Is Mark Carney in the process of betraying his base?

And can we stop him this weekend?

For many Canadians, the decision to trust the Liberals one more time was a difficult one. 

And for many of us, the decision in significant part was made easier by the fact that – in addition to having a jerk for a leader, the Conservatives have not had a climate plan since Brian Mulroney was in office. 

The fact that Mark Carney has previously said that climate change was an existential threat demanding meaningful action gave us confidence we were picking a nicer guy with a steady predictable hand on the wheel – plus, critically, for many of us, a climate plan!

Except now, there’s literally no climate plan or clean economy focus listed anywhere in his top seven priorities, as pushed out in the mandate letters to his new ministers this week.

Our collective opportunity to influence the Throne speech is now – before it happens in four days. 

So if you care, and the argument below resonates, especially if you (or your office location) live in a Liberal riding, please call or email your MP’s office (find those numbers here) today or tomorrow and make your thoughts known, and loudly! 

Here’s the text Carney sent to his Ministers:

“We will focus on seven priorities:

1. Establishing a new economic and security relationship with the United States and strengthening our collaboration with reliable trading partners and allies around the world.
2. Building one Canadian economy by removing barriers to inter-provincial trade and identifying and expediting nation-building projects that will connect and transform our country.
3. Bringing down costs for Canadians and helping them to get ahead.
4. Making housing more affordable by unleashing the power of public-private cooperation, catalysing a modern housing industry, and creating new careers in the skilled trades.
5. Protecting Canadian sovereignty and keeping Canadians safe by strengthening the Canadian Armed Forces, securing our borders, and reinforcing law enforcement.
6. Attracting the best talent in the world to help build our economy, while returning our overall immigration rates to sustainable levels.
7. Spending less on government operations so that Canadians can invest more in the people and businesses that will build the strongest economy in the G7.”

Let’s agree that Priority 1 is Job 1 – and the reason the Liberals staged the comeback they did. 

But Priority 2 on that list needs to focus on the durable, sustainable jobs of the future, not the same trap we have fallen into before of becoming too reliant upon one thing that ultimately holds us back. We’re learning right now that relying on one thing – e.g. access to the USA market – is not a viable strategy. So where is the future?  It sure as heck isn’t pipelines.   

And let’s face it – repositioning displaced autoworkers as pipeline layers isn’t an option. But, investing in Windsor to retrain workers to manufacture clean tech solutions might be.

As for renewable energy, manufacturing – installing windmills and solar fields, developing our critical mineral extraction and refining capabilities – all of these jobs work for the future that will persist after Trump has gone and will leave a lasting legacy. There’s literally tonnes of lithium in Alberta.

Priorities 3 and 4 can be partially addressed by reducing Canadians’ energy costs by making their homes more energy efficient. Reintroducing energy efficiency rebates for Canadian-made windows and heat pumps – installed by local contractors and financed through PACE plans with savings exceeding payments – would further address priorities 3 and 4 by cutting energy costs and offering rapid, widespread ROI – not just for oil companies. 

This can also reduce the impact of climate change on lower income households by removing upfront cost barriers. 

We could extend it to grants to help fund laneway housing, which would offer massive new housing units, income streams for individual Canadian homeowners, employment for contractors and architects and engineers. The list of economic benefits goes on, which benefit every day Canadians with none of the aforementioned projects posing a massive risk to the environment.

Right now, nuclear is on the list of projects the federal government plans to invest in. But it shouldn’t be—no matter how much Doug Ford wants to court the Power Workers’ Union (full disclosure – I have a family member employed by said union). The reality is that nuclear is consistently over budget, behind schedule, and 2-8 times more expensive than renewables with storage. It’s also centralized and less reliable; unlike wind or solar, a single outage can leave us without power for years, as seen with Darlington.

With respect to priority 6: There is a massive opportunity right now – RIGHT NOW – to invest in bringing American clean tech companies – and their IP and their jobs – to Canada. And their brightest minds. Trump has made their futures much less promising in the USA – and so the opportunity is to move their operations to Canada – where we trade tariff free (or lower) – and clean tech is still a strategic opportunity. 

According to Stats Canada, the clean tech industry in Canada contributes $80 billion to GDP – $20 billion of which is exports – compared to 71.4 billion from oil and gas. Oil producers often inflate their downstream impacts, but those apply to clean tech too.

The key difference?  Clean tech companies have seen a steady increase in employees – whereas the O+G sector dumps thousands of employees every time a sheikh sneezes. If we’re going to build for the future and diversify our trading partners, and limit our exposure to single markets, let’s nation build wisely and for the future we want – not the world of 1970…

If you agree, call your MP, (click for their number) and remind them why you voted Liberal!