Published on
Ottawa, June 25, 2026 - With Finance Minister Champagne planning to launch pre-budget consultations soon, the Green Budget Coalition – comprising 21 of Canada’s leading environmental organizations – released its comprehensive Recommendations for Budget 2026.
If adopted, these recommendations would address the climate, nature, and pollution crises while advancing major progress on affordability, health, and greater economic independence for people across Canada.
"These recommendations present tangible opportunities to improve Canadians’ lives in the short, medium, and long-term," said Jessica McIlroy, Green Budget Coalition Chair, and Director of Government Relations for the Pembina Institute.
“If implemented, they can help ensure cleaner, lower-cost energy, climate-safe homes, reduced climate risks, increased protection of natural areas, and improved health.”
The Green Budget Coalition’s four feature recommendations for Budget 2026 address:
Modern, Resilient East-West Electricity Grid Based on Renewables
Climate-Resilient Housing
Strengthened Industrial Carbon Pricing
Combatting Plastic Pollution
In addition to these four feature recommendations, the Green Budget Coalition is encouraging action on a wide array of interrelated proposals, including supporting and expanding nature protection and restoration, climate adaptation, sustainable finance, fossil fuel subsidies, a windfall profits tax on oil and gas companies, reducing nature-harmful subsidies, and more.
The Green Budget Coalition has already met to discuss these recommendations with the PMO, Minister Dabrusin and the Finance Department over the past week, and plans to continue meeting with ministers, political staff, deputy ministers, and MPs from all political parties, over the summer and fall, to discuss them.
This new recommendations document includes on page 6 a table showing the alignment of the Coalition’s feature recommendations with the Prime Minister’s seven mandate letter priorities.
Citations :
Zoe Grams, Executive Director of Climate Caucus:
“Local elected officials and the municipalities they serve are at the frontline of climate change impacts. We know how necessary federal climate and nature policies are to safety and prosperity. In Budget 2026, the government has an opportunity to ensure that municipalities are able to prevent the worst climate impacts and can contribute to building a strong economy, strong municipalities and strong communities for all.”
Renata Woodward, Executive Director, Alliance of Canadian Land Trusts:
"With land trusts working on the ground in communities across Canada, we know that nature is essential infrastructure. Nature is Canada's cornerstone and building a strong future for Canada means making decisions that uphold Indigenous sovereignty, protect biodiversity, and safeguard the natural systems that sustain life and livelihoods. The Green Budget Coalition's recommendations offer a path forward, one that recognizes nature conservation as a foundation of economic resilience, community well-being, and nation-building."
Contact:
Andrew Van Iterson
Managing Director, Green Budget Coalition
613-296-3263
avaniterson@naturecanada.ca
About the Green Budget Coalition:
The Green Budget Coalition, active since 1999, brings together 21 leading Canadian environmental and conservation organizations to present an analysis of the most pressing issues regarding environmental sustainability in Canada and to make recommendations to the federal government regarding strategic fiscal and budgetary opportunities. Together, these groups have more than a million members and supporters, and decades of experience solving Canada’s biggest environmental challenges. A recent senior Finance Minister advisor called the Green Budget Coalition the most effective advocacy group in Canada.
The Green Budget Coalition's members:
Alliance of Canadian Land Trusts, Biome Conservation, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Canadian Wildlife Federation, Climate Caucus, David Suzuki Foundation, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Ecojustice Canada, Ecology Action Centre, Équiterre, Friends of the Earth Canada, Green Communities Canada, International Institute for Sustainable Development, Nature Canada, Pembina Institute, Pollution Probe, West Coast Environmental Law Association, Wildlife Habitat Canada, WWF-Canada, and Y2Y Canada.
