The House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance invited Canadians to share their input and concerns for the next federal budget. Specifically, the Committee wanted written submissions on the theme: Climate Emergency: The Required Transition to a Low Carbon Economy.

The Estevan Chamber of Commerce formally submitted 6 recommendations to the House of Commons Standing Committee that included funding and support for Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) technology and the development of an Energy Centre of Excellence in Estevan.

The third recommendation was that the government needs to consider the social and economic implications that low carbon policies place on communities. The chamber also recommended that the communities that are adversely affected by government policies have access to funds and support in a timely manner to transition.

The chamber put forth that the government also needs to recognize that reliable and affordable baseload power should not be compromised by the transition to a Low Carbon Economy.

Finally, the chamber recommended that their needs to be the development of a “Low Carbon Index Report” to communicate to Canadians where Carbon Pricing dollars are going and how that is impacting the carbon footprint.

"If we are required to be moving to a low carbon society and that is the movement we need to take, we need to be accountable for that, we need to know that the government's policy including their carbon pricing strategy is actually making an impact," said Executive Director Jackie Wall.

The submission will be available by clicking through the link on the Estevan Chamber website banner.