Environmental lobby groups are urging Ottawa to spend $1 billion a year on a Youth Climate Corps, far beyond the modest pilot promised in the Liberal election platform.The Climate Action Network told the Commons finance committee that Canada must go “much further to truly meet the moment and provide good green jobs for young Canadians.” Blacklock's Reporter said the group wants Budget 2025 to spend $1 billion annually on youth employment in climate-related sectors, including emergency response, clean infrastructure, and environmental resilience.The Liberal platform had promised a Mark Carney-led pilot project providing paid training for young Canadians to respond to climate emergencies at $28 million annually for two years. .The Climate Action Network called that “too small” and said a full-scale program could “train young workers in emergency response to extreme weather events and build clean infrastructure,” while combating skyrocketing youth unemployment.The David Suzuki Foundation’s Climate Emergency Unit also endorsed the $1 billion proposal, saying it could create 20,000 jobs a year and potentially double that if provinces matched federal funding. Students and other young workers could serve as firefighters, solar panel installers, and general labourers on climate-focused projects, typically in two-year full-time terms.“A Youth Climate Corps would send a clear signal that we are taking the climate emergency seriously while launching careers in skilled trades to build clean energy and housing projects at speeds not seen in generations,” the foundation said, calling the Liberal pilot “too modest” and insisting a scaled-up corps could be “truly transformative.”
