The plan tackles both the climate and cost-of-living crises, slashing emissions and household bills with heat pumps, an East-West grid, and free public transit
(VANCOUVER, BC–UNCEDED xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (MUSQUEAM), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (SQUAMISH) AND səlilwətaɬ (TSLEIL-WAUTUTH) TERRITORIES)—In his latest major policy announcement, NDP leadership candidate Avi Lewis has unveiled his Canadian Green New Deal – an ambitious plan to tackle both the climate and cost-of-living crises by creating more than one million good-paying union jobs, lowering household bills, and building a renewable-powered economy.
“The climate crisis has disappeared from the headlines, but every summer it’s in our lungs,” said Lewis. “We watch Big Oil’s profits soar as places we love burn down. It’s time for the NDP to finally step up and tell the truth: we need to get off fossil fuels as quickly as possible. And we are the only party Canadians can trust to do it without making a single worker pay the price.”
Lewis’ Canadian Green New Deal includes a sustainable jobs plan that prioritizes workers in fossil-fuel reliant provinces. It will also slash emissions and household bills with heat pumps in every home, an East-West clean energy grid, and free, reliable public transit.
“Canada has become a climate pariah, with Prime Minister Carney ripping up even the meagre progress of the last decade, Lewis said. “Meanwhile, Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives are doing the fossil fuel industry’s bidding, abandoning energy workers and condemning future generations to an unliveable future.”
“This is a generational opportunity for the NDP to seize the mantle of climate leadership,” added Lewis.
No worker left behind
Lewis’ plan guarantees workers real jobs waiting in the energy transition – including in climate infrastructure projects like clean energy, building retrofits and public transport, as well as cleaning up environmental damage like oil sands tailing ponds and orphaned wells.
“It is not energy workers who caused the climate crisis. It is not workers who have profited from every oil and gas boom. But it is workers who have been hurt by every bust,” Lewis said. “The industry that has sucked hundreds of billions in profits out of the ground must pay its fair share.”
Key initiatives of the Canadian Green New Deal:
- One million good union jobs: Invest 2% of Canada’s GDP in tackling the climate emergency, with half of that dedicated to a Green Jobs Transfer funding climate infrastructure projects like clean energy, building retrofits, and public transit. Front-load funding to protect workers in fossil-fuel-reliant provinces. Expand the Youth Climate Corps to train and employ tens of thousands of young people.
- Free, reliable transit: Free and fast city transit, public high-speed rail, and a public inter-community electric bus service. Strengthen zero-emission vehicle mandates and expand public charging stations.
- Heat pumps and solar for all: A new generation of public enterprises to deliver heat pumps, rooftop or balcony solar panels, and storage batteries for every home.
- Powerlines, not pipelines: No federal approvals for new pipelines, offshore oil projects, or LNG terminals. Invest in a coast-to-coast-to-coast clean energy grid to trade renewable power between provinces, reduce reliance on the U.S., and accelerate decarbonization.
- Make Big Oil pay: Windfall profits taxes, and a tax on U.S. oil and gas exports to fund the transition.
The full policy is available on the campaign website. More policy announcements will be released in the coming weeks.