A Youth Climate Corp Could Be Exactly the Climate Policy Approach that Canada Needs

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This post is part of the Cursed: How the Resource Curse Manifests in Newfoundland and Labrador project, led by Dr. Lori Lee Oates.

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As the new Liberal government pursues policies that will likely be terrible for the environment, it has become increasingly obvious that the Government of Canada needs new approaches on climate change. In this context, the government would do well to consider fully funding a Canadian Youth Climate Corp.

The concept of a Youth Climate Corp is being pursued by young Canadians who take their inspiration from the American Great Depression-era New Deal. At that time, Franklin D. Roosevelt established a Civilian Conservation Corp that employed unmarried men from the ages of seventeen to twenty-eight to build American infrastructure. While this program reflected the gender and racial segregation of the period, it was also very important to the country’s economic recovery.

In February of 2024 the Biden administration launched an American Climate Corp. This program was designed to train young Americans to help address climate change in rural communities across the country.

Indigenous youth from the Nak’albun elementary school assisted Fisheries and Oceans Canada technicians with the release of Early Stuart sockeye fry. These operations are critical to the ongoing Big Bar landslide response to help sustain a salmon population under severe conservation threat and listed as “endangered” by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC).
Indigenous youth from the Nak’albun elementary school assisted Fisheries and Oceans Canada technicians with the release of Early Stuart sockeye fry. These operations are critical to the ongoing Big Bar landslide response to help sustain a salmon population under severe conservation threat and listed as “endangered” by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). (2021) “Indigenous youth from Nak’albun elementary school participate in Early Stuart sockeye fry release as part of the Big Bar emergency enhancement program” by BC Gov Photos is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Abacus Data polling has demonstrated that such a program would enjoy popular support in Canada. A Youth Climate Corp movement already exists across Canada. These young people are calling for policy that will fund a national jobs program for anyone under thirty-five years of age.

They ask that it provide two-year placements and pay a living wage. The work could include:

  • Emergency responses during extreme weather events
  • Building community and ecological resilience, while restoring biodiversity
  • Building the infrastructure that is needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
  • Pursuit of renewable energy projects
  • Building affordable energy efficient housing
  • Retrofits of homes and buildings that reduce energy costs and consumption, and
  • Public transportation infrastructure.

It is also worth noting that Prime Minister Mark Carney ran on the slogan “It’s time to build.” Young people have a big stake in making sure this happens for a more livable future. They need to part of the solution.

The amazing thing about this work is that it will also address the cost-of-living crisis. Building affordable energy-efficient housing could bring down the cost of housing and energy use at a time when it is desperately needed. Improved infrastructure could reduce the cost of insurance for all of us. Public transit infrastructure would enable citizens to move past the many costs of car ownership, while doing the single best thing any of us can do to reduce fossil fuel emissions.

Young people would gain income and experience. This could be a solution to the no experience, no job trap, while also building human capital in the country.

Canada is far behind in preparing for the climate crisis. We need better planned municipalities that are more walkable, with more bike paths and green spaces. This will also make neighbourhoods more livable and our citizens healthier. While it is a worthy goal to encourage Canadians to reduce their use of fossil fuels, this can only happen if governments provide them with the energy efficient options to do so.

Our leaders need to plan for climate change in a way that is not merely green but that is also just. It is young Canadians who know something about social justice. They know how to draw upon the wisdom of Indigenous and historically marginalized populations. Our youth and vulnerable populations have a right to a country that can survive the climate emergency.

It has become all too frequent that we make fun of Millennials and Gen Z, while they have gotten a bad deal from both our politics and global conditions. They are truly the wisest and kindest generations, and they deserve more than skyrocketing prices for housing and education, as the planet they will have to inhabit for some time is destroyed around them.

A Youth Climate Corp could be exactly the solution our politicians need to address the concerns of the country, while bringing young voters back into the fold.

It is hardly a wonder that so many of them are being lost to the right-wing of the political spectrum, as centrist and progressive leaders continuously fail to address their needs. If the Liberal leadership candidates are serious about winning the next federal election, they will not let this hemorrhaging of young voters continue.

A Youth Climate Corp could be exactly the solution our politicians need to address the concerns of the country, while bringing young voters back into the fold. As a bonus, the rest of us will get a better quality of life and a country that is able to withstand the ravages of the coming crises.

Feature Image: Youth Conservation Corp Crew: Shane Davis, Lachlan Kirven, Iris Blakeslee and Anelise Zimmer with Kodiak Brown Bears in the River (Dog Salmon River). Credit: Shelly Lawson / USFW. “Get Your Goose On! – Alaska Style” by USFWS Mountain Prairie is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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Lori Lee Oates

Teaching Assistant Professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland
Lori Lee Oates is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Currently, she holds a SSHRC Insight Development Grant for a project entitled Cursed: How the Resource Curse Manifests in Newfoundland and Labrador. Lori Lee recently co-edited a special section of Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Social Justice & Culture on Gender and Climate Justice. She is also a member of the Environmental Cluster of the Canadian Sociological Association. Lori Lee has been a contributor to the CBC, The Globe and Mail, Canada's National Observer, and The Hill Times. She has advised national environmental groups on the political economy of climate change and a just transition off fossil fuels.

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