The federal Department of Natural Resources says the government’s proposed “just transition” legislation won’t eliminate jobs—as critics has said seemed to be implied by an internal briefing document—but will instead create more jobs, according to a media report.
The department was responding to media reports about a briefing note prepared for Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson in June 2022, which said Ottawa’s planned “transition to a low-carbon economy will have an uneven impact across sectors, occupations, and regions, and create significant labour market disruptions.”
“Alberta’s energy industry & our workers are world-class,” she added.
‘New Opportunities’
The June 2022 briefing note posed a hypothetical question asking, “What sectors and regions will be most affected by a transition to a low-carbon economy?”One of the responses said that certain regions in Canada—“particularly in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador, where communities are more reliant on carbon intensive industries”—will “likely be disproportionally affected by the transition to a low carbon economy.”
“The oil and gas sector in particular is a large contributor to the GDP of Alberta and Newfoundland,” it said, noting that the sector accounts for over 27 percent of Alberta’s GDP and more than 36 percent of Newfoundland and Labrador’s.
“I want to help workers across Canada by providing them with training and skills development so they can take advantage of new opportunities for economic growth and job creation and fully participate in a low-carbon economy,” said one of the answers prepared for Wilkinson.
Wilkinson said in early January 2023 that the federal government plans on bringing its “just transition” legislation forward this year, which will aim to help workers in Canada’s oil and gas sector move into green energy jobs.