Ecological Planks for the 2025 Federal Election

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* Update: We've received endorsements of these planks from the following candidates: Amanda Rosenstock, Green Party Candidate for Ottawa Centre; Hena Masjedee, NDP candidate for Ottawa South; Joel Harden, NDP candidate for Ottawa Centre (with qualification*); Jennifer Purdy, Green Party candidate for Kanata; Thaila Riden, Green Party Candidate for Prescott-Russell-Cumberland. We'll share further endorsements as they arrive!

Discussion of climate change and the environment in general has been wholly inadequate so far this election period. We’re hoping to change that.

We’ve prepared the below ecological planks for this election with input from our supporters and partners. In developing these planks, we selected issues in a range of ecological categories under federal jurisdiction and with high impact, but that can nevertheless be enacted simply and inexpensively. 

 

We urge candidates to adopt these planks wholesale into their platforms. We’ll be sending these to candidates and will share their responses. We also encourage you to ask your candidates about these planks, and will be distributing aids for this. Finally, if you want to show your own support for these planks, please sign our petition!

Ecology Ottawa’s suggested ecological planks

1. Commit to no new pipelines. Unfortunately, calls for pipelines have increased lately, particularly since the United States imposed tariffs on Canada. This idea is fundamentally misguided. Apart from the fact that fossil fuels are “by far the largest contributor to global climate change,” oil consumption is expected to peak by 2027. Given that pipelines can take over a decade to build, this risks producing stranded assets. Then there are cost overruns: the cost for TMX, for example, climbed from $5.4B to 21.4B. Finally, there’s the issue of Indigenous rights, which are often trampled in building fossil fuel infrastructure. New pipelines must be fully opposed.
2. Increase investment in the Housing Accelerator Fund. The HAF offers Canadian municipalities funding to increase affordable housing supply quickly. Among the criteria are ten “best practices” that will reduce emissions and create complete communities—like eliminating parking minimums, ending exclusionary zoning, promoting sustainable transportation, and incentivizing “missing middle” housing, necessary measures that municipalities are often reluctant to implement. While HAF investments have an up-front cost, they will reap significant economic, health, and environmental benefits for municipalities, given how expensive and unhealthy sprawl is.
3. 
   Renew the Zero Emission Transit Fund. The ZETF provides funding for electric buses, in both municipal and school fleets. Anyone who’s tried Ottawa’s new electric OC Transpo buses knows that e-buses are quieter and produce fewer emissions, which means happier and healthier riders; but they’re also cheaper to run and maintain. ZETF funding is particularly important to electrify Canada’s school bus fleet and protect our kids’ health: only 1,930 out of our fleet of 50,000 school buses (3.9%) are electric. Instead of letting ZETF funding run out next year, the program should be renewed and expanded, with the approvals process streamlined.
4. Create a new consumer carbon pricing scheme. The cost of high carbon emissions should be paid by polluters, not future generations. Unfortunately, the campaign to cancel the consumer carbon tax on gasoline and home heating finally succeeded this winter, leaving Canada without this key measure. Fortunately, since it’s three times as effective in reducing GHG emissions, the industrial component of the carbon tax remains in place. Nevertheless, the consumer component is necessary to help change individuals’ behaviour, reducing the demand for fossil fuels behind their extraction, and raising funds for green investments. The principle is simple: the climate, ecological, and health impacts of pollution should be reflected in the price of fossil fuels.
5. Fund municipal public transit operations. Reliable public transit is crucial to not only helping people get around, but also to reducing our emissions. In Ottawa, our emissions from transportation are around 44 per cent, and about 85 per cent of this is from cars and light trucks. Since much of Ottawa is suburban sprawl, transit is key to the transition away from car dependency. Historically, the federal government only provides capital funding for transit—as with OC Transpo’s electric buses. But operational funding is arguably more important: a new bus isn’t worth much if you can’t afford to run it. To improve accessibility, reduce emissions, create jobs, and make mobility more affordable, the federal government should commit to covering 25 per cent of operating costs, with additional incentives for every new kilometre of priority bus lanes a city authorizes.
6. Strengthen the Active Transportation Fund. The federal government’s creation of a national Active Transportation Fund in 2021 was important, but at $400 million over 5 years, it doesn’t go far enough: some individual transportation projects in Ottawa, like the Brian Coburn extension, even exceed this amount. This fund must be increased and made permanent. Moreover, it must be made dedicated: it is currently housed within the Public Transit Fund, meaning that active-transportation-only projects may be overlooked in favour of those connected to transit. Finally, equity should be a major criterion for approvals, applications should be eligible for up to 100 per cent of project budgets, and bikeshare systems—both capital and operational funding—should be eligible for the fund.
7. Invest in high-speed rail corridors. Although more than half of Canada’s population lives between Windor and Quebec City, most trips in this corridor are by vehicles on highways. This is a huge missed opportunity. The Alto high speed rail project announced in February will reduce emissions, travel times, and the high costs associated with car ownership. This project may even help cancel misguided projects like Premier Ford’s $100-billion tunnel under Highway 401. While Ottawa would benefit from the Alto project, it must be extended beyond Toronto to Windsor so more municipalities may benefit. Moreover, sister lines connecting Edmonton, Calgary, and Winnipeg, which would serve another quarter of the Canadian population, should also be added.
8. Present a viable plan for implementing the Montreal Biodiversity Agreement. Two years ago, Canada joined 125 countries in signing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which committed to conserving 30 per cent of land, sea, and inland waters; restoring 30 per cent of degraded ecosystems, and ending federal government subsidies that harm nature, among others. Since this time, Canada has missed its interim targets, and it continues to subsidize the fossil fuel industry—almost $30 billion in 2024 alone. The next federal government must present a plan to meet the Framework’s commitments and end fossil fuel subsidies fully.

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* NDP Candidate Joel Harden qualified his endorsement with "adjustment": "We believe that a strengthened industrial carbon tax helps to tackle carbon emissions at the source. Rather than try to influence consumer behaviour indirectly an industry tax makes sure we are putting pressure on the biggest emitters - corporations. This measure should be paired with policies that guarantee affordability and accessibility for everyday Canadians to choose collective low-emission options — like well-funded public transit —and a fair transition to high skilled jobs for energy sector workers."