Bill C-50

Canadian Sustainable Jobs Act

An Act respecting accountability, transparency and engagement to support the creation of sustainable jobs for workers and economic growth in a net-zero economy

This enactment establishes an accountability, transparency and engagement framework to facilitate and promote economic growth, the creation of sustainable jobs and support for workers and communities in Canada in the shift to a net-zero economy. Accordingly, the enactment
(a) provides that the Governor in Council may designate a Minister for the purposes of the Act as well as specified Ministers;
(b) establishes a Sustainable Jobs Partnership Council to provide the Minister and the specified Ministers, through a process of social dialogue, with independent advice with respect to measures to foster the creation of sustainable jobs, measures to support workers, communities and regions in the shift to a net-zero economy and matters referred to it by the Minister;
(c) requires the tabling of a Sustainable Jobs Action Plan in each House of Parliament no later than 2026 and by the end of each subsequent period of five years;
(d) provides for the establishment of a Sustainable Jobs Secretariat to support the implementation of the Act; and
(e) provides for a review of the Act within ten years of its coming into force and by the end of each subsequent period of ten years.

Second Reading

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Madam Speaker, historically, the voices of women in the economy have not been discussed in this House. We know the majority of energy workers are men, and we know that the impact of families not having employment is dire. It is dire for women. I have spoken to many women over the decades since I have been in the economy who have experienced domestic violence, marriage breakups, children living in poverty and children going to school with no food. Those are the impacts of not having work.

The fuel and oil industry is the economy of the past. The American clean-tech economy is on fire, exceeding all expectation. However, in Canada, Conservatives continue to block clean energy projects. Why do the Conservatives want Canadian families to suffer and not get involved in the future?

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Madam Speaker, as the member wants to talk about how disproportionately affected women are, I note that we just heard at the finance committee from a witness who said that single moms are the most disproportionately affected in the worst ways by the failed carbon tax scam. The carbon tax compounds things for the farmer who is making the food, the shipper who is shipping the food and even the manufacturers. That cost is passed on to the person who buys the food at the end of the day.

Whether someone is a single mom or from a vulnerable community, they are disproportionately affected the most. It is too bad NDP members are propping the Liberal government up. The costly coalition is increasing the carbon tax, which means they are hurting the single moms in this country the most.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Madam Speaker, it is always difficult to follow my colleague for Calgary Forest Lawn. He has articulated so very well the concerns with Bill C-50, and that is on top of the work of our great colleague, the member of Parliament for Lakeland.

I want to talk about the implications of the bill and how dangerous this proposed mandated threat is to the hundreds of thousands of Canadian jobs that are entailed in this just transition legislation. I want to be clear to members of the House that this careless Liberal-NDP government and its bill before us would shatter the prosperity, stability and economics of Canada and the provinces, as well as our energy and agriculture sectors. Indeed, rather than being proud of the sustainability, innovation and skill sets we have developed here in Canada, the Liberal-NDP government is proud of the number of jobs it would be eliminating through this legislation.

I want to be very clear because these are the stats, right from the government's own memos, that come with the just transition legislation. According to the government's internal briefings, this legislation would kill 170,000 direct jobs, displace 450,000 direct and indirect jobs and cause large-scale disruptions to the manufacturing, agriculture, transportation, energy and construction sectors, impacting 2.7 million jobs. The Liberals and the NDP talk about jobs, but the jobs they are talking about are the jobs they would be eliminating through this legislation.

This legislation is also targeted and divisive. There is no question that it would disproportionately harm the economies of and the jobs in primarily B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador. There is no doubt that it is no coincidence that the energy sector is a large contributor to the GDP and the economics of these provinces. For Alberta's GDP, it is about 27.3%, and in Newfoundland and Labrador it is 36%. This would affect 187,000 jobs in Alberta and more than 13,000 workers in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The commissioner of the environment and sustainable development stated, “the government is not prepared to provide appropriate support to more than 50 communities and 170,000 workers” who would be impacted by this legislation. The government can talk about this being a just transition to new jobs, but the new jobs are not there. As my colleague said, about 1% of the employment provided in Canada is from renewables. The bill would impact 450,000 direct and indirect jobs, and maybe 2.7 million jobs across the other sectors, but the new jobs do not exist, so to say that this is a transition to future employment is simply being misleading.

