The 2000 Budget: Environmental Technologies and Sustainable Practices

For Canadians, protecting the environment is not an option - it is something we must do.

For Canada to be the place to be in the 21^st century our lakes and air must be clean, our green spaces and diverse habitat and species must be protected and we must deal with climate change.

Meeting these challenges also provides a great opportunity to integrate environmental and economic policy through the development of new technologies and sustainable practices.

Budget 2000 proposes to invest $700 million to meet these essential objectives, including:

• $210 million over three years in new funding for "green" energy development and the Climate Change Action Fund;
• $100 million for a new Sustainable Development Technology Fund - which will help companies develop new environmental technologies and bring them to market;
• $100 million for a new Green Municipal Investment Fund - a revolving fund, leveraging private sector investment, in such areas as waste management and water conservation at the municipal level;
• $90 million over three years for our National Strategy on Species At Risk;
• $60 million for a new Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences - a network of institutes that will link researchers from across the country to further our understanding, for instance, of the impact of climate change and air pollution on human health;
• $25 million for a new Green Municipal Enabling Fund to help communities assess where their environmental needs are greatest;
• $22 million over three years to improve the federal government's capacity to enforce pollution control standards;
• $9 million over three years so that the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy and Environment Canada, working with Statistics Canada, can develop a set of indicators to measure environmental performance in conjunction with economic performance; and,
• $8 million annually for the expansion of the Great Lakes Action Plan.

Our government will also change its procurement policy to move, as much as possible, to more environmentally-friendly energy - stimulating market demand for green power.

And we will reduce the capital gains tax on donations of Ecologically Sensitive Lands.