An internal Department of Environment report reveals that the costly Low Carbon Economy Fund will not achieve promised emission reductions, despite two lowered targets, according to Blacklock’s. In 2022, then-environment minister Steven Guilbeault called the failed program a “good example” of climate leadership.

Launched in 2016 with a $2 billion budget (later $2.2 billion) to subsidize corporate green refits, the fund lacked provincial engagement. Due to project failures, its budget was cut to $820 million.

An Evaluation Of The Low Carbon Economy Fund revealed that the program missed its greenhouse gas reduction targets due to “higher than expected project delays, cancellations and withdrawals.”

The fund, initially aiming to cut 10 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, lowered its target to 7 million and then 3.9 million tonnes. Its lack of success is allegedly due to external disruptions like COVID-19, supply chain issues, and geopolitical conflicts.

“Projected emission reductions do not always materialize,” admitted the evaluation report. 

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Fund managers subsidized Labatt Brewing Co. with $250,000 to replace a diesel brewery at its St. John's plant, a project minister Guilbeault lauded as “climate leadership.”

Loblaw, Canada's largest supermarket chain, received $10.1 million from the fund, an inquiry of ministry revealed in 2024.

“The fund supports critical projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, foster green growth, build resilient communities, and create Canadian jobs,” Guilbeault stated at the 2022 Commons environment committee hearings.

At the time, he did not disclose that its job creation target was also lowered from 115,200 to 34,500 by 2030. 

Cabinet repeatedly justified the fund as a sound investment, alongside the carbon tax, despite neither having much overall impact.

The environment department has been faulted for not explaining the impact of carbon taxes and other measures, with the Liberal government never meeting an emissions target, as per Environment Commissioner Jerry DeMarco.

In a 2023 report, DeMarco depicted federal climate programs as guesswork. “The federal government does not know whether it is using the right tools to reduce emissions,” he wrote.

Minister Guilbeault, at the time, promised to do better. “We continue to work to refine our reporting,” he said. “In the meantime, as they say, the proof is in the pudding.”

Commissioner DeMarco testified that Canada is the only G7 country without reductions, stating this “needs to change now.”

He noted solutions like updating government fleets with zero-emission vehicles or implementing fiscal/regulatory measures to reduce emissions, but stated the feds are acting “much too slowly.”