OTTAWA, March 20 (Reuters) - Canada must boost investments in the green transition in this year's federal budget due out next week, or else it risks losing out on a one-time opportunity to boost jobs and the economy, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Monday.
Canada's budget will include a "serious investment" in clean technologies, Freeland said without providing details, though she also promised fiscal restraint in the face of high inflation.
"Today, and in the years to come, Canada will either capitalize on the historic opportunity before us, or we will be left behind as the world's democracies build the clean economy of the 21st century," Freeland said in a speech in Oshawa, Ontario.
Countries across the globe are trying to take advantage of a rapid shift to low-carbon energy, and the passage in the United States of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) last year provides massive incentives for those who invest there.
Canada has limited financial firepower compared with what the United States put forward in the IRA, which many experts say will lead to more than $1 trillion in investment, so it is going to focus on increasing the capacity of the electricity grid, on battery manufacturing and on mass timber construction.
"From clean energy, to clean technology, to battery manufacturing, to electric vehicles, we can become a global leader in the growing clean economy," she said in her speech. "We can create hundreds of thousands of good, middle class jobs."
Freeland also said there would be targeted inflation relief for the "most vulnerable" Canadians. Inflation slowed to 5.9% in January, still almost three times the Bank of Canada's target.
"This support will be narrowly focused and fiscally responsible," she said.
