TAF Highlights Energy Cost Savings, Job Creation in ‘Made-in-Canada’ Policy Pitch

Source: Gaye Taylor | · THE ENERGY MIX · | March 26, 2025

By fast-tracking energy-efficient homes, strengthening charging networks for electric vehicles, and funding distributed energy resources, Canada could create jobs, cut energy bills, and improve public health while decarbonizing its economy, The Atmospheric Fund (TAF) argues in a set of “made-in-Canada policy recommendations” issued in mid-March.

Released just ahead of a federal election in which reducing economic reliance on the United States is emerging as the key issue, the TAF submission  prioritizes [pdf] “opportunities for made-in-Canada companies” in the transportation and buildings sectors—which account for 45% of the country’s climate emissions.

TAF’s third focus is strengthening a non-emitting electricity grid to support decarbonization in the other two sectors. It calls for Canada to set an ambitious target for net-zero electricity generation and end the use of fossil fuels on the grid.

Build Canadian, Build Green

With so much of Canada’s building stock aging—making it expensive to heat and cool, and vulnerable to extreme weather—now is the time to scale up new green builds and low-carbon retrofits, a move that would also “stimulate a thriving construction economy and good jobs across the country,” writes TAF.

To make that happen, Ottawa must support training programs and certifications for construction workers and tradespeople, the report adds, calling workforce development “a strategic opportunity” across the country.

To maximize energy savings, it says the federal government should include low-carbon requirements in all tiers of the National Building Code, “support and encourage efficient fuel switching”—like by funding heat pumps—and phase out the sale of gas furnaces by 2035.

EVs for Everyone

Electric vehicles are “mission-critical” to Canada’s 2030 and 2050 climate targets, TAF writes. Beyond cutting emissions, widespread EV adoption would improve respiratory health and reduce household transportation costs.

To achieve this mission, Ottawa must make EVs and charging networks available to all Canadians regardless of where they live, the budget submission states. That will mean upholding the 2023 EV Availability Standard, which calls for Canada must achieve 100% zero-emission vehicle sales by 2035, with interim targets of at least 20% by 2026 and 60%, by 2030.