In a speech from the throne that largely focused on plans to steer Canada through the COVID-19 pandemic’s immediate health and economic crises, the federal government said climate action will be an essential part of efforts to create new jobs and stimulate an economic recovery. 

The speech, delivered on Wednesday by Governor General Julie Payette, opened a new session of Parliament and laid out the government’s priorities as Canada faces rising COVID-19 cases, double-digit unemployment and the ever-pressing challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

“Climate action will be a cornerstone of our plan to support and create a million jobs across the country,” the speech said. 

“This is where the world is going. Global consumers and investors are demanding and rewarding climate action.”

Governor General Julie Payette arrives at the the Senate, before delivering the speech from the throne. Photo: Sergeant Johanie Maheu / Rideau Hall

The new and renewed commitments to climate action were welcomed by environmental organizations.   

“[They] acknowledged that this is where the world’s economies are going and that Canada needs to get in the game and stay in the game of producing low carbon and clean energy and clean technology solutions,” Clean Energy Canada executive director Merran Smith said. 

Smith said there were great signals in the throne speech and she will be watching to see how the government puts its commitments into action.

“The rubber hits the road when we see the budget update and when we see the climate plan,” she said.

The government promised a fiscal update this fall. Until then, here are some highlights from the Trudeau government’s throne speech commitments. 

A forthcoming plan to exceed 2030 climate targets

The federal government reiterated its commitment to exceed Canada’s 2030 climate targets, promising to “immediately” bring forward a plan. The government also promised to legislate its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 and to continue pricing carbon pollution.

Canadians “know climate change threatens our health, way of life and planet. They want climate action now, and that is what the government will continue to deliver,” the speech said.

Under the Paris Agreement, the federal government committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. 

Projections released in December 2019 show Canada will miss its emissions target by 77 million tonnes — roughly the annual emissions of 16.6 million cars — based on existing measures or those under development.

Isabelle Turcotte, director of federal policy at the Pembina Institute, praised the government for amping up its climate commitments. 

“The most exciting and, I think, concrete example of that is that they have a new plan to meet and exceed the 2030 target, and we’re really looking forward to seeing it,” she said.

“We’re excited to see them reiterate that they’re going to create an accountability mechanism to make sure that Canada stops missing its climate targets,” she added.

The government reiterated a commitment to support investments in renewable energy and to move forward with the Clean Power Fund — a $5 billion fund to support electrification of industry — that the Liberals committed to in their election platform.

The speech also promised investments in transit, charging stations for electric cars and to make zero-emissions vehicles more affordable.

“No one was expecting a lot of details in the speech in terms of funding envelopes, specific programs, or details in terms of how we will achieve or move on these really key objects,” Turcotte said.

 “But the direction, the tone and the vision is that climate action is really a cornerstone of rebuilding a stronger economy and that’s really key.”  

The Governor General Julie Payette delivers the speech from the throne, which introduces the government’s direction and goals, and outlines how it will work to achieve them. Photo: Sergeant Johanie Maheu / Rideau Hall

A plan to create a million jobs and transition the economy 

Unemployment in Canada has been in the double-digits for much of this year. The number of people who don’t have enough work is substantially higher than it was before the pandemic.

“Women, racialized Canadians and young people have borne the brunt of job losses,” the speech said.

The government promised to do “whatever it takes” to support people and businesses through the economic crisis, pledging to create more than one million new jobs in an effort to restore employment to pre-pandemic levels.

“This throne speech recognized that tackling coronavirus inequality and climate inequality go hand-in-hand,” Jesse Firempong, a climate justice spokesperson for Greenpeace Canada, said in a statement. 

“To turn this into real change for impacted communities — including to ensure they benefit from the green jobs promised today — we need to see fully funded plans in the upcoming ministerial mandate letters and economic update,” Firempong said. 

“The women, Indigenous Peoples and racialized and low-income communities on the frontlines of both crises should be front and centre in an equitable, feminist, green recovery.” 

In the speech, the government pledged to create thousands of jobs in energy efficiency building retrofits.

It also committed to launching a new fund to attract investments in the manufacturing of zero-emissions products and to cut the corporate tax rate in half for green manufacturing companies.

“A good example of adapting to a carbon-neutral future is building zero-emissions vehicles and batteries,” the speech said.

“Canada has the resources — from nickel to copper — needed for these clean technologies. This — combined with Canadian expertise — is Canada’s competitive edge.”

Mining for copper isn’t without controversy in Canada, especially after a tailings dam burst in 2014 at the Mount Polley copper and gold mine, which sent 25 billion litres of contaminated materials into B.C. lakes and rivers. 

The speech from the throne promised charging stations for electric cars and to make zero-emissions vehicles more affordable. The speech also indicated Canada could play a role in building zero-emissions vehicles and batteries. Photo: mariordo59 / Flickr

Vince Gasparro, managing director of corporate development and clean energy finance at Vancity Community Investment Bank, called the government’s decision to cut the corporate tax in half for green companies a “big, big win.”

“It improves the profitability of these companies and allows them to expand their businesses…and it helps attract capital,” he said.

“The ability to attract private capital into the renewable energy market … was always a critical component,” he said, noting the federal government won’t be able to meet goals such as becoming carbon neutral by 2050 without the private sector’s help.

Protecting nature and investing in climate mitigation

The speech said the pandemic has reminded Canadians of the importance of nature. 

“The government will work with municipalities as part of a new commitment to expand urban parks, so that everyone has access to green space,” it said.

The government reiterated its promise to protect 25 per cent of Canada’s land and oceans in five years and to use “nature-based solutions to fight climate change.”

The speech included commitments to invest in measures to reduce the impact of floods, wildfires, and other climate related disasters. 

