You’re voting for a future-proofed economy

Note: this is an action that we ran in the lead up to the 2025 Canadian federal election. It is no longer active.

The writing is on the wall.

Food prices are skyrocketing.[1][2][3] Home insurance premiums are surging.[4] Financial losses from extreme weather events have hit record-breaking levels.[5]

The costs of climate inaction are here. They’re set to grow.[6] And they’re hitting Canadian households where it hurts — in their wallets.

As a country, we are not prepared for what’s to come.[7] Runaway climate change, left unaddressed, will make life in Canada less and less affordable – squeezing household budgets, leaving homes in disaster pathways uninsurable, and dragging our economy downwards.[8][9]

That’s why, in the lead-up to the coming election, it’s imperative that all federal parties share a plan for future-proofing our economy.

One of the best ways to do this is by aligning financial institutions with Canada’s climate goals.[10] Unsustainable finance is derailing mitigation and adaptation efforts meant to keep climate costs low.[11][12] Making finance part of the solution will help ease the looming financial burden of climate-fuelled infrastructure damage and our financial system’s overexposure to volatile, declining fossil fuel markets.[13][14]

Cost-saving, climate-aligned finance policy proposals already enjoy support from MPs from four of the five federal parties.[15] They also enjoy popular support, with three out of four Canadians believing that financial institutions should prioritize the long-term good of society over short-term profits.[16]

As political parties prepare their platforms for a potential early election this spring, now is the time to remind leaders that an economic plan failing to address the climate-fuelled affordability crisis is no plan at all.

And in this critical moment, failing to plan means planning to fail. We cannot afford to fail.

Tell party leaders to include climate-aligned finance principles in their electoral platforms now.

The following email was sent to the decision-makers across all federal parties listed below.

Ryan Turnbull, Parliamentary Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance; Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry
Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change
Chrystia Freeland, Member of Parliament, University—Rosedale
Mona Fortier, Member of Parliament, Ottawa—Vanier
Yves-François Blanchet, Leader of the Bloc Québécois; Member of Parliament, Beloeil—Chambly
Jagmeet Singh, Leader of the New Democratic Party; Member of Parliament, Burnaby South
Laurel Collins, Deputy whip of the New Democratic Party; Member of Parliament, Victoria
Elizabeth May, Member of Parliament, Saanich—Gulf Islands
Pierre Poilievre, Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada; Leader of the Opposition; Member of Parliament, Carleton
Gérard Deltell, Shadow Minister for Environment and Climate Change; Member of Parliament, Louis-Saint-Laurent

View the email that was sent by 1,264 supporters

Dear <Recipient’s name>,

With a likely spring election around the corner, Canadians are looking to parties for policy proposals that future-proof our economy and make life more affordable for Canadians.

I’m one of them.

But as more of the factors driving the cost-of-living crisis become clear, there’s a risk that some of the biggest threats to affordability in Canada will be overlooked, leaving plans to solve this crisis incomplete at best — and dangerous at worst.

That’s why I’m reaching out. I’m counting on you to use your influence to ensure your party’s coming election platform includes a policy that will genuinely help future-proof Canada’s economy: climate-aligned finance.

Even before the start of the current trade war, food prices, home insurance premiums, and household disaster repair costs have been rising. These are in no small part due to climate change.

Climate-fuelled droughts, heatwaves, fires, and floods have increasingly caused costly disruptions to both local and global food supply chains that Canadians depend on, ramping up food prices as a result.(1)(2) Climate change has already been identified as a “very likely”, “very significant” factor in the 3 per cent to 5 per cent food price hikes forecasted for Canada in 2025, as well as in the annual 3.2 per cent global food mark-ups forecasted for the next ten years.(3)(4)
After the most expensive year on record for extreme weather-related insurance loss claims in Canada, people from coast to coast are seeing their home insurance premiums surge — premiums that have already climbed 350 per cent in the last two decades as insurers assessed growing risks of climate-fuelled disasters.(5)(6)
Home insurance premiums are rising, but in many places, their coverage is also shrinking, leaving Canadians to bear the financial burden of climate-fuelled disasters alone. After last summer’s extreme weather events, Canadian governments, businesses and households had to foot the bill for $24-billion in uninsurable damages.(7) Recognizing that climate-fuelled disasters are only growing more intense, more frequent, and more costly, an Insurance Bureau of Canada representative speculated that unless something is done, we may “live in an uninsurable country a decade from now” echoing trends in the U.S. where insurers are refusing to insure increasingly wildfire-prone parts of California.(8)(9)(10)

