Long-awaited bill aims to help train workers for new roles in a future green economy, and attract investment dollars.
The Canadian government has presented a sustainable jobs bill intended to prepare workers for a transition to a lower-carbon economy following years of consultation and opposition from Alberta, Canada’s main fossil-fuel producing province.
Canada, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer and sixth-largest natural gas producer, has aimed for a 40 percent to 45 percent reduction in emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2050.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government hopes the sustainable jobs legislation will help train workers for new roles in a future green economy, and attract billions of dollars in investment by creating a skilled clean energy workforce.
“Canada is executing its plan to become the clean energy and technology supplier of choice in a net-zero world,” Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said in a statement on Thursday.
The legislation built on Canada’s sustainable jobs plan, which was released in February and will likely become law early next year.
It includes creating a partnership council to advise the government on job creation and supporting workers, publishing an action plan every five years and establishing a sustainable jobs secretariat to ensure coherent policies across federal departments.
Once passed, the legislation would also hold future governments to account with respect to supporting Canada’s workers by putting in place structures, guidelines, and accountability mechanisms, the government said in a statement.
How can workers get a ‘just transition’ amid the climate crisis?
Laura Cameron, a policy adviser for the International Institute for Sustainable Development, said the bill was welcome but there needed to be a clearer link in the body of the legislation between sustainable jobs and Canada’s climate goals.
“We need to ensure these jobs are sustainable and are reducing emissions and advancing climate action,” Cameron said. “Without that link … we risk pursuing job creation in industries that aren’t actually moving us in the right direction.”
Trudeau has been promising sustainable jobs legislation since 2019, but the concept – also called a “Just Transition” – became a lightning rod for criticism, especially in Alberta where conservative Premier Danielle Smith accused Trudeau of seeking to phase out the oil and gas sector.
Smith’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the federal Conservative Party criticised the bill.
“[The] anti-energy Just Transition will make life more expensive for all Canadians, will harm every sector of the economy, and will unfairly hurt communities in certain regions and economic opportunities for Indigenous people,” Shannon Stubbs, shadow minister for Natural Resources, said in a tweet.
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