations, including on green strings, just transition, developing a biodiversity strategy for Canada, and environmental science and data.

Recovery and Budget Actions in 2020-2021

For Budget 2021 and fiscal announcements in 2020 and 2021, the Green Budget Coalition developed its Recommendations for Recovery and Budget Actions in 2020-2021 that address key four areas to keep climate and biodiversity central to Canada’s recovery from COVID-19:

• Building energy efficiency retrofits – investments to improve energy efficiency and reduce reliance on fossil fuels in schools, hospitals, social housing, and residential buildings
• Clean transportation, including transit, zero emission vehicles, heavy-duty vehicles, and decarbonizing fuel supply
• Nature-based climate solutions investments to reduce emissions through restoration of forests, grasslands, and wetlands, improve management of forestry and agricultural lands, and support natural infrastructure solutions
• Scaled up fiscal investments in protected areas, with increased support for Indigenous protected areas and Guardians programs

The document also outlines complementary recommendations, including environmental data and science, Just Transition, the Chemicals Monitoring Plan, natural infrastructure, and establishing a Canada Water Agency.

Budget 2020

The Green Budget Coalition developed its Recommendations for Budget 2020 addressing four themes:

• Scaled-up fiscal action to address the climate emergency, including eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and allocating major funding to building energy efficiency, transportation, community energy, international climate financing, nature-based solutions, and marine shipping.
• Continued and ongoing investment in nature conservation and biodiversity, with a focus on: protected areas on public and private lands; habitat restoration, including wetlands and grasslands; oceans; and migratory birds.
• Sustainable Agriculture, including investing in agri-environmental programs, research and development, and a new facility for the National Insect Collection, to improve the agricultural sector’s sustainability, resilience and competitiveness.
• On Toxics and Pesticides, the GBC called for sufficient resources to meet and enforce current legislative requirements for managing toxic substances, including pesticides, to protect the health of Canadians and our environment.

We further outline complementary recommendations regarding environmental data and science, governance, plastics, water monitoring, wildlife vehicle collisions, and First Nations water infrastructure.

Budget 2019

In Budget 2019 and fiscal announcements in the preceding months, the Green Budget Coalition recommended that the Government of Canada prioritize measures to advance the following four objectives – each of which would create notable environmental, economic and social benefits for Canadians from coast to coast:

1. Tackling Toxics – Provide regulatory departments and agencies with sufficient resources to meet current and anticipated federal legislative requirements for managing toxic substances, including pesticides
2. Phasing out fossil fuel subsidies.
3. Delivering on Canada’s Commitments to Sustainable Agriculture
4. Delivering 21st Century Management for Freshwater Protection.

This document also outlines a number of complementary recommendations, including for oceans, migratory birds, carbon pricing, international climate financing, cleaner Arctic ship fuels, zero emission vehicles, First Nations drinking water and wastewater, zero emission vehicles, community-owned clean energy, healthy homes, environmental data and science, and allocating Budget 2018 funding for protected areas, species at risk and environmental laws.

Budget 2018

In Budget 2018 and fiscal announcements in the preceding months, the GBC recommends that the Government of Canada prioritize strategic investments to advance the following four objectives:

1. Delivering on Canada’s commitment to protect land, inland waters and oceans, and to plan for the larger scale protection needed to sustain healthy ecosystems in the long term.
2. Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture – Ensuring the next agricultural policy framework (NPF) includes significant investments in agri-environmental programs, policies, and scientific research, to provide long-term ecological, social, and economic benefits for all Canadians.
3. Sustainable Fisheries – Investments in fish habitat protection and restoration, and in rebuilding, recovering and sustainably managing fisheries, to ensure sustainable fisheries management across Canada.
4. International Climate Financing – To support climate mitigation and adaptation efforts in developing countries, the GBC recommends Canada scale up its efforts on international climate finance, provide certainty on funding beyond 2020, and indicate how it intends to mobilize its fair share of international climate financing.

Budget 2017

In Budget 2017 and fiscal announcements in the preceding months, the GBC recommends that the Government of Canada emphasize a suite of fiscal measures to achieve its climate change mitigation and adaptation goals and related nature conservation objectives, and renew important freshwater programs. In particular, the GBC recommends Budget 2017 ensure action to:

• Implement a well-designed, pan-Canadian carbon price,
• Direct 30% of green infrastructure funding to natural infrastructure options
• Phase-out exploration and development subsidies to the fossil fuel industry,
• Take strategic, nation-wide, multi-year conservation action in three areas:
  • Terrestrial protected areas
  • Working landscapes
  • Oceans and fisheries
• Renew important freshwater programs sunsetting in March 2017.

Budget 2016

Budget 2016 and those that follow are core policy tools through which the federal government must help restore the health of Canadian ecosystems, protect Canadian communities from environmental risks and ensure that our country is competitive in the emerging low carbon economy. The Green Budget Coalition’s Recommendations for Budget 2016 were designed to provide respective Ministers with the resources to deliver on the commitments announced in the Ministerial Mandate Letters throughout the next four years. For Budget 2016, the Green Budget Coalition  recommended that the Government of Canada implement strategic budgetary measures in the following seven key areas:

• Clean Energy and Climate Change Leadership
• Infrastructure and Climate Change Adaptation
• Protecting our Changing Arctic
• Delivering on Canada’s Conservation Commitments
• Engaging Canadians in Conservation
• Protecting Canada’s Fresh Water
• Healthy Environments, Healthy Canadians

Budget 2015

For Budget 2015, the Green Budget Coalition  recommended the Government of Canada capitalize on prime economic, environmental and human health opportunities by advancing on the following three strategic agendas:

1. Energy innovation and climate change Leadership – an integrated agenda to capitalize on the blossoming global clean technology industry and take leadership on climate change;
2. Achieving canada’s conservation commitments – making progress on protecting our life support system, starting by meeting our international Aichi biodiversity targets; and
3. Ensuring Healthy Communities for all Canadians – featuring a new environmental health equity agenda to ensure all Canadians – including vulnerable and disadvantaged populations – can enjoy the same level of protection from preventable environmental health hazards.

Budget 2014

The Green Budget Coalition’s feature recommendations for Budget 2014 addressed:

1. Subsidy Reform in the Extractive Industries: Supporting Responsible Resource Development,
2. National Conservation Plan: Securing Canada’s Natural Advantage, and
3. Protecting Canada’s Fresh Water.

Budget 2013

The Green Budget Coalition’s feature recommendations for Budget 2013 are:

1. Subsidy Reform in the Extractive Industries,
2. National Conservation Plan: Securing Canada’s Natural Advantage for Future Generations,
3. Strengthening Canada’s Environmental Law and Science Capacity, and
4. Green Infrastructure in First Nations Communities.