More than 150 organizations representing two million Canadians have signed an open letter urging the Trudeau government to use its upcoming Fall Economic Statement to confirm, by word and deed, that the time is now to establish a Youth Climate Corps.
The open letter is the latest effort in the youth-led Youth Climate Corps (YCC) campaign, supported by the Climate Emergency Unit and Small Change Fund, to push the federal government to finally invest “in a national jobs program for youth that offers a good, green job to anyone under the age of 35 who wants one.”
“The government nodded at the creation of a Youth Climate Corps in the 2024 budget, stating an intention to consult,” YCC campaigner Bushra Asghar told a campaign event in Montreal in September. “We want them to hold true to that promise and act now to announce a program that is ready to employ 20,000 youth by the summer of 2025.”
“There are hundreds of thousands of young people in Canada, myself included, ready to work in jobs to reduce emissions and mitigate extreme weather, rather than surrendering ourselves to a future of despair,” fellow campaigner Juan Vargas said, speaking from Edmonton.
Vargas invoked a summer of anguish-inducing climate disasters as further galvanizing youth conviction that the Corps is urgently needed.
“We’re on the verge of an election year, and we need a strong vision of how we can survive and thrive. A Youth Climate Corps needs to be central in that vision.”
Good Green Jobs
The proposed YCC program would offer participants a two-year paid apprenticeship, geared to training them for future “good green jobs.”
Participants would have hands-on involvement in ecosystem restoration, climate disaster response, and community resilience building. Paid a living wage of $25/hour, the nearly 20,000 YCC workers projected to be hired each year would also work on “building out new climate infrastructure”—from building retrofits to renewable energy to transit projects.
“The YCC would turn no one away, breaking down barriers and ensuring that all who wish to contribute are given the chance,” the YCC adds.
“As representatives of our communities, we recognize the significant transformational power of a Youth Climate Corps and its potential to provide youth with a path to meaningful employment while strengthening the resilience of our communities,” write the signatories to the letter, adding that the Corps “would address both high youth unemployment and high rates of climate anxiety among young people.”
“It would signal to young people that they are being invited to join in a grand undertaking, as they train for the jobs of the future,” the letter adds.
The open letter calls on the federal government to include an investment of $1 billion in the YCC in Budget 2025, enough to support it through its first year. Making that investment a success “will require an initial deployment of staff and resources in late 2024 to begin to roll-out (of) the program.”
That’s why the letter asks the Trudeau government to announce a commitment to the Youth Climate Corps, along with sufficient startup funding, in its 2024 Fall Economic Statement.
“We stand behind this demand because the time to act on a Youth Climate Corps is now,” the signatories write. “The time to inspire hope, resilience, and optimism is now. The time to offer youth what they’ve been denied—the chance to serve as we collectively confront the task of our lives —is now.”
Majority Support Across Political Lines
A national survey [pdf] conducted in October, 2023 by Abacus Data found that 78% of Canadian adults either support or would be willing to accept a Youth Climate Corps. Only 12% indicated they would object outright.
Support is even greater among the target demographic for the YCC: 84% of 18-35 year olds would either support or accept such a program, with only 4% opposed.
The idea of a YCC also receives strong backing across the political spectrum, with 64% of Conservatives expressing a willingness to go along with the idea, along with 92% of NDP supporters, 91% of Liberals, and 85% who support the Bloc Québécois.
The non-partisan appeal of the YCC “shows that the urgency of climate action transcends political boundaries and that a transformative program like the YCC could unite all of us,” writes the YCC.
The list of signatories indicates “big tent” support for the YCC, with the BC Hydro Ratepayers Association, the Rotary Club of Nature Celebrators, the Down Syndrome Resource Foundation, the Edmonton-based Islamic Family & Social Services Association, and zero-waste Earnest Ice Cream adding their signatures alongside climate activist groups like 350 Canada and Environmental Defence Canada, and labour organizations like CUPE Ontario and Iron & Earth.
The letter is still open for signatures here.
