“Justin Trudeau's environment plan: End fossil fuel subsidies, invest in clean tech.” reads a headline in the CBC from 5 years ago.
But since Trudeau’s promise to end fossil fuel subsidies, billions of taxpayer dollars have been hemorrhaging into the hands of Big Oil, while climate chaos has flooded, burned and destroyed homes across the country.
COVID-19 has brought chaos to the economy -- but it’s also given the government a chance to change the destructive course we’ve been on. Instead of investing in pollution-filled skies and runaway climate catastrophe, Canada could invest in a green recovery -- something that 84% of people want.
Right now the federal government is making huge decisions on what the COVID-19 recovery will look like and Trudeau needs to hear that taking money from the dirty oil industry and investing in a green economy is the direction we need to go.
$600 million. That’s how much money the Canadian government is handing to Big Oil just this year -- and that’s a conservative estimate.
And $600 million is just the beginning -- if you count tax-related subsidies and the government backing of the Trans Mountain pipeline the number balloons into the billions. And that’s not including past years. Imagine the cleaner world we could create with that money.
It could pay for 60,000 workers to be retrained in green jobs -- enough to retrain every tar sands worker in just one year.
It’s time that we invest in our future -- a greener and cleaner vision where workers have sustainable jobs. And we get there by cutting taxpayer-funded subsidies to multi-billion dollar oil companies.
SumOfUs is working to bring in a greener, more sustainable world post-COVID19. Members like you were critical in pushing forward the Green New Deal before the elections in 2019. And just a few weeks ago SumOfUs members used our people power to help stop a $15 billion Big Oil bailout.
We know that completely changing our economy from fossil fuels to something greener, cleaner and more sustainable seems like a massive undertaking. But we also know that when each of us works together, we can move mountains and usher in the new economy.
More information
Justin Trudeau's environment plan: End fossil fuel subsidies, invest in clean tech
CBC. 29 June 2015.
CBC. 29 June 2015.
Canada's Federal Fossil Fuel Subsidies in 2020
IISD. 1 February 2020.
IISD. 1 February 2020.
Coronavirus: Governments’ recovery plans should take ‘green route,’ study says
Global News. 5 May 2020.
Global News. 5 May 2020.
