In face of the growing climate and biodiversity loss crises, the Fall 2022 Economic Statement falls short.

In contrast to the 2020 Fall Economic Statement’s bold investment of $4 billion in nature (most for the two billion trees program), this year’s edition lacks any signature advances for nature protection.

The 2022 Statement does include some welcome initiatives. 

It rightly provides financial relief and new employment opportunities for youth, students, racialized people and other economically-challenged groups.

And it supports greater investment in clean technologies that are mostly well-considered (with the exception of risky nuclear energy and unproven, fossil-fuel-perpetuating carbon capture and storage).

But attention to the health of nature and ecosystems is glaringly absent.

This is an unfortunate step back from the Trudeau government’s growing recognition that restoring and protecting nature is critical to addressing climate change, mitigating climate disasters, and ensuring the well-being of Canadians. 

Indeed, a consistent mantra for this government has been that a healthy economy and a healthy environment go together. In June, a government press release stated “the health, well-being, and economic security of Canadians depend on having a healthy ecosystem that supports a world rich in biodiversity.”

The Trudeau government has put money behind those words. In addition to investment in nature-based climate solutions in the 2020 Economic Statement, the 2021 Budget included over $2 billion to help achieve Canada’s commitment to protect 30 percent of land and water by 2030.

The government has also recently committed, impressively, to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030. And its National Adaptation Strategy discussion paper recognizes the need to “shift away from a development lens and towards a stewardship lens” in order to protect human communities – and all species – from climate-related harm.

In contrast, the 2022 Economic Statement ignores the importance of healthy ecosystems. In fact, its emphasis on speeding up approval of critical mineral and other infrastructure projects poses a threat to Canada’s globally significant forests, peatlands and other ecosystems.

More broadly, the Statement’s narrow focus on economic growth is concerning. (“Growth” is mentioned 142 times in the Statement, while nature is mentioned only once, in a footnote, on page 78). 

Fifty years ago scientists at the Club of Rome released a prescient report that argued that limitless growth is not viable on a finite planet with finite ecosystems. 

That insight, of course, was not new. 

Indigenous people have long held the view that there is something sacred and worthy in all living entities, and that humans neither stand above, nor outside of, the interdependent ecosystems within which we live, 

In failing to set out a vision and path for a sustainable economy that protects the well-being of humans and nature, the Fall Economic Statement perpetuates the misnomer that our survival is somehow divorced from that of this planet. 

It could simply be that the Government is holding off until the major UN conference on Biodiversity (COP15–or the Nature COP) being held in Montreal this December to make big nature announcements including investments.

Let’s hope so.

A good start will be for the government to move forward with key investments – for climate, for nature, and for environmental justice – as laid out in the Green Budget Coalition’s recommendations for 2023.

With the world’s eyes focused on Montreal in December, Canada needs to get back on track by ramping up action to halt and reverse nature loss, with Indigenous, leadership, at home and globally, before it is too late to do so.