If Carney wants to build, he should go big on a Youth Climate Corps

National Observer

a day ago

When our delegation of Youth Climate Corps (YCC) organizers met Mark Carney outside the Liberal caucus retreat in Nanaimo in 2024, Canada was a different place.
To remind the Liberal Party of their promise made in the 2024 federal budget to hold consultations on a YCC, we staged a lemonade stand to 'raise' the $1 billion needed for a Canada-wide program to put thousands of young people to work confronting the climate emergency — the defining crisis of our lives. This fun stunt gained the attention of Carney — then just an economic advisor to the Liberals — and Members of Parliament, who reassured us a YCC would be established.
We couldn't have predicted the political whirlwind that would follow just months later, resulting in former prime minister Justin Trudeau's resignation and Mark Carney's election to the position. Though the Liberals won, the results of the federal election show a persistent disconnect between the governing party and young Canadians. In a rightward shift among youth, the Conservatives won the student vote. If the Liberals want to earn back the trust of young people, they must make a compelling and inspiring offer, and the Youth Climate Corps represents just that, but only if it is a genuinely bold invitation.
The crises we face call for more than a precarious pilot program
After years of youth advocacy, the YCC was finally featured on most major party platforms: the New Democrats, Greens, and re-elected Liberals. This win is a testament to the dedicated and inspiring advocacy of Canadian youth across the country. But the 'pilot' program proposed by the Liberals is far too modest, and sends mixed signals about whether they truly understand the severity of the crises we face.
As the Liberal platform states, 'Building Canada strong starts with our workers.' We agree. That's why they must scale up their inadequate promise and create the ambitious and visionary climate corps that Canada desperately needs.
The YCC pilot envisioned in the Liberal platform is too small and susceptible to dismantling by future governments. Some conservative pundits have been calling for the 'Muskification' of Canada, advocating for our very own Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). To combat MAGA-style politics from entering Canada, an innovative and courageous program, like the YCC, must be protected and built right from the beginning, with human rights and Indigenous leadership at its core.
If the Liberals want to earn back the trust of young people, they must make a compelling and inspiring offer, and the Youth Climate Corps represents just that, write Bushra Asghar, Erin Blondeau, Lea Mary Movelle and Juan Vargas Alba
Late in his term, President Joe Biden launched an American Climate Corps, only to have President Trump terminate it as soon as he took office. We can't repeat the same mistakes as the United States.
How a Youth Climate Corps would work
The YCC should offer well-paid jobs and training for people 35 and under, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, building renewable energy, restoring ecosystems, and responding to climate disasters. The program would offer positions which include but are not limited to work, such as building retrofits, green construction, conservation, strengthening local food systems and supporting municipalities in developing and implementing their climate action plans. It would create accessible, barrier-free opportunities for young people, prioritizing underserved, undervalued and under-resourced communities. Young people would be empowered to enter the workforce with living wages and union representation, combatting the distressing rise in the youth unemployment rate. Indigenous sovereignty, rights and leadership would guide the way.
But for a program like this to work, it needs to be big.
If built right and in adherence to our campaign principles, the YCC would create at least 20,000 jobs across Canada in the first year, and grow with demand each year thereafter.
If Carney wants to 'build, baby build,' then we need a well-trained and prepared workforce to get the job done. Polling shows the majority of Canadians across every demographic support the idea of a YCC, and 15 per cent of people under 35 are excited and ready to enlist immediately. The Liberal Party must reckon with the reality that young men are turning to the political right after feeling abandoned by the Liberals, yet a huge majority of young men are excited about the idea of a YCC.
To Prime Minister Mark Carney: You have expressed your ambition to 'build things we've never imagined, at a speed we've never seen.' Now is your opportunity to establish a transformative, large-scale Youth Climate Corps, and watch as we strengthen this nation without leaving anyone behind.
Erin Blondeau is the communications director at the Climate Emergency Unit, an independent journalist and a human rights and climate justice organizer.
Bushra Asghar is the co-director of the national Youth Climate Corps campaign and a human rights and climate justice organizer.