Election season is upon us, and Canadians are understandably concerned about tariffs, Trump and Canada’s sovereignty. While those threats are real, we can’t lose sight of the existential threat of climate change and the need to protect nature and our communities.

Over the last decade we have made considerable progress towards strengthening our environmental safety net to promote a healthy and sustainable Canada. We cannot let special interests use the disruption being caused by our southern neighbours as an excuse to roll back the legal protections that keep us safe.  

We know it can be hard to keep track of various competing priorities and what experts say needs to be done to make progress on each. As environmental lawyers, we’ve got you covered. Candidate knocking at your door? Going to an all-candidates' debate? 

Here are ten questions you can ask about where your federal election candidates and their parties sit on key priorities for climate, nature and communities.

Download and print these ten questions here.

Climate change

1. Is your party committed to a climate target that is consistent with a climate-safe world, and does it have a credible plan for meeting that target?   
    
2. If elected, would your government cap oil and gas sector emissions to ensure its outsized emissions do not derail our much-needed climate action? 
    
3. Would your government ensure that polluters pay for their greenhouse gas pollution, by either strengthening the industrial carbon levy or replacing it with a sector-wide cap-and-trade program?  

For decades, Canadians have fought for a more climate-safe country. Thanks to our efforts, our emissions are decreasing for the first time in Canadian history. Climate change is not only an existential threat, it’s also an economic one. We can’t afford to go backwards on our climate progress.  

Experience shows that ambitious climate targets like those outlined in the Paris Agreement and credible plans help hold governments accountable for ensuring that countries do their part in the global fight against climate change.  

The oil and gas industry emits more than any other sector in Canada, and its emissions are rising. An oil and gas emissions cap is a no-brainer and would help ensure that the industry does its part to reach Canada’s climate targets.  

Also, experts agree that market-based solutions to climate change are the most economically efficient way to deal with the crisis. The Canadian Climate Institute has found that carbon pricing will be responsible for 20 to 48 per cent of Canada’s emissions reductions in 2030, more than any other policy. If we have any hope of meeting our climate targets, we need to either keep the industrial carbon levy or replace it with another economy-wide solution like cap-and-trade.  

Nature

4. If elected, would your government enact a nature accountability law to ensure that Canada makes good on its international commitment to halt and reverse nature loss? 

Canada played a leading role in negotiating the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, a landmark agreement to halt and reverse nature loss. It commits Parties (including Canada) to four overarching goals and 23 targets for protecting and restoring biodiversity and ensuring fair access to the benefits nature provides.  

The Global Biodiversity Framework is an important step, but Canada has been making – and breaking – promises to protect nature for decades. A biodiversity accountability law would help make sure Canada fulfils its obligations under the Framework. In June 2023 the Minister of Environment and Climate Change tabled Bill C-73, a Nature Accountability Act in Parliament, but it was too weak to be effective and died when the election was called. Help us urge parties to commit to a stronger nature accountability law to protect the nature that Canadians value so deeply.

Indigenous rights and Indigenous-led conservation

5. If elected, will your government support Indigenous-led conservation, including by working with Indigenous nations to support Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas and Guardians Programs and to build co-governance frameworks? 
    
6. If elected, will your government be committed to taking all measures necessary to ensure that the laws of Canada are consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, including by respecting Indigenous self-determination and decision-making authority?

For millennia, Indigenous nations have governed their territories according to their own laws, safeguarding land, air, water and communities. Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas – also known as Indigenous Protected Areas, Tribal Parks or Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas – are areas managed for long-term conservation where Indigenous governments have the primary role in protecting and conserving ecosystems through Indigenous laws, governance and knowledge systems. They are one of the most promising ways to address the biodiversity and climate crises and achieve our conservation targets, such as our obligation to protect 30% of lands and waters by 2030. They also offer a way to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

In 2016, the federal government “unequivocally endorsed” the UN Declaration, and in 2021 passed a law affirming the Declaration as a universal international human rights instrument with application in Canadian law and providing a framework for implementing it in Canada. It is critical that our next federal government deepen this commitment and advance implementation of the UN Declaration to better respect and uphold Indigenous rights and authority and to advance reconciliation.  

Looking before we leap

7. If elected, will your government conduct rigorous, credible, transparent and participatory environmental impact assessments of projects to ensure they foster sustainability and work for communities? 
    
8. If elected, will your government cooperate with Indigenous nations to undertake forward-looking planning for watersheds to ensure the long-term health of species, places and waters?  

Environmental impact assessment is our main tool for ensuring that development projects like mines, pipelines and dams foster sustainability and work for communities. Environmental impact assessment is a requirement in most countries and has been a core feature of environmental decision making in Canada for over 50 years. Unfortunately, since it was enacted in 2019 the Impact Assessment Act has been the target of a misinformation campaign aimed at eradicating this valuable tool.  

Put simply, environmental impact assessment helps ensure that authorities look before they leap into decisions that could have potentially disastrous consequences for nature and communities. Done well, it has been used to avoid and mitigate environmental harms and to ensure that projects deliver long-lasting benefits to communities and workers. Dismantling our environmental safety net risks exacerbating our current political and economic instabilities. We need rigorous, credible, transparent and participatory environmental impact assessment to ensure that projects deliver as promised. We also need assessments at the regional level to ensure that the cumulative effects of projects and activities are understood and sustainably managed.  

Ocean

9. If elected, will your government commit to ensuring Canada’s coasts and ocean are protected through a national network of well-funded marine protected areas? 
    
10. Does your party commit to closing the loopholes on harmful shipping pollution, particularly from cruise ships?

Canadians rely on healthy coasts and oceans for our livelihoods, food, and half of the oxygen we breathe. Coastal communities across Canada have seen dramatic declines in marine life and ecosystems across the generations which undermines food security and coastal jobs.  

Marine protected areas have repeatedly been shown to be effective tools to protect and recover important marine habitats and the species that depend on them. Marine protected areas provide many other benefits including increasing food security, supporting sustainable fisheries, safeguarding against climate change and supporting coastal economies. Canada needs to uphold its commitment to protecting 30% of the coast and ocean by 2030 by establishing and funding new Marine protected areas.  

For Canadians, our coastal waters are a source of health and food security. In BC, unlike in many places in the world, we can still eat fish and seafood directly from our waters. However, loopholes in Canadian laws allow ships to dump sewage, greywater and toxic chemicals into our waters, in areas that overlap with our food sources. We can address these threats by creating and strengthening rules for how cruise ships and all commercial vessels operate in Canadian waters. 

Find out where your local candidates stand on these important issues during Election 2025. Download a printable copy of the questions for easy reference!