Climate inaction has a cost. That cost currently sits at a projected $25 billion loss in economic growth from 2015-2025, and a $720 loss in income per capita in 2025 — set to rise to over $2,300 lost income per capita in 2050. That is, unless we course-correct.(11)(12)

Serious, economy-wide action is needed to mitigate runaway climate change, without which any plans to decrease Canadians’ cost of living will fall flat.

Voters like me are excited about cost-saving climate solutions, but as we’ve made sincere efforts to tackle climate change, Canada’s largest financial institutions have been actively working against us.(13)

Instead of investing in industries whose business models are compatible with an affordable, climate-safe future, Canada’s banks, insurance companies and pension funds have doubled down on financing the very thing driving the climate and cost-of-living crises — fossil fuels.(14) In doing so, financiers have helped expand an industry whose record-breaking windfall profits are widely understood to be chief drivers of inflation.(15)(16) These reckless funding practices are exposing everyday Canadians’ retirement savings to financial risks, further locking the Canadian economy into one of the most volatile markets in the world, and deepening our dependence on energy infrastructure that fundamentally destabilizes the climate.(17)(18) Now, for the second year in a row, our planet is the hottest it’s ever been.(19)

When criticized for these risky funding practices, Canada’s biggest banks very publicly jumped on net-zero pledge bandwagons and quietly quit them thereafter.(20)(21)(22) Though they may not have meant to, this performance by Canadian banks makes one of the strongest cases for why the important work of aligning finance with a climate-safe future can’t be left up to banks’ goodwill alone.

The problem of unsustainable finance is too big — and the priority of future-proofing our economy too urgent — for the government to delay intervening. A serious policy opportunity is now before us: that of bringing financial institutions into the fold of climate solutions, and unleashing the power of public and private finance to kickstart cost-saving mitigation.

A bill proposing as much (S-243 also known as the Climate-Aligned Finance Act – CAFA) has already been proposed by Parliament — the principles behind which have enjoyed significant support from MPs of four out of five parties, over 120 civil society organisations , and broad-sweeping public support, with three out of four surveyed Canadians believing that financial institutions should prioritize the long-term good of society over short-term profits.(23)(24) The House of Commons’ environment committee (ENVI) recommended that Ministers apply CAFA to reform the financial system.(25)

CAFA’s principles are worth drawing inspiration from. To get the cost-saving climate mitigation job done, climate-aligned finance policy should stipulate:

1. Duties for Directors and Officers. Establishing a duty for directors, officers, and administrators to align public and private financial institutions with climate commitments.

2. Alignment of Purposes. Aligning the purposes of crown corporations and the financial regulator with climate commitments.

3. Transition Plans and Transparency. Requiring the development of climate transition plans and progress reports on meeting climate commitments, with annual public and freely accessible reporting.

4. Board Expertise and Conflict Avoidance. Ensuring climate expertise on certain boards of directors and avoiding conflicts of interest.

5. Proportional Capital Adequacy Requirements. Making capital adequacy requirements proportional to the microprudential and macroprudential climate risks generated by financial institutions.

6. Alignment of Financial Products. Amending taxation and bankruptcy laws to incentivize financial products that align with climate commitments and disincentivize those that are not.

As Canadian households feel the squeeze from all directions, a recent report by the Canadian Climate Institute shows that ambitious, effective mitigation policy could save Canada $3 trillion in projected GDP losses by 2050.(26) Furthermore, it finds that “every dollar spent on some of the most important adaptation measures for Canada can save $13 to $15 in the long term”. That’s an impressive return on investment.

