Recommendations for Budget 2008:
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Green Budget Coalition

Big Steps Forward

This document details three priority recommendations, and six recommendations on other important issues, that aim to build upon the environmental progress made in Budget 2007 and to fulfill Canadians' desire for ambitious, effective action on the environment. 

The Green Budget Coalition believes these are the foremost budgetary opportunities to advance environmental sustainability in Canada.  Together, these recommendations could make dramatic progress in reducing Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, in conserving Canada’s treasured oceans and lands, and in renewing the the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence region.

These recommendations represent the collective judgment of nineteen of Canada’s leading environmental and conservation organizations, which represent over 500,000 Canadians, as members, supporters, and volunteers.  They are based upon the preliminary version of this document, and include revisions 
following further discussions and research.

The Green Budget Coalition’s three priority recommendations for the 2008 budget are:

1)      Carbon Pricing: Efficiently Stimulating Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions

2)      Action on Nature: Conserving Canada’s Treasured Oceans and Lands

3)      The Great Lakes and St-Lawrence River: Restoring, Protecting and Enhancing the Region

The Coalition also has six recommendations addressing other important issues:

  • Preserving Minerals for the Future: Ending Counterproductive Support Programs 
  • Energy Efficiency: Setting and Achieving Targets
  • Renewable Energy: Developing and Implementing a Comprehensive Strategy
  • Conserving Our Migratory Birds
  • Extending Ecogift Tax Incentives to Inventory Lands
  • Better Indicators: Integrating Environmental Values into Fiscal Policy

The Green Budget Coalition's members include Bird Studies Canada, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Centre for Integral Economics, David Suzuki Foundation, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Ecojustice, Environmental Defence, Équiterre, Friends of the Earth Canada, Greenpeace Canada, International Institute for Sustainable Development, MiningWatch Canada, Nature Canada, Nature Conservancy of Canada, Pembina Institute, Pollution Probe, Sierra Club of Canada,  Social Investment Organization, and World Wildlife Fund Canada.