Expert, Green MP have mixed feelings on budget's climate change initiatives

The 2022 federal budget contains billions in new spending to fight climate change, but some experts and Green MP for Kitchener-Centre are criticizing the government's decision on a tax credit for carbon capture.

Some of the highlights from Thursday's budget, tabled by finance minister Chrystia Freeland, include plans to make electric vehicles more affordable and create Canada's first strategy to develop exploitation of critical minerals used in everything from phones to airplanes.

The government is also committing to $2.6 billion over five years for a new investment tax credit for businesses that spend money on carbon capture, utilization and storage.

That aspect of the budget is concerning for Simon Dalby, a professor of geography and environmental studies at Wilfrid Laurier University and a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. 

"I'm less keen on the tax credits for the carbon capture and storage because given the amount of money that the oil sector is making, particularly at the moment with the high oil prices, the last thing that we need to do is subsidise them," he told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo.

"The point is that if they are using fuel in a way that is putting lots of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, well, they should be paying to clean up their own mess."

Overall, he welcomes the government's investments to combat climate change, but he's critical of the government's recent approval of a deep water oil drilling project.

"I do think that we have reached a point where the government is actually getting serious about this. It's not just talking about it," Dalby said. 

"But then every time we appear to be getting serious about climate change, we get another announcement that one more fossil fuel production system has been okayed. The latest one simply being for the oil field of Newfoundland coast."

Carbon capture tax 'not a climate solution'

Kitchener Centre Green MP Mike Morrice is also critical of the carbon capture tax credit.

"It's a mixed bag," Morrice said when asked whether the budget put enough emphasis on environmental issues.

He said there are some good initiatives in this year's budget, like more investments in electrical vehicles and Via Rail, but points to climate scientists who say that the carbon capture tax credit is "not a climate solution."

"Carbon capture is really going to encourage prolonging, delaying, the kind of significant transformation we need," Morrice said. 

In January, more than 400 Canadian climate scientists and other academics called for Freeland to scrap her plan to create the carbon capture tax credit, saying it directly contradicts Canada's pledge to eliminate such subsidies and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"It's about scale. When you give $400 million to retrofitting homes, which is so important, it's completely dwarfed by the $2.6 billion to oil and gas companies in carbon capture," Morrice said.

The budget also comes just as Canada announced its plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions over the next eight years.

In an effort to cut emissions by 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, the government plans to make cuts in the electricity, oil and gas and transportation sectors.

"The only target that matters is 1.5 C, that's the maximum rise in global temperatures that climate scientists have told us we need to hold on to for a livable world. We already hit 1.1 C," Morrice said.

He said the government should be aiming for a 60 per cent reduction by 2030. 

You listen to the full interview with Green MP for Kitchener-Centre Mike Morrice below.