Good afternoon.
My name is Gil McGowan. I'm the elected president of the Alberta Federation of Labour. The AFL is the largest worker advocacy group in Alberta, representing more than 170,000 unionized workers in both the public and private sectors, including thousands of people who work in oil and gas and in oil and gas-related construction.
I'm here to support Bill C-235 because it would provide an organized and constructive framework to get Prairie folks talking about the unfolding global energy transition—and, man, do we need to talk. As it stands right now, rational discussion on these issues is being deliberately blocked and shut down.
Instead of helping citizens of Alberta and Saskatchewan prepare themselves for a world that's changing fast, far too many conservative politicians from our region are using these issues to sow misinformation and whip up anger for their own political gain. They say that anyone who doesn't agree with them is trying to shut down our resource industries. They say that an effort to plan for the future that might look even a little different from our past is an attack on our way of life in the Prairies. They even suggest that you're not a real Albertan if you don't join them in defending and doubling down on the status quo.
Frankly, I call BS on all of it. I'm as Albertan as you can get. I grew up on a farm in rural Alberta. I went to school in Alberta. I raised my family in Alberta. I'm also proud of our oil and gas industry. It's the engine of our economy and has brought us unprecedented prosperity. Alberta workers, the folks I represent, built it and maintained it, and we are proud of that fact.
However, we also know that change is coming. We know that we can and should prepare and plan for it. We know that if we don't, we could be left behind. This is why I support this bill. We need platforms for all the diverse voices from the Prairies to be heard.
For the Conservative members around this committee table, please stop. Please stop pretending that you speak for all western Canadians. You don't. Stop trying to drown out other western voices. We deserve to be heard just as much as you. Stop trying to demonize us. We're just as much real westerners as you are.
To give you a sense of what could be brought to the table should this government create the framework for consultation contemplated by Bill C-235, I refer all of you to a report that the AFL released in Calgary last week. We call it “Skate to Where the Puck is Going”.
Our report is not an emission reduction strategy, a climate leadership plan or a green new deal. It's certainly not a plan to shut down our resource industries or end our western way of life. Instead, it's just the opposite. It lays out a bold and ambitious plan for the Alberta economy, a plan that would preserve existing jobs in oil and gas, create 200,000 new jobs both within the oil and gas sector and beyond it, and set us on a path for continued prosperity in a changing world.
Significantly, our plan for adapting the Alberta economy is similar to plans released by Alberta business groups like the Business Council of Alberta and Calgary Economic Development. These are the kinds of western voices that are currently being drowned out. They are also the kinds of voices that, for the sake of our future prosperity in western Canada, desperately need to be heard.
That's why we support this bill. Please provide a platform for the western voices who are currently being drowned out.
Thank you.