The report comes ahead of a looming fall deadline the federal government set for itself to plan a phase-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.
The government of Canada provided fossil fuel and petrochemical companies at least $18.6 billion in subsidies last year, a new report has found.
The report comes ahead of a looming deadline the Liberal government set for itself to phase-out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies. In July 2023, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault said Ottawa would announce a plan to phase-out the public financing of the fossil fuel sector by the fall of 2024.
“There are dozens of Crown corporations many of which might be providing public financing for fossil fuels,” Levin said. “But there's a number of Crown corporations where I have no information.”$65 billion in oil and gas subsidies over four years The $18.6 billion in fossil fuel subsidies provided in 2023 are down slightly from the $20.2 billion provided by Ottawa the previous year, according to Environmental Defence, which has been tracking subsidies for six years.
In addition to direct subsidies, the report included a calculation of the social costs of greenhouse gas emissions from Canada’s oil and gas sector in 2023, estimated to be roughly 200 megatonnes. Using a government tool to calculate the dollar value of carbon pollution, the report found fossil fuel yearly emissions cost society $52 billion in 2023.