“Build, build, build” needs workers — and a budget

Democracy should at least mean Parliament reviewing government spending as soon as possible. No budget until the fall makes it harder for workers to hold the government accountable on green-economy commitments. Federal budgets are often imprecise and are not a guarantee of progress, but it is better to have them than not. The choice to appoint a minister of jobs over a minister of labour muddies matters further, sidelining the voice of workers.

There’s been plenty of talk, but we need action. In Prime Minister Mark Carney’s victory speech, he promised that to “build, baby, build,” he’d “build an industrial strategy that makes Canada more competitive while fighting climate change.” Canada is a big, decentralized country where it’s hard to govern. Workers and public leadership need a greater role in navigating it. Supporting good wages and unionization must be part of building, baby, building.

Canada is in dire need of this sort of sovereignty-building vision. But it must be clearly articulated with costs and spending commitments on a timeline that can help workers keep the government honest. Without this accountability, it would be all too easy for corporate give-aways, like tax credits and piecemeal sector-by-sector strategies, to take the place of a comprehensive plan. Such an approach can lead to climate backsliding and cannot create a serious green industrial strategy that will secure Canadians against trade and climate threats now and in the future.

Similar to how tariffs disrupt Canadian economic security, dangerous weather and climate disasters present a major threat to prosperity, as well as safety. 

Spending reveals a government’s priorities. Price signals rarely fully capture how economic relationship create new ideas. The public plays an important role in coordinating, investing, owning and creating the conditions for those ideas. Direct public investment gets the goods. 

If Carney wishes to turn the page on past governments and stand up to US President Donald Trump, a green industrial strategy is serious forward-looking leadership.

This government will either start to address the interlocked crises of environmental and economic security — and protect Canada’s social contract — or it will produce the same populist backlash we narrowly avoided. Canada isn’t alone; other countries are a cautionary tale.

Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, less than a year after winning a majority, is already in a dead heat with the far-right Reform party in some polls, as its candidates scored victories in local elections. UK underinvestment in green public goods could fail to bring costs down, leaving his party to pay the political price. 

Starmer is a lesson. A fourth mandate is rare in federal politics. Fifth ones are even less so. The Canadian public is in a rare moment of unity. The Carney government cannot squander it.

That means Carney must make the most of his mandate, not hit the panic button. 

His pledge to build a clean east-west energy grid is a longstanding demand of labour-climate alliances, such as the Green Economy Network. Building the grid will bring economic opportunities for workers in nearby communities, cut energy costs and insulate Canadians from dependence on US fossil fuel trade. It can also support productivity-enhancing infrastructure, like low-emissions transit for people and products and lowering costs for Canadian households and businesses. 

To maximize its potential, it should be powered by renewable energy and publicly-owned infrastructure, rather than a gift to private interests. Publicly building and retrofitting homes can address the affordable housing crisis, while securing us against climate threats. Investments in clean manufacturing are another must.

The labour-climate alliance Blue Green Canada has pointed to the benefits of procuring industrial materials from Canadian sources that produce less emissions than international competitors. In addition to shielding jobs from trade risk, that gives those businesses the demand certainty needed to make investments in cleaner technologies that give them a competitive advantage in a rapidly greening global economy. 

A more dynamic, sovereignty-building project sees the amity between robust public services — like publicly-owned high-speed rail or high-quality education and healthcare — and the industrial output necessary to produce them with as few emissions as possible. Public procurement of green steel, for example, can make rail construction less emissions-intensive while building the housing and facilities needed to support quality care services. This applies to federal support knowledge — like research and technology in post-secondary institutions — as well as training workers, as the Carney government has promised to cover apprenticeships for those entering skilled trades.

There is precedent. Carney himself has cited the pivotal role Ottawa played by building homes in the decades after the Second World War.  

If the federal government is serious, its big projects should commit to clean procurement standards and sustainable labour services and support. Nothing declares sovereignty more clearly than having Canadian workers making clean materials and services in the face of a new era of bold public investment.

“Build, baby, build” — if it’s more than a slogan — needs a workforce supported and engaged enough to achieve it. Now that Carney is promising to turn the fall economic statement into a full-fledged budget, it’s time to work these details out. 

Nick Pearce is the national convenor of the Green Economy Network, a coalition of labour unions and civil society organizations.