OTTAWA — Now is not the time to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr said Wednesday, despite what a Liberal cabinet colleague is billing as the greenest federal budget ever. OTTAWA — Now is not the time to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr said Wednesday, despite what a Liberal cabinet colleague is billing as the greenest federal budget ever. The big-spending fiscal blueprint is dotted with environmental measures, ranging from green infrastructure and transit funding to clean technology research and development, inter-regional electricity co-operation, wastewater treatment and help for remote communities reliant on diesel power generation. But a campaign promise to "phase out subsidies to the fossil fuel industry over the medium-term" did not make the cut in the first Liberal budget. In fact, the government locked in one recent liquefied natural gas subsidy until 2025. Carr emerged from a caucus meeting Wednesday to say now is "not the moment" to start ramping back government subsidies for an oil and gas sector hammered by a global glut and price decline. "You know, there are all kinds of issues that are important in the oil and gas industry right now and the government wants to express its support for the industry in a variety of ways — and in particular, as you will notice, people who are suffering because of the low commodity price," said Carr. "Those are the priorities the government has chosen."

Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr responds to a question during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016. (Canadian Press photo) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made combatting climate change a central motif of his government and expectations continue to run extremely high in the environmental community. However, with a budgetary deficit of almost $30 billion in the coming fiscal year, Finance Minister Bill Morneau's first budget elected to ramp up environmental spending relatively slowly, compared to the lofty Liberal rhetoric. A large suite of environmental measures under the rubric of "clean growth economy" will see $111 million in new funding this year, ramping up to almost $1.5 billion in 2016-17. "There has never been a budget that is greener," Environment Minister Catherine McKenna flatly asserted in an interview Wednesday. "You can't just look at one piece of this budget and say 'that's the climate piece.' This is a whole-of-government approach where we're sending signals that, across the board, we're going to be looking at ways to reduce emissions and move in a much more sustainable way to grow our economy."