Good ancestors pay for our pollution because we love our kids

We all make sacrifices for the people we love, to keep them well and protect them from harm. But despite our best efforts, we’re failing to protect our kids from the betrayal, abandonment, mental ill-health and anxiety they report feeling about our slow response to climate risks and costs.

Our kids stand to lose out on things many older Canadians could take for granted. Summers without smoke. Winters with cold enough temperatures to ski and skate. Safe air, water and soil.

Lasting loss isn’t a legacy anyone wants to leave, especially to the people we love. That’s why good ancestors pay for our pollution messes, past and present. Politicians betray our kids when they expect our kids to pay dearly for the pollution their parties are unwilling to pay for today. Our kids are trusting us to do more, not less, to protect the planet’s health, because their livelihoods and wellbeing literally depend on it. Let’s not betray that trust.

That’s why we’re urging all Canadians and our governments to embrace the family value that if you make a mess, clean it up. We teach our kids about their responsibility to clean up messy rooms and toys. We should live by the same wisdom when it comes to pollution messes that put their health and safety in jeopardy.

We get that it might be easier to side with those telling us it’s not urgent to pay for our pollution right now, when times are tough for some. As an organization committed to reducing the financial squeeze on younger people, we agree that it’d be great if climate costs weren’t one more thing to pile on.

While the pain of inflation is real for too many, we’re being duped when political leaders tell us carbon pricing is to blame. These leaders are counting on us to ignore the evidence, so they can keep claiming ‘axe the tax’ as an easy answer — and sidestep the challenge of real and lasting affordability solutions.

The reality is that we don’t really have a choice between paying or not paying for our pollution. Axing the carbon price won’t make these costs simply disappear — but it will mean burdening our kids to pay even more dearly down the road for the messes we’ve made today.

What’s at stake isn’t just the price of gas — or even the next election. Axing carbon pricing risks mortgaging our kids' future as a time when they’re poised to inherit the largest debt ever to be passed from one generation to the next.

Join us in our ambitious quest to do all we can to reduce this debt, and leave a healthy and safe legacy for our kids and for future generations.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Join our Pollution Pricing Posse

We're rallying a posse of courageous Canadians who are reminding people that good ancestors pay for their pollution because we love our kids. We’re standing together to win back the hearts and minds of all those who supported pollution pricing just a few short years ago. 

Join the posse

WE’RE NOT ALONE

We’re fortunate to be supported in this work by other courageous good ancestors committed to protecting our kids from climate risks and costs.