Budget 2025: Missed Opportunity to Unlock Canada’s Nature Advantage

Press Release

November 05, 2025

Budget 2025 intends to protect Canadians in an increasingly uncertain world by focusing on our advantages, but it doesn’t consider one of our most significant assets: nature. The federal budget misses the opportunity to integrate our forests, fields and waters as drivers of resilience and prosperity, or to align with the 93% of Canadians who believe nature is one of our most valuable economic assets.

The budget is unclear on how nature will factor into future spending decisions and is silent on Liberal policy platform commitments such as ecosystem mapping and the Nature Protection Fund, as well as existing conservation funds that support efforts to manage, improve and protect Canada’s natural wealth. This, as well as the winding down of the Two Billion Trees and Agricultural Living Labs programs, raises important questions about how the government will deliver on its commitment to “supercharge conservation efforts, support Indigenous leadership and protect our natural legacy for generations to come.”

Over the last several months, Nature United worked closely with government on proposals that would catalyze private investment in solutions that benefit businesses, communities and the environment while supporting farmers, forest managers and Indigenous communities. Although Budget 2025 falls short of the comprehensive approach needed to position nature as Canada’s economic advantage, it does include commitments that can be building blocks towards the nature-positive future Canadians desire:

• Improving the effectiveness of industrial carbon pricing: A harmonized, pan-Canadian, multi-decade industrial carbon price can help provide the certainty needed to ensure strong market signals for continued decarbonization and for developers of high-integrity nature-based carbon projects that contribute to healthy forests, carbon-rich soils and cleaner air and water.

• Measures to orient capital towards nature-positive business models: Developing sustainable investment guidelines, launching a Sustainable Bond Framework and working with provinces and territories to improve climate disclosure across the economy can help support businesses that demonstrate how nature-positive productivity can future-proof Canada’s working landscapes.

• Transforming Canada’s managed forests: Given adequate focus on improved forest management and Indigenous-led forest stewardship, loan guarantees that help restructure forestry operations and funding to renew and expand forestry programs have the potential to make Canada’s forest sector more sustainable, innovative and globally competitive.

Nature United looks forward to working with the Government of Canada to build on the foundations laid in Budget 2025 to embrace the full value of nature as a uniquely Canadian driver of a prosperous economy.

Nature United was founded as a Canadian charity in 2014, building on decades of conservation in Canada. Headquartered in Toronto, our organization has field staff located across the country. Nature United supports Indigenous leadership, sustainable economic development and science and large-scale conservation, primarily in British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and Manitoba. Our organization is also working to accelerate Natural Climate Solutions at national and regional scales. To learn more, visit natureunited.ca or follow us on Linkedin, Instagram and Facebook.

We are the Canadian affiliate of The Nature Conservancy, a global conservation organization with more than a million members and a diverse team that includes more than 400 scientists. Our global organization works in more than 80 countries and territories — either directly or through partnerships — to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends. To learn more, visit www.nature.org or follow @nature_press.

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