The vocal and well-financed green lobby regularly lectures Canadians that there is no contradiction between a strict environmental agenda and economic growth. In fact, green advocates trumpet that the two are positively related, since clean energy is supposed to be the foundation of our economy in the future. So Statistics Canada’s release this week of the first estimates of its Environmental and Clean Technology Accounts will make for sober reading for low-carbon lobbyists and their supporters.
StatCan’s green-economy accounts include everything from hydro and nuclear power to services such as waste management to manufacturing clean-energy goods such as wind turbines. StatCan does not yet document the subsidies supporting these various activities. Environmental and clean-technology industries accounted for a puny 3.1 per cent of Canada’s GDP in 2017. More importantly, StatCan noted that this ratio has remained relatively stable since 2007 when the data began. The green economy’s share of GDP stagnated for 10 of the biggest years for pro-green policies and hefty government support, and against historically slow growth in the rest of the economy. If the green economy cannot flourish in these circumstances, it is doubtful it ever will.
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