The article originally appeared in the Financial Post. Below is an excerpt from the article, which can be read in full here.
By Jack Mintz, January 30, 2023
The talk of the town in Calgary this week is the briefing note for the federal ministerial presentation to the House of Commons Natural Resources Committee June 1. The “just transition” that “Creating a fair and equitable Canadian energy transformation” describes will put at risk legions of well-paying jobs in the industries likely to be particularly hard hit. Just how many are at stake is made clear on page 68, which deserves to be quoted in full:
“We expect that larger-scale transformations will take place in agriculture (about 292,000 workers; 1.5 per cent of Canada’s employment), energy (about 202,000 workers; one per cent of Canada’s employment), manufacturing (about 193,000 workers; one per cent of Canada’s employment), buildings (about 1.4 million workers; seven per cent of Canada’s employment) and transportation sectors (about 642,000 workers; three per cent of Canada’s employment), to help meet the Government’s emission reduction targets.”
That’s over 2.7 million jobs at stake in the most affected sectors — almost 14 per cent of all jobs in Canada. The speaking notes prepared for Seamus O’Regan, the federal labour minister, try to put job-killing in a better light as “ensuring an equitable and prosperous future for workers and communities to take full advantage of the transition to a net-zero future.” Good luck with that.
***TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE, VISIT THE FINANCIAL POST HERE***