Where have we seen something like this before? Where have we seen the Liberals plowing ahead with legislation based on ideology and activism without listening to the concerns of other parties, or of the provinces and territories? It was Bill C-69, and we have just had the Supreme Court rap the knuckles, or maybe a bit more than rap the knuckles, of the Liberal government for plowing ahead with divisive, vindictive, ideological legislation just for the sake of hammering the provinces that have industries it does not agree with. Bill C-69 was an attack on provincial jurisdiction. It was legislation that all provinces and all territories either opposed or demanded massive changes to, but the Liberals ignored every single one of those concerns.

However, the damage has already been done from Bill C-69. It chased billions of dollars of investment out of this country and cost our economy thousands of jobs. Do not get me wrong, as a result of Bill C-69, members can bet that projects were built and jobs were created, just not in Canada. They were built and created in other jurisdictions around the world. Canada lost billions of dollars in investment, and we also lost our best and brightest, who had to go to other jurisdictions to get that employment and to have their research and innovations accepted.

Just as the provinces and territories are trying to stop the bleeding as a result of the Supreme Court decision on the no pipelines bill, here the Liberals go again with more ideological, vindictive and divisive legislation, which would eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs, and it is aimed at only a few provinces. Not only that, but the legislation would increase the likelihood of energy poverty and food insecurity not only here in Canada but also perhaps around the world.

On a global scale, the Liberals would jeopardize Canada's ability to provide clean and sustainable energy and agriculture for customers around the world, certainly in those countries that need it the most. Bill C-50 plans to phase out the oil and gas sector, and it would have harsh and real consequences that should not be taken lightly. I cannot be more clear: This unjust transition legislation would leave Canada in economic shambles.

Today, I want to highlight something specific that has not been given enough attention. This half-baked legislation from the NDP-Liberal government would not only certainly increase the cost of living for Canadians and ignore our world-class energy and agriculture industries, but it would also cost us almost 300,000 jobs in the agriculture sector.

Most of the speeches today have been about fossil fuels and energy. However, in the government's own memos, the bill would also target 300,000 jobs in the agriculture sector. There are about 65,000 vacancies in agriculture already, so I am not exactly sure where these 300,000 jobs are going to come from, and one in nine jobs in Canada are directly linked to agriculture and agrifood. The minister's own memo brags about cutting 300,000 jobs from agriculture and the agri-food sectors.

Globally, food security and affordability is one of the top priorities. Therefore, rather than trying to find ways to address that by reducing taxes, reducing red tape and ensuring we have reliable supply chains to get our products to market, the Liberals have found another way way to add on additional red tape, additional regulations and additional burdens on one of our most important industries. Food inflation is already up 7% over last year, and the government has made these ideological promises. The industry minister said yesterday in question period that they have done what no other government has done before and called the five grocery CEOs here to Parliament to give them a little what for. He made it sound like they landed a man on Mars.

We actually had the five grocery CEOs at the agriculture committee eight months ago, so way to be on top of it. The minister sent a letter to the agriculture committee to study this issue two days after the government tabled its reply to the study that we did eight months ago. It just shows how out of touch the government is with what is actually happening on the ground.

What it also ignores is the incredible results we have had here in Canada, without government intervention and without government taxes. Canadian energy could be exported around the world, as should have happened with Japan and Germany, who came to Canada to access our LNG. The Liberals said no, so instead they went and signed an agreement with Qatar for natural gas. Do members think Qatar has the same environmental standards as Canada, or the same human rights or labour standards as Canada? If the government was trying to reduce emissions, it did the exact opposite by turning those countries away and making them go to Qatar.

If we were allowed to get our energy to market, we would actually reduce global emissions by 23%. That would be a success. Canada's oil and gas sector is about 0.3% of global emissions, and our record in agriculture is even more impressive. Canada is about 2.6% of global emissions, and agriculture is about 8% of that 2.6%. Compared to emissions globally, the global average for each other country is about 26%. That shows the incredible success that Canadian agriculture has had. However, instead of rewarding that impeccable record for Canadian agriculture, Canadian energy, and the workers, scientists and researchers who work in those industries, the Liberal-NDP government wants to punish them and eliminate these industries, which are so critical to Canada's economy. The revenue from these two industries builds schools, hospitals and roads and pays for the social programs that we rely on, but the Liberals ignore that.

In conclusion, Conservatives are the only party that will find common sense solutions to the problems facing Canadians, and we will be proud of our resource sectors and the men and women who make their living in those industries.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Madam Speaker, talk about manipulating numbers to try to make something look like what it is not.