What’s an intact forest worth? The tricky task of quantifying Canada’s nature-based climate solutions

Modernizing the Canadian Environmental Protection Act

The speech also committed to modernizing the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), a move welcomed by Ecojustice executive director Devon Page, who noted in a statement that the legislation hasn’t been updated for two decades.

The act “is no longer up to the task of protecting Canadians, especially those in vulnerable situations, from toxic substances and pollution,” he said.

“Crucially, a modernized CEPA must include the right to a healthy environment.”  

Page pointed to a September report from the UN Special Rapporteur on hazardous substances and wastes that highlights Canada’s ongoing failure to protect Indigenous and racialized communities — the same communities most impacted by COVID-19 — from the worst effects of rising greenhouse gas emissions. 

“The report explicitly calls for Canada to legislate the right to a healthy environment,” Page said.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

There’s a new kind of building going up in an old East Vancouver neighbourhood. An eight-storey, 85-unit rental housing development is nothing new for a city that is constantly being torn down and built higher, but an apartment here comes with a perk.

“You could technically heat that apartment with a hairdryer,” says Ed Kolic, the developer behind The Heights, the new Passive House-certified development. When completed, it will be the biggest of its kind in Canada; globally, second only to a new building in New York.

Low-energy houses like this could make a serious dent in Canada’s carbon emissions, cutting up to 2.7 per cent from the total, while simultaneously becoming an engine for economic growth.

“In all of the climate change literature globally, the quickest and fastest way to take action on climate change is to look at the energy use in buildings,” says Charley Beresford, director of the Columbia Institute.

The federal budget, released Tuesday, provides nearly $750 million for investments related to energy efficiency.

“It’s quite a refresher from a Harper budget,” says Karen Tam Wu, director of the Pembina Institute’s buildings and urban solutions program. “What we want to see is, how will the government take the dollars that have been allocated to energy efficiency in buildings and actually incentivize uptake of green buildings at an accelerated rate?”

The largest single pot of money to come out of the budget for these improvements is a $573 million commitment to improve the energy and water efficiency of social housing over the next two years.

“We’re going to have to scale this to major energy upgrades across the country, so by focusing on a social housing initiative, it’s a great way to pilot this idea at a smaller scale,” Tam Wu told DeSmog Canada.

The government has earmarked $128.8 million for Natural Resources Canada to ramp up its energy efficiency standards for products, buildings and vehicles.

A further $40 million will go towards improving the climate resiliency of buildings — meaning buildings like Kolic’s, with their insulation-focused design, may come into fashion in places that are facing intensified winter storms, such as Eastern Canada.

Provincial Governments Lag Behind in Regulations

But provincial governments, with a few exceptions, haven’t yet provided the mechanism that would allow municipalities to push their residents toward more efficient homes.

The Columbia Institute released a report last week calling for provinces to make it easier for municipalities to provide up-front cash for homeowners to retrofit their homes.

If home energy retrofits sound like an un-sexy way to fight climate change, wait until you hear the name of what could be the best shot at achieving that: Local Improvement Charge (LIC) enabling. Despite the name, though, it’s a powerful tool.

Basically what LIC means is that municipalities can loan homeowners the money to improve the insulation in their homes, then gradually make the money back through increased property taxes. It’s an existing system that local governments use to make other improvements, like fixing a sidewalk, then recouping the cost from the people who benefit.

In Halifax, where an LIC program has been piloted, 388 homeowners saved an average of about $14,000 over the lifespan of their new systems (about 25 years). A similar program in Nelson, B.C., (albeit with repayments going to the electrical bill rather than property taxes) resulted in 35 per cent less energy use for the retrofitted homes; nearly 40 per cent of them took advantage of loans to do it. And Manitoba Hydro claims to be on track to retrofit a whopping 86,992 homes by the end of the year under its 15 year-old Power Smart Residential Loan program.

Retrofit Investments Deliver Bang For Buck on Jobs

In return, the municipalities get to help meet their climate targets — but there’s evidence for another benefit to supporting green building projects. Depending on which study you read, for every million dollars invested in building retrofits, somewhere from between 13 and 17 jobs are created. That’s compared to about five jobs created for every million dollars invested in fossil fuel projects.

A report commissioned by Natural Resources Canada, Energy Efficiency: Engine of Economic Growth in Canada, found that savings on heating costs meant that for every dollar invested in energy efficiency, another $3 to $5 would be added to the economy. Overall, the report says, this could mean hundreds of thousands of new jobs in multiple sectors as the savings make their way through the supply chain.

There’s another way all levels of government can take advantage of efficiency gains, Tam Wu says.

“What all levels of government should be doing is leading by example,” she says. “And that’s what we want the provincial government to do, by setting a bold target for what level of emissions reductions we can achieve through our buildings.”

Municipalities Lead the Way on Efficiency

Regulations have been moving faster at the municipal level. Vancouver, for example, requires that to rezone a lot for a new development, the proponent has to build the new building to demanding LEED Gold or Passive House standards. Even remote Bella Bella, where most of the electricity comes from diesel generators, a new modular building Britco built in the Lower Mainland and shipped to the Central Coast community takes the energy equivalent of six light bulbs to heat.

“[Britco] had never done that before,” says Tam Wu. “That kind of energy savings just totally makes sense in remote communities.”

The private sector overall seems ready to respond to increased demand, and that demand has shown to be easily created by incentives from all levels of government.

In Brussels, which developer Kolic cites as inspiration for his Vancouver development, new EU regulations forced the city to get serious about efficiency. With new funding and the spin-off businesses that created, Brussels quickly went from hopelessly inefficient and outdated to having 5,000 new buildings meet the Passive House standard.

“It went from having the worst standard of energy efficient buildings to becoming a world success story within a period of ten years,” Tam Wu says.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.