Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says when the Trudeau government unveils its proposed law for a “just transition” to a green energy economy for fossil fuel sector workers this year, the problem isn’t going to be too few jobs, but too many.
“I do not believe that the challenge we are going to face is that there are workers who are displaced that will not find other good-paying jobs,” Wilkinson told CBC News. “I am actually quite worried that there are so many opportunities … we will not have enough workers to fill the jobs.”
It’s difficult to understand Wilkinson’s optimism given that when environment commissioner Jerry DeMarco reported in April on the progress of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s 2019 election promise of a legislated “just transition,” he said there wasn’t one.
Natural Resources Canada, Employment and Social Development Canada and other partners acting on behalf of the government were not prepared to support workers and communities through a just transition to a low-carbon economy,” DeMarco concluded.
“There was no federal implementation plan, formal governance structure, or monitoring and reporting system in place to support a just transition and … supporting legislation has been delayed.
“When it comes to supporting a just transition to a low-carbon economy, the government has been unprepared and slow off the mark … the government is not prepared to provide appropriate support to more than 50 communities and 170,000 workers in the fossil fuels sector.”
Instead, DeMarco said, it was relying on traditional programs like employment insurance for laid-off workers and what new programs existed, “did not measure, monitor or report on outcomes. This makes it difficult … to understand and report on progress for a just transition.
The Trudeau government says it’s spending over $100 billion addressing climate change, including billions for helping fossil fuel workers retrain for a green economy.
The problem is the Liberals typically over promise and under deliver — starting with Trudeau’s repeated assurances to Canadians that his government would hit its 2020 greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, which it missed, despite a global recession created by the pandemic which caused emissions to plummet worldwide.
We suggest Wilkinson’s optimism should be viewed with skepticism until Canadians see the government’s plan for a so-called just transition.
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