You may remember that on 31 August 2025, ORCIE made a pre-budget submission to the Minister of Finance, outlining our recommendations for a more just and ecologically responsible federal budget. Building on that advocacy, and in response to the 2026 Budget, tabled by the federal government in the House of Commons on 5 November 2026, ORCIE issued the following statement:
ORCIE welcomes the investments in Budget 2026 to strengthen Canada’s electricity system and the advancement of the National Electricity Strategy’s goal of doubling grid capacity by 2050. We also welcome the investment of $4.6 billion over five years for water and wastewater infrastructure in First Nations communities. Access to safe drinking water is fundamental to human dignity, healthy communities and the common good.
From an integral ecology perspective, however, public investment must be assessed not only in terms of economic growth and productivity, but also in terms of its consequences for people, ecosystems and future generations. Public resources carry a responsibility to strengthen the interconnected foundations of life rather than deepen the very social and ecological crises governments are called to address.
We are therefore deeply concerned by the contradiction between these welcome investments and the continued federal support for fossil fuel expansion. Budget 2026 advances the Pacific Link oil pipeline as a project of national interest, supports carbon capture and storage infrastructure, and introduces a $36-billion Productivity Mega Deduction that also benefits capital investment across the oil, gas and mining sectors, including pipelines. Such measures risk locking Canada into decades of fossil fuel dependence, increasing climate-related harms and exposing public finances to long-term economic and environmental risks.
We are also concerned that international climate finance is largely absent from Budget 2026. At a time when climate-vulnerable countries are facing escalating costs from a crisis they have contributed least to creating, Canada must provide predictable, grant-based funding for climate mitigation, adaptation and Loss and Damage. Such support is an essential expression of climate justice, global solidarity and Canada’s responsibility to the international community.
An integral ecology approach calls for coherence between economic, social and environmental policy: investments in clean energy and essential community infrastructure must be accompanied by a decisive shift away from public support for fossil fuel expansion. ORCIE will continue urging the federal government to align its fiscal priorities with this responsibility, directing public resources toward a just energy transition, Indigenous-led solutions, ecological protection and the flourishing of our common home.