While the federal government has made bold promises to protect nature, their Canada Strong 2025 Budget tells a different story, prioritizing harmful subsidies over conservation funding, and ignoring the overwhelming majority of Canadians who see nature as essential to our national identity.
Conservation Promises Broken
In the throne speech, the government recognized the importance of nature, stating that “nature is core to Canada’s identity” and that they “will protect more of Canada’s nature than ever before through the creation of new national parks, national urban parks, marine protected areas, and other conservation initiatives,” specifically emphasizing their existing commitment to protect 30 percent of lands and waters by 2030. Despite this rhetoric, the federal budget offers none of the new, dedicated funding desperately needed to turn promises into reality.
Earlier this year, Ontario Nature, alongside 64 other organizations, put forward budget recommendations highlighting the federal support needed to meet the challenges of the global climate and biodiversity crisis. This budget fails to fund any of the recommendations outlined. There is no investment to support the creation of new protected areas, no new funds for Indigenous-led conservation and no significant boost for the recovery of species at risk.
The only commitments to nature in this budget are those outlined in the Climate Competitiveness Strategy. Instead of funding conservation, this strategy prioritizes subsidizing some of the most environmentally destructive industries, accelerating the very activities that are the root causes of the nature crisis.
The strategy explicitly promotes critical mineral mining through subsidies, tax credits, and direct investments for private companies. At the same time, it proposes cutting $65.8 million in projected funding from the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, the agency responsible for reviewing major projects to support sustainable development, protect the environment, and uphold the rights of Indigenous Peoples. When combined with provincial laws like Bill 5, these actions will accelerate mining at an unsustainable rate and scale, putting Ontario’s most vital ecosystems in danger.
While framing these critical mineral investments as climate action, the budget also directly cuts programs and regulations that have been effective tools for nature. It eliminates successful programs like the Canada Greener Homes Grant and the 2 Billion Trees program, while also cutting $1.3 billion in projected funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada. Additionally, proposed changes would weaken greenwashing provisions in the Competition Act. These provisions, made last year, were supported by Ontario Nature as a necessary transformative change to keep industry accountable. Without them, companies will again be able to make false or misleading claims about the environmental impact of their activities.
Treating nature as a portfolio of resources to be managed and sold for industrial growth while undermining restoration and conservation efforts creates a perverse incentive structure, promoting and funding activities that degrade ecosystems while simultaneously refusing to fund the work needed to mitigate that damage.
Protecting nature isn’t a partisan issue; it’s a core Canadian value. A recent EKOS poll found that 89 percent of Canadians believe nature is core to our national identity. Similarly, an Abacus Data poll shows that 87 percent believe investing in nature can secure Canada’s long-term resilience and independence, and 91 percent agree that nature is one of Canada’s most valuable economic assets.
Canadians understand that protecting the nature that defines us is an investment in our health, our climate resilience, and our future. Given this overwhelming consensus, it’s time for action. Contact your MP and insist they commit to Ontario Nature’s budget recommendations to protect and conserve our natural legacy.
Luke Bondi is Ontario Nature’s Protected Places Intern. He holds an MA in Political Science from York University where he studied the political economy of the environment in Mexico’s petroleum and mining sectors, with an emphasis on sustainable development and Indigenous land rights. His research fuels his commitment to equitable and impactful conservation policies.
To help advance our objectives related to Bill 5, Ontario Nature is partnering with Legal Advocates for Nature’s Defence (LAND). An environmental law non-profit, LAND advances access to justice in northern Ontario to protect nature and Indigenous rights. Ontario Nature is providing financial and in-kind advocacy support to LAND to advance legal challenges by Indigenous rights holders to Bill 5. Ontario Nature and LAND will also collaborate on events, and amplifying Bill 5 opposition and Indigenous voices.
