Thank you. I'd like to thank you all for the opportunity to appear on behalf of over three million members of the Canadian Labour Congress.
Our brief puts forward a labour perspective on climate change issues, which form a major part of Bill C-30. It doesn't address all the provisions of the bill, but it does address some.
The labour movement strongly supports effective and concrete measures to avert catastrophic climate change, while also building a stronger economy with good jobs. Our environmental and job goals should not be in conflict. Good policies can and must address both of these goals at the same time. The science tells us clearly that we must move very quickly to make deep reductions to greenhouse gas emissions if we are to avert a planetary disaster. The costs of inaction far outweigh the costs of action.
Dealing with global warming seriously will involve fundamental changes to our carbon-based economy. Major polluting industries, especially the oil and gas industry, have used the threat of economic dislocation and job loss to resist implementation of a real global warming plan. We in the labour movement reject the idea that there is a fundamental conflict between the economy and jobs, on the one hand, and environmental sustainability on the other. In fact, dealing seriously with global warming has the potential to create a strong and vibrant economy with many new good jobs.
We have a major opportunity to create a better economy, but governments must carefully plan the transition. We should not minimize the scale of the challenges ahead. Some jobs may be lost as others are created. Our climate change policies must therefore include a green industrial policy and just transition policies to create jobs and protect workers and communities.
We support inclusion of clear greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets in Bill C-30, consistent with our Kyoto commitment, as well as deeper minimum, medium, and long-term reductions. Dealing with global warming will involve major changes in the structure of our economy and society. It's imperative that climate change policy be implemented with and through a Canadian green jobs/green industrial strategy to maximize the creation of good new jobs. Such a strategy will include a mix of regulation, public investment, and direct government support through spending and tax measures for needed new private sector investments.
Bill C-30 must set the framework by ensuring that the federal government has the power to regulate emissions and product standards as needed, and should also create the legislative framework for an umbrella climate change investment fund. Any new federal revenues from the imposition of charges and taxes to deal with global warming should be credited to the fund, along with a significant portion of existing government revenues. This fund can and should be used to support significant investments by the federal government as well as the provinces and municipalities. The federal government should work through public agencies and its procurement policies to promote such areas as renewable energy alternatives, energy efficiency, and green transportation technologies.
We support the elimination of perverse tax subsidies to the primary oil and gas industries in the next budget, especially the write-off of 100% of capital expenditures for tar sands development. The primary oil and gas sector is highly profitable and can afford to invest much more in carbon reduction measures without special subsidies.
We support provisions in Bill C-30 to impose hard caps on emissions by large final emitters. The goal must be to force significant real reductions in total emissions, especially in the primary oil and gas sector, not simply a reduction in emissions intensity. An emissions trading system, a responsible one, would be a useful means to lower the total cost of compliance, allowing operations that lower emissions beyond required levels to sell their excess emissions to those who have not. The details of the emissions caps will have to be established on a sector-by-sector basis through regulation. Labour should have the opportunity to have direct input to the design of an emissions trading system and allocation of initial permits.
Some industries, such as the pulp and paper sector, have already made major reductions in their use of carbon-based energy by switching to biomass and cogeneration of heat and power. These efforts should be rewarded through caps that are only modestly below current levels.
In regulations implementing a cap and trade system, competitive realities that could cost production and jobs with no environmental gain will have to be taken into account. In sectors that are closely integrated on a North American basis, significantly raising costs in Canada ahead of the U.S. could cause transfers of production and job loss with no net reduction of carbon emissions. Caps should still be imposed but at initially modest levels.
Emission caps should be accompanied by direct government support for investment in emissions-reducing new technologies and processes by industry, including accelerated write-offs for investment in effective environmental technologies.
To the extent that energy prices for households increase as a result of climate change measures, low- and middle-income families should be protected through tax credits fully offsetting the extra costs, while still giving everyone an incentive to use energy more efficiently. Utilities could raise prices above a threshold, while selling a basic allowance at low cost.
The key to a just transition for the workers affected by changes in employment resulting from transitions to a green economy is an aggressive green economic development strategy. Energy efficient economies are more labour intensive. This will create jobs and new opportunities for workers.
However, as I said before, there is the potential for job losses in some sectors with high carbon dioxide emissions. Higher energy prices may also compound problems in the wider manufacturing and non-energy based resource industries, such as forestry products.
The principle of a just transition holds that workers who are displaced or who experience wage cuts due to structural economic changes benefiting society as a whole should be fully compensated, as should the communities impacted by such changes. The principle has often been expressed in response to trade-driven economic change, but has rarely been translated into practice.
In creating the legislative framework for expenditures to deal with global warming, Bill C-30 should establish a just transition fund, to be governed by a board including labour representatives. The fund should be authorized to make payments in support of retraining of workers who lose their jobs due to climate change policies, and to compensate workers for any income losses. Communities should also be eligible for support. And provinces must also be encouraged to integrate just transition into climate change plans.
In conclusion, Bill C-30 must set a clear framework for a national action plan to meet specified greenhouse gas reduction targets, including hard emissions caps for large final emitters and an emission trading system; a framework for new regulatory standards; the establishment of mandates for funds to support a green jobs and/or green industrial strategy, including a climate change investment fund and funds for just transition. Also, funding for climate change programs and related tax reforms should be included in the 2007 budget.
Thank you.