“This is a guns-not-butter budget with massive new spending on border guards, police and the military, but austerity for programs that care for people and nature. You can’t fight for our future when you are retreating on climate action, including by removing limits on pollution from the oil and gas industry and weakening anti-greenwashing legislation.”

Keith Stewart, Senior Energy Strategist, Greenpeace Canada

  • The budget prioritizes spending on border enforcement, police, and military over investments in people and environmental protection.
  • Climate action is rolled back by signaling that the government will not go forward with its long-promised cap on pollution limits from oil and gas companies and weakening anti-greenwashing laws. This follows the previous cancellation of the consumer carbon tax, pause on the electric vehicle regulation and new legislation exempting projects (including fossil fuel projects) deemed to be in national interest from environmental laws.
  • Instead of investing in solutions to protect Canadians from the impacts of climate change, this budget doubles down on fossil fuel dependence. There is new support for LNG and carbon capture projects, as well as no commitment to achieving the carbon pollution reductions that Canada promised under the Paris climate agreement.  
  • Budget 2025 is touted as “bold action to secure Canada’s future.” In 2025, this has to mean moving away from climate change-causing fossil fuels, and building out our renewable energy sectors to set Canada up for a greener, prosperous future. Year after year, from coast to coast to coast, Canadians are suffering through the devastating impacts of increasingly severe weather and natural events like hurricanes, heat waves, wildfires, and flooding, caused by climate change. 
  • Carney’s election campaign promised to protect water, nature and biodiversity through strengthening Indigenous stewardship. Yet, this budget makes no mention even of Canada’s internationally recognized commitment to protect 30% of lands and waters by 2030. Neither Indigenous rights nor care for nature are meaningfully reflected in this budget, both of which are essential to protecting biodiversity for generations to come. 

“Who is this budget for? It certainly isn’t for future generations, or for the land, water and communities that sustain us. You can’t talk about generational futures without centering Indigenous rights and reconciliation. This budget reveals a short-sighted vision that sidelines people-centered interests and nature alike. Carney won an election by providing an alternative to the conservative’s fear-based rhetoric, and is now indistinguishable by presenting a budget that capitalizes on fear, not sustainable or just futures.”

Sheila Sampath, Co-Head of Program (Nature & Biodiversity), Greenpeace Canada

For more information, contact:

Patou Oumarou, Communications Campaigner, Greenpeace Canada
[email protected] , +1 418 431 0263