Our kids are counting on us to do more, not less.

Politicians who’d axe the industrial carbon price betray our children -- forcing our kids to pay dearly for the pollution they'd let industry dump for free.

Climate change is like a high-interest credit card. Every time we avoid action, the cost goes up — and it’s the next generation that gets stuck paying the bill.

Floods, fires, droughts, extreme weather — these disasters already cost Canada billions each year, and it’s only getting worse. Pollution pricing helps shift these cost back where they belong: at their source. That’s how we stop offloading financial, environmental, and emotional debt to the young people we care about most.

Among most Canadians, concern about the risks and costs of climate change remains high, as does the desire for governments to act. Polling results converge around these findings:

• 77% of Canadians worry about the future effects of climate change, a 15 point increase over the last year.
• 67% worry about the impacts of extreme weather in their area. Climate change is becoming a personal risk, not just an abstract one.
• 85% of Canadians want to maintain or increase Ottawa’s climate action. This support is consistent across parties (70% among Conservatives) and across regions (72% in Alberta).
• 67% of Canadians agree that the next Canadian government should make climate action a high priority.
• Over 80% of Canadians think that both governments and people should try to do more to fight climate change.

When groups like the Macdonald-Laurier Institute argue that advocacy for a safer environment is an example of “the ideological preferences of the few” being used “to stymie the economic aspirations of the many” it’s important to keep the consistency of these polling data in mind.

Gen Squeeze’s own national polling found:

• 67% of Canadians agree that it’s important to pay for our pollution, because there is no better planet to protect for our kids.
• 73% of Canadians agree that politicians betray our kids when they propose to stop paying for pollution, because it forces our kids to pay even more dearly for the messes we leave them.

Clearly federal, provincial and territorial leaders have a mandate to act boldly to reduce the climate risks and costs we’re leaving to our kids and future generations. Protecting and strengthening industrial pollution pricing should be at the center of these efforts.

Pollution from burning fossil fuels doesn’t just warm the planet — it clogs lungs, strains hearts, and shortens lives. And it hits kids, seniors, and people with chronic illness hardest.

Air pollution is linked to roughly 1 in 7 premature deaths in Canada. Pollution pricing helps reduce the emissions that cause asthma, heart disease, and thousands of premature deaths each year. The Canadian Climate Institute estimates that reaching net-zero could save $7 billion annually in health-related costs — freeing up resources in a system that badly needs them.

Every dollar invested in climate action pays back approximately $2 in health care savings alone - a doubled return on investment that more than pays for itself.

As global climate rules tighten and US trade threats grow, Canada needs to protect its economic footing. Countries like the EU already use carbon border adjustments: tariffs on imports from countries that don’t price their pollution. If we don’t keep our own carbon price in place, we’ll have no defense. Pollution pricing is not just climate policy — it’s economic self-defense in a shifting global economy.

Climate change is already weakening Canada’s economy, with costs estimated to reach $25 billion in 2025.

Climate policy is industrial policy, business policy, and economic policy. Canada must step up to avoid being left behind in global markets, and to attract foreign investment from beyond the US. Jurisdictions worldwide are already seeking ‘clean energy advantages’ via low-carbon and lowest cost electricity systems.

Industrial carbon pricing is "a highly effective policy and supports national objectives in this new global environment. It’s a critical strategy for winning on emissions reductions, economic growth, interprovincial trade, and international competitiveness."

Canadian Climate Institute

The most straightforward step we can take to protect our climate right now is to strengthen what already exists. That doesn't mean we should stop looking for the next big idea, but it does mean that we can't back away from what's here right now - and is already working. Our kids can't afford to wait while we search out a silver bullet. They need us to double down on solutions we have in place.

Let’s be honest — we can’t afford to lose the one tool doing the heavy lifting. By 2030, pollution pricing is expected to account for up to 50% of Canada’s total carbon cuts. That's more than any other single climate policy.

The industrial carbon price works without requiring every individual to change overnight. It creates incentives across the system — for industries, utilities, manufacturers — to clean up their act. That means faster, cheaper, more scalable progress.

Pollution pricing sends a clear signal to businesses: cleaner is better. And companies are listening.

Every dollar invested in renewable energy generates three times the number of jobs than the same investment in fossil fuels. Canadian industries are already investing more than $4 billion a year in clean energy. Many are using carbon credits to turn lower emissions into revenue — in Alberta, those credits were worth $5 billion in 2024 alone. That’s not theory. That’s the market at work/

Despite all the noise, the industrial pollution price adds virtually nothing to every day costs. By 2030, it will add just 0.1% to the price of goods — about 10 cents on a $100 purchase.

Cutting this policy won’t make life more affordable. But it will cost us more in the long run in medical care costs, insurance premiums, and adapting to extreme weather. And these costs will only go up the longer we fail to act, ratcheting up the unpaid bills we're leaving to our kids.

When it comes to the industrial carbon price, the cheapest path is also the cleanest one.

The industrial carbon price incentivizes emissions reduction in many sectors, like electricity, cement, oil and gas, and chemicals. It asks industries across Canada to step up and take responsibility for the pollution messes they make – and that our kids are poised to inherit. Strengthening this backbone climate and economic policy will create greater certainty across these sectors, so our business can compete on level footing within Canada, and be competitive on the world stage.