Cut costs and fight climate change – tax windfall profits now!

Facts

5 May 2026

Climate change culprits have made billions from a tax system that offloads environmental costs to the public and concentrates wealth at the top.

The illegal war on Iran puts Canada’s fossil fuel industry in line for a projected $90 billion windfall. Much of this windfall is coming directly from consumers in the form of higher gas prices. One estimate suggests the typical driver will pay $1600 more in gas in 2026.

In order to stop this profiteering and address affordability, Canada must implement a windfall tax on the oil and gas industry. These excess profits should be funding a cash transfer to Canadians and investment in renewable energy, not lining shareholders’ pockets.

The tax system is a key player in Canada achieving its climate goals and lowering the cost of living, but we must act quickly.

Send a message to Ottawa: cut the cost of living and fight climate change – tax windfall profits now!

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To : Hon. Dominic LeBlanc, Finance Minister and Hon. Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada

CC: M.P.s Jasraj Singh Hallan, Daniel Blaikie, Gabriel Ste-Marie

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Dear Minister LeBlanc and Minister Guilbeault,

For decades, tax measures have fueled the expansion of the oil and gas industry while environmental costs are downloaded to consumers. Meanwhile, wealth is increasingly concentrated among the top climate change contributors. To make matters worse during a time when our sovereignty is under threat, Canada’s Big Four oil and gas companies are majority American-owned.

Not only is the fossil fuel industry encouraged and enabled through tax loopholes and subsidies, its staggering windfall profits in times of crisis are left unchecked. The last major global oil price in 2022 triggered an enormous transfer of wealth from working and middle-class families to the ultra-rich, costing the typical Canadian household about $12,000, while the the oil and gas industry raked in $100 billion in windfall profits. This time around, Big Oil is projected to pull in a $90 billion windfall, while it is estimated that the typical driver will pay $1,600 more in gas this year.

Canada is not powerless. The federal government can take action to fight the climate crisis, make Canadians less vulnerable in the long term to global oil price spikes, and ensure in the shorter term that Canadians are made whole for higher prices at the pump.

During the 2022 oil price shock, many European countries introduced windfall profits taxes on their oil and gas industries. For example, our friends in the UK presently have a 78% windfall profits tax on oil and gas. Had Canada followed suit, the gains from that price shock—and this one—would be more evenly distributed.

This kind of policy is not new to Canadians. During the Second World War, Canada had windfall profits taxes as high as 75% to help Canadians weather that crisis together. If we were to take a page from that chapter of our history and align ourselves with other major economies in Europe, a 75% windfall profits tax would bring in $46 billion this year. In the near term, that revenue could fund cash transfers to help offset the higher prices families are now paying, ensuring that we all benefit from our country’s natural resources. With a critical eye to the next crisis, investing some of the current windfall into the green energy sector and a just transition for oil and gas workers wouldn’t just alleviate cost pressures in the short-run, it would take action on the climate crisis, while building a more stable, sustainable, and resilient Canada.

Thank you,