With the ballooning cost of living, economic uncertainty, a stressed healthcare system, and international trade tensions, Canadians are managing more than ever. To back this up, a July 2025 Abacus Data poll shows most Canadians remain focused on everyday issues like affordability and the economy. The Government of Canada acknowledges this in its recent Climate Competitiveness Strategy, which links climate action to affordability, security, and other priorities Canadians care about the most. With the release of the new federal budget, our priorities have been established — and the great news is that these issues are not at odds with climate policy, rather they highlight a significant opportunity to use climate action as a lever to deliver on issues that are most pressing to Canadians.
Canadians’ primary concerns require climate action
Policies and practices that address climate change have significant co-benefits that address many Canadian voters’ priorities head on. It’s not a stretch to show that climate action aligns with the priorities Canadians say matter most.
- Healthcare: The Canadian government estimates that air pollution costs the Canadian healthcare system $146 billion per year. Canadians are already seeing these impacts in respiratory illness exacerbated by wildfire, worsening allergy seasons, and heat-related illness due to extreme temperatures. Cleaner buildings and cleaner vehicles mean fewer asthma attacks, fewer ER visits, and lower public health costs. Pembina’s analysis of retrofit impact on health found that air-pollution-related premature deaths cost Alberta alone an estimated $10.4 billion annually, costs that cleaner buildings could help avoid. Health professionals are drawing the same line elsewhere: the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) links climate policy uptake directly to fewer premature deaths and billions in avoided healthcare costs, while University of Toronto modeling shows EV adoption combined with a clean grid could yield over $100 billion in health savings by 2050. This would free up funding to create an expanded, more efficient healthcare system.
- Affordability: Climate policies can make our homes more affordable (and comfortable) and reduce operations costs for business owners, too. Retrofits that improve energy use reduce household bills and create long-term affordability and prosperity. Pembina has demonstrated through recent analysis that households could save over $600 a year by 2035 through grid decarbonization. In our Beyond the Meter report, we showed how a demand-side management (DSM) policy framework in Alberta could spur retrofit market transformation, saving more than $1 billion every year by avoiding energy costs and deferring infrastructure investments — direct savings that ease pressure on household and business budgets. Nationally, Green Communities Canada has already demonstrated annual savings of $385 per year, per household from participation in their programs. That’s tangible support for mortgages, groceries and everyday costs. There is great news for business fleet owners, too: electrifying medium and heavy-duty diesel fleets can reduce operational and maintenance costs by 40 per cent annually.
- Jobs: Emerging sectors in Canada are already seeing sustained job growth. Canada now has 430,000 people working in the low-carbon economy, and Pembina’s research shows that, with the right durable strategies, retrofit activity alone could generate tens of billions of dollars in economic growth each year and create as many as 200,000 more well-paid, long-term jobs. This is in stark contrast to Canada’s oil and gas sector, which saw jobs peak in 2013 at 219,000 workers and has since lost 35,000 jobs — even as production increased. A Civic Centre for Governance report outlines that there will be more jobs available in a net-zero economy than in one reliant on fossil fuels. These are stable, skilled roles that spread prosperity and resilience across regions, in sharp contrast to today’s oil and gas sector, where employment is concentrated and vulnerable to boom-and-bust cycles.
- Canadian Sovereignty: In an era of unpredictable trade relationships, Canada can strengthen its energy security by accelerating its shift to clean electricity. While conventional energy is vulnerable to volatile global markets, clean electricity generated in Canada keeps energy affordable, reliable, and locally controlled in a moment where we are particularly vulnerable to sudden and unpredictable external shocks. Within our borders, remote communities often depend on expensive, imported fuels, leaving them vulnerable to forces outside their control. Enabling Indigenous-led clean energy projects can also create security and sovereignty at a community scale. Investments in small-scale projects reduce dependence on unstable external supply chains and increase local self-reliance. Decarbonizing the Canadian grid can protect against cross-border price shocks and keep the ‘power’ in our own hands.
We’re stronger together
Climate action is already embedded in the issues at the forefront of Canadians’ concerns — affordability, health and security. Policies like energy efficiency and clean electrification reduce the total cost of living for families and the cost of ownership for businesses, while also delivering electricity grid stability, resilience and climate benefits. Climate action is not a separate lane — it’s the fast lane to affordability, health, jobs and sovereignty. As Canadians voice their priorities and the federal budget charts the course ahead, we have a timely opportunity to use climate action as the lever to deliver on what matters most.