But for as long as the power of public and private finance isn’t mobilized in the direction of a climate-safe future, there’s a real chance that efforts to curb the dual climate and affordability crises we’re in won’t be possible.

With new threats to Canada’s long-term economic stability emerging every day, the Canadian public is looking to parties to rise to meet the moment we’re in and show courage and leadership.

Real leadership requires taking the blinders off when it comes to the threat runaway climate change poses to the cost of living in Canada, today and in the future. It requires taking a whole-of-economy approach to climate mitigation. It requires having a plan.

Because at this critical moment, failing to plan means planning to fail. And I won’t vote for a party that is planning to fail.

<Recipient’s name>, I’m counting on you to show real leadership. Please make sure your party’s election platform includes climate-aligned finance policy as part of a strong plan to future-proof Canada’s economy.

Thank you. I trust you’ll do the right thing.

<Sender’s name>

SOURCES:

(1) https://www.carbonbrief.org/five-charts-how-climate-change-is-driving-up-food-prices-around-the-world/

(2) https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/how-extreme-weather-affects-food-prices-1.7292120

(3) https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/sites/agri-food/EN%20-%20Food%20Price%20Report%202025.pdf (p14)

(4) https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2024/03/21/climate-change-is-worsening-inflation-and-pushing-food-prices-even-higher-researchers-warn/?sh=6301c0bd3e46

(5) https://www.corporateknights.com/category-climate/what-2024s-costly-climate-disasters-mean-for-home-insurance-rates-in-2025/

(6) https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1810000404

(7) https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-insured-damage-from-natural-disasters-in-canada-hit-85-billion-in-2024/

(8) https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/politique/2024-02-21/achats-de-maisons-dans-des-zones-inondables/la-fin-du-financement-de-desjardins-une-bombe-dit-l-opposition.php

(9) https://www.npr.org/2025/01/14/nx-s1-5251632/california-fires-home-insurance-climate-change

(10) https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-insured-damage-from-natural-disasters-in-canada-hit-85-billion-in-2024/

(11) https://climateinstitute.ca/news/climate-fuelled-disasters-cost-canadians-billions/

(12) https://climateinstitute.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Damage-Control_-EN_0927.pdf

(13) https://www.equiterre.org/en/articles/cdp-sondage-elections-federales-2

(14) http://climateobservatory.ca/baystreetclimatemonitor

(15) https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/where-are-your-inflation-dollars-going-1.pdf

(16) https://www.iisd.org/articles/deep-dive/fossil-fuels-drive-inflation-canada

(17) https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/news/2024/11/canada-releases-draft-regulations-to-cap-pollution-drive-innovation-and-create-jobs-in-the-oil-and-gas-industry.html

(18) https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b9a9754d274cbec1ca7f8f8/t/678162e0fdc221762f20efd1/1736532708302/Shift+-+Gaslighting+the+Energy+Transition+-+FINAL+for+RELEASE.pdf

(19) https://time.com/7173663/world-temperature-record-hottest-year-ever-again/

(20) https://www.greenpeace.org/static/planet4-canada-stateless/2023/06/6da352b8-cdn-banks-quiet-quitting-climate-commitments-greenpeace-june-2023.pdf (p. 2,9,10,13)

(21) https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-mark-carney-gfanz-banks/

(22) https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/banks-try-quiet-quitting-on-net-zero

(23) https://rosagalvez.ca/en/initiatives/climate-aligned-finance/quotes-and-endorsements/

(24) https://ecojustice.ca/news/two-thirds-of-canadians-want-financial-sector-regulated-to-ensure-environmental-sustainability/

(25) https://www.ourcommons.ca/content/Committee/441/ENVI/WebDoc/WD13471995/13471995/MinisterOfEnvironmentAndClimateChange-e.pd
(26) https://climateinstitute.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Damage-Control_-EN_0927.pdf