Green Industrial Policy in Canada

11/28/23 • 35 min

Perspectives: A Canadian Journal of Political Economy and Social Democracy

On October 17th, 2023 the Green Economy Network, a coalition of labour, environmental, and social justice organizations working to build a green economy in Canada, held a workshop in Ottawa at the Canadian Labour Congress to present its updated “Common Platform”, an action plan for investments in job creation and emissions reductions in key economic sectors.
To accompany the Common Platform, the Green Economy Network hosted a discussion on “Green Industrial Policy in Canada”--a crucial framework to build on public policy that can spur an economic transformation based on justice and equality.
But before getting into the weeds of Green Industrial Policy, just what the heck is it?
To deconstruct the true meaning of industrial policy, Christine Jones, Industrial Decarbonization Program Manager at Blue Green Canada, an organization that brings together unions, environmental groups and other research institutions to advocate for workers and the environment, leads and moderates this discussion.
Also joining this panel are

Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood, Senior Research at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
Angella MacEwen, Senior Economist for the National Canadian Union of Public Employees, and Broadbent Institute Policy Fellow
And John Cartwright, Chairperson of the Council of Canadians

This panel has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Show Notes
Read the three pillars of the updated Common Platform

Read analysis from Broadbent Policy Fellow Brendan Haley that asks, "Will the Response to the US Inflation Reduction Act Reveal Canada’s Lack of Green Industrial Policy?"
Subscribe to ShiftStorm, the CCPA's newsletter on work and climate change by panelist Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood.

Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood, Senior Research at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
Angella MacEwen, Senior Economist for the National Canadian Union of Public Employees, and Broadbent Institute Policy Fellow
And John Cartwright, Chairperson of the Council of Canadians

This panel has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Show Notes
Read the three pillars of the updated Common Platform

Previous Episode

Seven Decades in the Fight for Equality with Ed Broadbent, Frances Abele, Jonathan Sas and Luke Savage

In this episode, we’ll take you to the book launch event of Seeking Social Democracy: Seven Decades in the Fight for Equality, held on October 22nd, 2023 at the Toronto Reference Library featuring co-authors Ed Broadbent, Frances Abele, Jonathan Sas, and Luke Savage.
The quartet of authors take you behind the scenes of the book, explaining the impetus and political philosophies and principles that shape the chapters of Seeking Social Democracy that make it an unconventional take on the political biography.
Their discussion is then followed by a Q&A from the attendees of the event, where Ed elaborates on his ideas and principles that have defined his political life, and responds to today’s political questions on housing, human rights, internationalism under neoliberalism and the social democratic tradition.
You can watch the full event on the Broadbent Institute's YouTube Channel.
Order your copy of the book at seekingsocialdemocracy.ca

Next Episode

What Progressives Are Getting Wrong (and Right!) About Affordable Housing with Professor Carolyn Whitzman

Perspectives Journal sat down with Professor Carolyn Whitzman to dive deeper into her Globe and Mail article published last August entitled Canada’s progressive parties have lost the plot on the housing crisis. This was a response to Prime Minister Trudeau’s earlier blunt statement that “housing is not federal responsibility” while ordinary Canadians experience an unprecedented housing crisis.
In her piece, she asked:
What’s with the silence from allegedly more progressive parties on the doubling of the quantum of non-market housing, a policy that has been recommended by everyone from the industry body for community housing to one of Canada’s big banks?
Why not talk about housing in terms of industrial strategy (something we love to talk about here at Perspectives Journal) and the role of government in building more housing supply, instead of trying to outflank Pierre Poilievre’s inconsistent policy slogans from the right wing?
Since then, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has stated that “governments should get out of home building,” even after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau already confirmed that, so clearly that hasn’t solved anything.
And meanwhile, progressives have yet to propose big plans to get government back into housing while 2/3rds of Canadians surveyed by Leger in early December wanted the federal government to spend more money on its Housing Strategy.
But in recent months, a number of new spending announcements and policy changes have come from social democratic administrations in BC and Toronto, talking about big spends and policy changes to jump start building out the supply for decommodified, non-market housing.
Is this even close to enough, and what exactly are progressives getting wrong, and right, about housing affordability?
From Singapore to Sweden, and British Columbia to Toronto, we talk about what other countries have been doing to build non-market housing, and how governments can get back into the business of home building.
Carolyn Whitzman is a housing and social policy consultant, expert adviser to the Housing Assessment Resource Tools (HART) project at the University of British Columbia, and adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa.
Show note links:
The Globe and Mail - 'Canada’s progressive parties have lost the plot on the housing crisis', by Carolyn Whitzman, 18 August 2023.
Housing Assessment Resource Tools project at the University of British Columbia.
YouTube explainer by Uytae Lee - 'The Non-capitalist Solution to the Housing Crisis'