The member talked about, for example, LNG. It is one of the single largest investments, possibly in the top four or five, where we saw the federal government working with a provincial government, the NDP in B.C. It was us, the provincial NDP and the private sector working on an LNG project worth billions of dollars, yet the member just said we had nothing to do with LNG.

The member talked about hundreds of thousands of jobs. Our government has created far more jobs than Stephen Harper ever did, and we have been in government for eight years compared to nine years. We do not need to be lectured about jobs.

Why does the Conservative Party not recognize the value of the transition to ensure that we have good, healthy net-zero workforce jobs into the future for Canada's middle class? What does the member have against Canada's middle-class jobs?

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Madam Speaker, what I have a problem with is that this legislation is a transition for Canadians to the unemployment line and the food bank line. We have millions of Canadians already relying on food banks in record numbers.

The member talks about LNG. There were 18 LNG projects on the books ready for construction that have been cancelled. The Liberals cannot be proud about one. We also had four pipelines ready to go in Canada. Do members know how many have been built? Zero have been built. Therefore, they cannot talk out of both sides of their mouths to say that they support these industries when in fact they do everything they can to suppress and kill them, which is exactly what this legislation would do.

[Denis Trudel, Bloc, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Madam Speaker, what I am hearing from my Conservative friends is scary.

The fight against climate change is probably one of the biggest challenges of our time. Canada is already one of the world's worst performers on this issue according to pretty much any available indicator. We really are one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to climate change.

The Liberals are useless. They are not doing anything. For years, we have been fighting to get them to take action and stop investing in the oil industry. Now I am hearing from my Conservative friends that they want to do even less so we can be even worse than we already are. There were floods this summer and fires all over the place. This is an emergency. The planet is burning right now. My Conservative friends want to do even less.

Where I come from, we have groups like Mothers Step In and Ciel et Terre, which I talked to two weeks ago. We cleaned up the St. Lawrence shoreline. They all came to see me. They said they had seen the polls and were worried about the Conservatives taking power. They wanted me to tell them that will not happen. I could not tell them anything.

These people are worried. What do the Conservatives have to say to them?

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Madam Speaker, we are not saying to do less. Rather, we want to see things that bring results. The carbon tax, which the Bloc wants to radically increase, has done nothing. The Liberals have not met a single emissions target they have set. Flooding and forest fires are still happening.

Taxes are not the answer, but research, innovation and new technology are, and industry has been doing this for years. We will get there, and we want to get there, but we also have to be realistic about how we get there. To say that we are going to end all fossil fuels tomorrow when 3% of our energy comes from renewables is not realistic. Where would the other 97% come from? That is what we are saying.

We need to support these industries, which are world class and world leading, with the highest standards on the planet. That is how we will get there, not by being ideological and shutting down these critical industries.

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Madam Speaker, I would ask the member across the way if he could point to where in the bill it states that we would immediately end all fossil fuels tomorrow.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Madam Speaker, I love that the New Democrats are trying to obfuscate their end result or end game. Everything they have been saying is that their goal is to end fossil fuels. This is interesting considering they have completely lost touch with the roots of their party, which are about the working-class folks in Canada, such as pipefitters, welders, carpenters and longshoremen, the people who want to work. Everything the NDP is professing to do would assure that these people would not have jobs, which is very well highlighted in the just transition legislation, where 450,000 indirect and direct jobs, up to 2.5 million jobs, would be lost.

I wonder how many of those folks who used to be NDP supporters will now be supporting the Conservative Party of Canada.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the honourable and esteemed member for Whitby.

This is the first time this week I have had an opportunity to rise in the House, as I was travelling earlier this week. I want to make a comment before I speak about Bill C-50, a bill that is a positive step forward in the future for Canadian workers from coast to coast to coast.

With respect to the events of October 7, when over 1,400 Israeli citizens were killed by a terrorist organization, I wish, obviously, to condemn that to the highest possible degree. I offer my prayers and condolences to the Israeli people. As I have stated over social media channels, I stand with Israel and the Israeli people. Obviously, my prayers are for the Palestinian people as well, that a humanitarian corridor be established and that they have peace in that region of the world as soon as possible. Hamas is a terrorist organization. As someone who has lived, worked and experienced the events of September 11, 2001, I know full well some of the feelings that folks are going through these days. My thoughts and prayers are with that region.

