Minister Jordan highlights investments in Budget 2021 for the environment and a green recovery

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia - Budget 2021 is the Government of Canada’s plan to finish the fight against COVID-19 and ensure a strong economic recovery that is focused on a more prosperous and innovative future for Canadians.  

 

Today, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, the Honourable Minister Bernadette Jordan, met with CEO Steve MacDonald from Efficiency Nova Scotia to discuss home retrofitting investments from Budget 2021: A Recovery Plan for Jobs, Growth, and Resilience.

 

Climate action starts at home—whether it’s replacing drafty windows, installing heat pumps or improving home insulation, home energy retrofits will help Canadians to make their homes more energy efficient and better protected from climate risks. Budget 2021 proposes to provide $4.4 billion to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporations (CMHC) to help homeowners to complete deep home retrofits through interest-free loans worth up to $40,000.

 

The program will help homeowners and landlords who want to retrofit their homes through an authorized EnerGuide energy assessment. To ensure it’s affordable and accessible to as many Canadians as possible, the program will include a dedicated funding stream to support low-income homeowners and landlords with low-income renters, including co-ops and not-for-profit housing.

 

We want every Canadian to be able to live green, and this program is a critical step in making that a reality. In addition to making our homes more comfortable, retrofitting will reduce energy bills and create good middle-class jobs, especially for skilled workers and tradespeople.

 

Budget 2021 is a plan to bridge Canadians and Canadian businesses through the crisis and towards a robust recovery. It proposes to extend business and income support measures through to the fall and to make investments to create jobs and help businesses across the economy come roaring back. It will support almost 500,000 new training and work opportunities including 215,000 opportunities for youth; support businesses in our most affected sectors such as tourism and arts and culture; and accelerate investment and digital transformation at small and medium-sized businesses. Budget 2021 is a plan that puts Canada on track to meet its commitment to create 1 million jobs by the end of the year.

 

Canada entered the pandemic in a strong fiscal position. This allowed the government to take quick and decisive action, supporting people and businesses, and put it in the position to make historic investments in the recovery.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.