A candidate in the leadership race for the federal New Democratic Party has released a sustainable jobs plan outlining how the party would pursue climate action while creating over a million unionized jobs.

“Address climate and economic crises at once with bold national solutions,” reads the Green New Deal for Canada website of candidate Avi Lewis, an activist and documentary filmmaker. Lewis is running for party leadership of the NDP but is not currently a Member of Parliament, having unsuccessfully sought election in Vancouver-area ridings in 2021 and 2024.

He proposes to invest 2% of Canada’s GDP in climate initiatives, of which 1% would be dedicated to a Green Jobs Transfer program funding climate infrastructure projects such as clean energy, building retrofits, and public transit—an investment Lewis says could create over a million unionized jobs, directly linking climate action to employment growth. “The funding would be front-loaded to protect workers in fossil fuel-reliant provinces first: no one who works in the industry will be left behind.”

He also intends to significantly expand the Youth Climate Corps, through which tens of thousands of young people could be trained and employed in climate-focused jobs.

The plan includes providing Canadians with free and reliable transit, establishing public enterprises to build and deploy technologies—like “heat pumps for all, solar panels for every roof and balcony, and a back-up storage battery for every home.” The plan would also prioritize powerline infrastructure while halting new fossil fuel development.

Lewis says some of these initiatives will pay for themselves, but suggests other funding can be sourced from a windfall profit tax on fossil fuel companies and a tax on oil and gas exports to the United States.

The NDP lost its official party status when it failed to win enough seats in the April federal election, after which former party leader Jagmeet Singh resigned. Lewis is one of five candidates running for the leadership and is considered among the top three contenders, alongside Edmonton–Strathcona MP Heather McPherson and Rob Ashton, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada.

While the party has positioned itself as supportive of climate action, it has also faced debate over how best to support workers, including those in fossil fuel industries. Lewis’s proposal, which ties job growth to climate initiatives, represents the most climate-forward platform to date in the leadership race.

Based on interviews with the three frontrunners, Global News reported that McPherson and Ashton have also expressed support for an energy transition and action on climate, though less emphatically than Lewis. McPherson, the only NDP MP to voice support for expanding the Trans Mountain Pipeline, has said there should be limits on fossil fuel production and that Albertans are aware of an oil crisis, but “we also have to be very realistic and pragmatic that we are not going to turn off oil and gas today.”

Lewis too cautioned that his plan is about a transition rather than abruptly stopping oil and gas extraction. Ashton has avoided clear statements on pipeline policy but said a federal NDP government under his leadership would “be looking at building the infrastructure for the energy platforms for tomorrow because employers won’t do that,” arguing that public ownership of those platforms would help “put Canadian workers to work in new energy fields.”