With respect to Bill C-50, I am a member of the natural resources committee, and we will have an opportunity to bring the bill to committee to study it, to work through it and, potentially, if the members of the opposition have amendments or anything else is proposed, to try to make the bill better. That is what we are brought here to Ottawa to do. That is what our voters send us here to do: strengthen legislation and make legislation that moves our economy forward, moves our country forward and creates a better future for our children and future generations. I think all parties and all members would agree that this is the goal of everyone's being here, independent of which side of the House they sit on.

Since day one, in 2015, the government has been laser-focused on Canadians: helping Canadians, strengthening our middle class, and ensuring that those Canadians who are working hard to join the middle class have the opportunity to do so. Earlier today, I was looking over some of the statistics that we like to talk about and that I, as an economist, like to refer to. I believe that 2.3 million Canadians were lifted out of poverty from 2015 to 2021, including over 653,000 children and about 500,000 individuals who identify as being disabled Canadians. We have cut the poverty reduction rate from about 14.5% down to about 7%.

I do acknowledge the pressures that all Canadian families are facing right now with global inflation. I heard about global inflation recently, during a trip to Europe for the Council of Europe as the chair of the Canada-Europe Parliamentary Association. Taxi drivers were commenting about just how much prices have gone up over there, what butter and milk cost, what the average family is seeing in Europe, and what the average family is seeing in Canada.

The government understands that. We have reacted. We have put in place measures: the grocery rebate during the summertime, the Canada workers benefit and the indexation of a number of benefits that we have had here in Canada for a number of years and that we are continuing. The Canada workers benefit, which I love, goes out to hard-working Canadians wishing to join the middle class and working hard everyday for themselves and their families. It is something I admire, because those are the same values my parents instilled in their three sons. Those are the same values of hope and hard work, as I would call it today, that brought my parents here to Canada and allowed them to improve their standard of living when they immigrated here. In their simple terms, it is about “just working your butt off”, if I can use that term in the most honourable House.

The world is transitioning to a low-carbon economy, but we are still using fossil fuels. We will still be using fossil fuels for many decades to come. We have a duty to support the 800,000 or so Canadians who work in the energy industry. We have a duty to support them today and to support them tomorrow as we continue this path toward a low-carbon economy while ensuring we have the energy sources to fuel our economy today.

I think Bill C-50 is much like the work our government has done over the last eight years, working with labour, with industry and with Canadians from coast to coast to coast to bring forth legislation that moves our economy forward, that moves Canadians forward and provides a better future for us all. That is exactly what Bill C-50 is about. It is about consultation and about working together. I see the feedback from a number of stakeholders, whether they are the International Union of Operating Engineers, the president of the Business Council of Alberta, or the hon. members who have been elected from the province of Alberta. The President of the Business Council of Alberta has said that the act is a good step forward in helping equip Canadians with the skills for the jobs of our future economy. That is something very profound, and I do not use that word lightly. It is about equipping Canadians with the skill set to succeed today and also to succeed tomorrow.

As an economist, I am fully aware of what we call, according to an individual from Austria or Germany, Joseph Schumpeter, “creative destruction”: the process of innovation and technological change that leads to the destruction of existing economy structures, such as industries, firms and jobs. That has been happening for decades, if not hundreds of years, but we also know that when that happens, Canadian individuals need to ensure that they have the skill set to go to a new job, to go to a new profession or to move up the value chain in the profession they have chosen or in the sector they are in. It happens naturally, and we must ensure that Canadians have the skills to do that.

I do want to give a shout-out to Canada's Building Trades Unions. I do work with it closely. I work with a number of its member organizations, including LiUNA. As the CBTU says, it “welcomes Bill C-50, aimed at addressing Canada’s transition to a net-zero economy, which brings forth key aspects including the creation of a Sustainable Jobs Partnership Council to provide meaningful consultation during [this period].”

We need energy today. We will need energy tomorrow. However, we also know that the world and the private sector, and I love the private sector, are creating the wealth and investing in renewable energy sources around the world. We have seen it through the United States and the Inflation Reduction Act, and we are seeing it here in Canada with the ITC, the investment tax credit that we announced in our budget, very fiscally prudent and strategic measures to grow our economy and help those Canadians wanting to get good jobs and wanting to join the middle class. That is what we are about: providing good futures, providing an environment that fosters wealth creation through investment and, obviously, creating jobs with investment from the private sector.

