Thank you very much.
My name is Graham Saul. I'm the executive director of Climate Action Network Canada, Réseau action climat Canada. Climate Action Network is a coalition of 75 Canadian organizations that are working together to push for action on climate change. It includes faith-based organizations such as the United Church of Canada, aboriginal representation such as the Assembly of First Nations, labour unions such as the Canadian Labour Congress, international development organizations such as Oxfam and, of course, a wide range of environmental groups such as WWF Canada and the Pembina Institute.
I'm here on behalf of the members of Climate Action Network to ask the finance committee to recommend cancelling over a billion dollars in subsidies to the oil, coal, and gas industries.
We have four reasons why we think you should consider doing this: first, from a climate change policy perspective, these subsidies take us exactly in the wrong direction; second, the oil industry does not need these subsidies; third, Canadians do not support these subsidies; and fourth, you are trying to balance the books, you're trying to save money, and we are offering a billion dollar solution. So let me quickly go through each one of these issues.
Regarding the first reason, every national science academy in the world, without exception, is telling us that burning oil, coal, and gas is releasing greenhouse gases and causing climate change and that if we don't take action, the implications are going to be catastrophic. So what we need to be doing is developing policies that encourage us to move away from our dependence on oil, coal, and gas, and ramp up the efficient use of renewable energy and energy conservation.
While this government has made improvements in the past few years, including the 2007 and 2011 reductions in fossil fuel subsidies, the overall direction of the budget has often been in the exact opposite direction of where we need to be going. For example, we have chosen to continue to provide more than a billion dollars in subsidies to the oil, coal, and gas industry, while phasing out the only major federal program designed to support renewable energy, the ecoENERGY for renewables project. So we're supposed to be going in this direction, and we're actually going in that direction from a climate change policy perspective.
Second, the oil industry does not need these subsidies. There may have been a time in the history of the development of the Canadian oil sector when there were fledgling industries that could benefit from significant support to improve their competitiveness and to grow and establish themselves. Those days are long gone. The oil industry in Canada is competitive, it is large, it is powerful. It does not need more than a billion dollars in subsidies every year to maintain its competitiveness and to continue to grow.
Third, Canadians do not support these subsidies. We have polled on this issue, and what we have found across the board is that whether they are likely Liberal voters, likely Conservative voters, likely NDP, Bloc, or Green voters, when asked, Canadians agree that we have better things to do with our resources than provide subsidies to some of the richest companies in the world.
Fourth, and finally, you are trying to balance the books, and we respect that. You are making difficult decisions, and we understand that. And you are trying to save money, and we are offering you a billion dollar solution on how you can do just that. So from our perspective, this is a win-win-win-win scenario.
We very much appreciate this opportunity to present to the committee. We would be happy to provide additional information on the exact nature of the subsidies. I'd refer you to a recent exhaustive study done by the Geneva office of the International Institute for Sustainable Development, as well as the recommendations of the Green Budget Coalition, which is prioritizing this issue in its intervention.
Thank you very much.