The current industrial carbon price is the most important policy driving emissions reductions in Canada today.

Opinion | By Dr. Mili Roy | May 8, 2025 | Published in the Hill Times

It’s time for a made-in-Canada, low cost, renewable energy grid using wind, solar, hydroelectric, and geothermal sources.

Canada is in a critical moment. We’re facing intersecting crises including unprecedented threats from America to our economy, livelihoods, and sovereignty. These threats risk overshadowing the climate crisis, which in turn endangers our very existence. Our new federal government is charged with simultaneously tackling risks tied to both America and the environment. Some of the highest stakes we and our children have ever faced also present the greatest opportunity to take back our future.

Dr. Mili Roy serves as co-chair for the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, Ontario Regional Committee.Photograph courtesy of Mili Roy

Costing Canada an estimated $25-billion in 2025, climate change is already severely weakening our economy, and is set to destroy half of this year’s gross domestic product growth. This will leave all households worse off, while increasing our economic vulnerability to United States tariffs. Policies mitigating climate change will create resilience against American aggression by strengthening our economy.

As tariffs and counter-tariffs volley across the border, our fossil-fuel based energy interdependence with the U.S. generates massive lethal air pollution, as well as carbon pollution that drives climate change. Fossil fuels are already escalating our cost of living. These levies could additionally trigger widespread job and profit losses in this U.S.-dependent sector. 

We now have an opportunity to phase out Canadian dependency on so-called “natural” gas—mainly composed of toxic methane gas—much of which is imported from America. Gas is a polluting fossil fuel linked to human health and environmental damage, in some cases comparable to coal. LNG (liquefied “natural” gas)—a fuel export option being eyed by politicians on both our east and west coasts—poses climate and health risks potentially even worse than coal.

This is a critical moment to protect our sovereignty and our economy from the U.S. through globally competitive Canadian energy policies to attract non-American foreign investment. With countries increasingly using renewable electricity generation, jurisdictions worldwide are preferentially seeking clean energy advantages via low-carbon, low-cost electricity systems. In a world rapidly transitioning to renewable energy solutions, Canada must lead with strong climate policy integrated into our business and industrial policy, while achieving clean energy independence. Dirty gas, particularly of U.S. origin, has no place in our future energy mix.

It’s time for a made-in-Canada, low cost, renewable energy grid comprised of wind, solar, hydroelectric and geothermal sources. Coupled with modern, large-scale battery technologies, east-west transmission lines could deliver clean inexpensive energy within Canadian borders and markets. Every dollar invested in the renewable energy sector generates three times the number of jobs compared to the same investment in the fossil fuel sector. Anticipating job losses triggered by U.S. tariffs, renewable energy is the clear winner over fossil fuels to drive new employment and stabilize cost of living, while also positioning our nation globally as a clean energy powerhouse.

As carbon border adjustments—which add tariffs to polluting energy imports—take root in Europe, pollution pricing will be Canada’s key to trading relationships with valued allies. Pollution pricing policies are much more than simply tools to facilitate trade. The current industrial carbon price is the most important policy driving emissions reductions in Canada today. The recently cancelled consumer-facing carbon price ranked as the fourth-most effective policy. Nearly three in four people living in Canada agree that cancelling carbon pricing betrays our children and future generations. We cannot afford to drop pollution pricing, which is Canada’s most powerful yet inexpensive tool to hold the largest polluters accountable. Meeting our emissions reduction targets with good governance grounded in home-grown solutions independent of the U.S. is not optional. It is critical both to our survival and sovereignty.

American-initiated tariffs, along with attacks on our economy and independence, are not under our control. However, our response is. Canada can urgently implement well-designed policies that simultaneously fight climate change and these threats—two of the greatest risks we face today. This is our only way forward.

We are the last generation with the opportunity to protect ourselves and future generations from the risks and costs of uncontrolled climate change. Fortunately, forging the best path to achieve this goal will also safeguard Canadian sovereignty along the way. 

Canada’s government and people must act at this make or break moment for a liveable—and independent—future.

Dr. Mili Roy is co-chair for the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, Ontario Regional Committee. She is a practicing Canadian physician, and assistant professor with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, and section editor for the Canadian Journal of Ophthalmology. Her advocacy work with CAPE involves education, lobbying and policy work centred on environmental protection to protect public health. She has a special interest and expertise in the environmental and health impacts of energy systems.