When I think about Bill C-50, I think about what we are doing here in Canada for the electric vehicle sector. I think about the investments we have made, with a Progressive Conservative government in Ontario, for Stellantis. There are thousands and thousands of jobs being created in the Windsor-Essex region with Stellantis at its electric vehicle battery plant. Then, I think about what we have done with Volkswagen. I know that one of the members opposite, the member for Elgin—Middlesex—London, was there that day when we announced the Volkswagen investment. The most hon. member was so happy, and her mayor, who I believe is a former Conservative Party member of Parliament and sat in the most honourable House, was so happy.

That $7-billion investment with Volkswagen positions our electric vehicle sector and the whole supply chain for growth; for wealth creation, and I love wealth creation; and for jobs. It will create good-paying middle-class job with good benefits. We just saw it in the province of Quebec with Northvolt, with that investment where the Province of Quebec and the federal government are working in partnership with labour and business. We saw it in Kingston, where the member for Kingston and the Islands, along with the federal government, announced another strategic investment.

We need to support Canadians. We need to support Canadian workers. Bill C-50 is part of that support. We will be there for Canadians to ensure we invest in their skills. They can get better jobs, higher pay, better benefits, better futures today and better futures for tomorrow. I look forward to questions and comments.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Madam Speaker, it may surprise members that I, too, am looking forward to a just transition. I am looking forward to the Liberal Party's just transition to up by the interpreters after the next election.

Here is the problem: Right now, Qatar, the U.S. and other nations are filling in the void of the natural gas requirements of Europe, the Netherlands and France. We have heard that deals have been struck recently with Qatar, with fewer environmental standards, fewer labour standards and fewer human rights standards. Qatar is a known supporter of the terrorist group Hamas. Meanwhile, in Canada, we are strangleholding our natural resource sector and our ability to supply natural gas, clean Canadian energy, to the rest of the world. The impact that is going to have on families and our economy is unconscionable.

How can the member justify Qatar's supplying natural gas when Canada cannot?

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Madam Speaker, I have considered the hon. member for Barrie—Innisfil a dear, close friend in the years I have known him.

We here in Canada need to supply the world with the energy that we have. The energy workers here in Canada are second to none, those Canadians who get up every morning and work in the energy sector, whether it is in the province of the British Columbia and the western sedimentary basin or in Alberta, where we know we have a feedstock advantage and the petrochemical industry. The petrochemical industry association is investing literally billions and billions of dollars, whether in Newfoundland or whether in Sarnia and those parts of Ontario where Canadians get up every morning to work in the energy sector. We know that we need to supply North America and other parts of the world with Canadian energy, including natural gas or oil, for the foreseeable future, as we continue to move toward a net-zero economy by 2050.

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Madam Speaker, I would like to ask the member opposite a question.

I was listening to his speech just now and I noticed its consistency with his party's language. For years now, whenever we talk with union representatives and with workers, they constantly bring up the idea of a just transition. A just transition means ensuring a transition to net zero that allows workers to evolve, so that we can place them in new jobs and equip them with new skills.

However, the government has changed its vocabulary, probably under pressure from the oil companies, but also in keeping with the fact that it hands out billions of dollars to the oil industry every year. Now it is talking about sustainable jobs. Does my colleague opposite consider a job in the oil sector to be a sustainable job?

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Madam Speaker, I would like to say to the hon. member for Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères that a job is a job. We want as many Canadians working as possible. We want as many Canadians as possible ensuring that they have bright futures. If somebody is getting up to go to work in the energy sector in Alberta or British Columbia or Newfoundland, that is a good job, paying them and their families. It ensures that they can put food on the table and that they have good futures for themselves and their kids.

We know that the renewable industry in Canada is growing. Investments in the renewable industry, whether it is solar, wind, hydrogen, along the spectrum or nuclear, which is a big energy source here in the province of Ontario, are making those key strategic investments as we continue to grow our energy sources. However, we all foresee that, for the years to come, we will continue to utilize other forms of energy.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Uqaqtittiji, I am going to ask the hon. member a similar question that I asked another Liberal MP previously. Nunavut continues to be excluded from so many investments. The Liberal government has an opportunity to support sustainable development in Nunavut.

As I mentioned earlier, Nunavut relies on diesel in all 25 of its communities. There has been great work to make sure we can help transition to clean energy through the Kivalliq Hydro-Fibre Link project. I wonder whether the member can commit, with the government, to working toward supporting the Kivalliq Hydro-Fibre Link so Nunavummiut can get off of diesel.