Ottawa – Chrystia freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance spoke at the Sustainable Finance Forum. She said: “I do want to start by recognizing and thanking Ryan. Ryan, your hard work and your leadership are why we are all here today. I think you are a tremendous example of what one person, one Member of Parliament with dedication and a clear vision can accomplish. It’s a privilege to be here to support you, and I am really inspired by you and grateful to you for your work.
“I also want to give a shout-out to three colleagues here: Minister Steven Guilbeault, Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, and Catherine McKenna. I am really proud that our government has done more than any government in Canada’s history to act on climate change. And that fact is due, first and foremost, to our Prime Minister, but it is also due to these Three Musketeers of ministers who work incredibly effectively together.
“I am very pleased to be here today, as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, to welcome you and to speak about the work we’re doing at the Department of Finance to fight climate change and to help Canada meet this important moment. Over the past year, we have taken unprecedented steps to build our clean economy—and sustainable finance is an important part of our economic plan. I am going to start by talking about the Canada Growth Fund, which we launched earlier this summer.
“The Canada Growth Fund is led by some of Canada’s top investors, and we created it to invest in Canadian businesses, to help them scale, and to help crowd-in Canada’s share of the trillions of dollars in private capital that are waiting to be invested in the global clean economy. This is a really innovative way to make the people’s money work harder and to fill the gaps that private capital alone has not been filling in financing the green transition in Canada.
“And that is why last week, I was incredibly proud to announce the very first investment by the Canada Growth Fund. And that was an investment in a Calgary-based company called Eavor Technologies. Eavor specializes in geothermal energy, and the $90 million investment by the Canada Growth Fund is going to help turbocharge Eavor’s growth and help them expand around the world.
“I was there at that announcement last week, and at the announcement the leaders of Eavor said very explicitly that, absent the investment from the Canada Growth Fund, they had a very appealing offer on the table from an international company to be bought out. And that would have provided them with all the capital they needed to do what they wanted. But what it would have meant is that Eavor would have ceased to be a Canadian company. And their headquarters would no longer be in Canada just because they were missing that slice of capital.
“The Canada Growth Fund has provided that. And as a result, Eavor is going to continue to grow, based here in Canada, and from that Canadian base Eavor is going to continue to take its world-leading technology across Canada and around the world. That is what success looks like for climate action and for the Canadian economy. The Growth Fund is a pillar of our economic plan. And this is a plan that is helping to develop a sustainable finance market in Canada that will create jobs, boost investor confidence, drive economic growth, all while it is fighting climate change. Second, as I am sure everybody here knows, we issued Canada’s first Green Bond in March of last year.
“This inaugural seven-and-a-half-year, $5 billion Green Bond, backed by Canada’s AAA credit rating, saw a final book order of more than $11 billion. What was also really significant is that 45 per cent of the investors in our Green Bond were international. Now, what does that tell us? Demand for Canadian bonds is high, with non-resident ownership of Canadian debt climbing from 13 per cent in 2008 to about 27 per cent in June of last year. That is an international vote of confidence in our economy and it is an international vote of confidence in our economic plan and in our green plan.
“That Green Bond issuance was proof that there is strong global demand for clean investments here in Canada. And we need capital to drive economic growth and to drive the green transition. And that bond issuance was proof that Canada is—and will continue to be—a global leader in sustainable finance.I also want to applaud Kathy Bardswick and the Sustainable Finance Action Council for their excellent work since the creation of the SFAC in 2021.
“This includes the very important work that that you’ve done on mandatory climate disclosures and on a roadmap towards a taxonomy. And building on this work, we look forward to taking further steps later this month. Before I close, I want to make a final point. This is a room full of people who have been working for years, for decades, maybe your entire professional lifetimes, on issues related to climate change. Some of you probably think of yourselves as activists. What is exciting to me today—as the Deputy Prime Minister, as the Minister of Finance, and as someone who also believes we have a moral obligation to act on climate change—is something that I hope is exciting to all of you, too. And that is that today, for Canada and for the world, climate action is not just about climate change.
“Today, having a climate plan is synonymous with having an economic plan. It is synonymous with having a jobs plan. Climate action is about saving the planet, of course, and I know that is what motivated many people at the beginning of their activism, and surely what motivates us still today. Today is a moment where climate action is also about showing people—showing Canadians—that we have a plan for their future. A plan for them—and for their children. I think that is truly central to the work that we have to do together.
“We have reached a tipping point where climate policy truly is economic policy. You could even say that the environment and the economy go hand-in-hand. And that is thanks to the work and the commitment that you have shown so many people for years, for decades, over your lifetime. We are now seeing that in action. Thank you for your hard work. I am looking forward—our government is looking forward—to continuing to work with you to build a clean economy that creates great careers for Canadians from coast to coast to coast. Thank you very much.“