Thank you for the question, Mr. Blaikie.
Certainly that is what needs to be first and foremost, namely, looking at a just transition. As technology changes and as we look at different sources of generation and decarbonizing, we need to make sure that workers aren't left behind. That is certainly near and dear to the heart of the IBEW and many of the other trade unions. It's around training and making sure that the conversations are happening now instead of as an afterthought.
I was part of the just transition task force for coal communities and coal workers. That transition happened in some places—like you've mentioned, in Alberta—almost overnight for changing from coal generation to natural gas. Before the task force basically started, workers who had been in the industry for a long time were being handed layoff slips. These are generations of workers who relied on a stable job, whether it's in the coal sector or oil and gas sector.
We need to have those conversations as a country to make sure supports are there for them. If they're close to retirement, can we bridge them to retirement? If they are my age or younger, how do we make sure they get the training that is needed to get them into the changing sector, like clean technology? Certainly within the building trades and the IBEW we have the training centres to bring these workers in. Outside of that, we train workers that are non-union as well, to ensure that they meet the highest standards for the industry.
As I said before, with the demand for what contractors or clients need, as technology changes we have to stay up-to-date and make sure we're competitive, so our members and workers in the industry have the opportunity to stay up with that technology and receive the first and foremost training to be on the cutting edge. We need to make sure that we're leading the pack and not following behind.
Supports for workers—whether at the community level, but also the federal and provincial level—really are key to making sure that they're not left behind, wondering what happened to them and then their families and those communities are suffering. We need to have a proactive and, really, a Canadian approach to make sure that everyone has an opportunity at these technology jobs in the clean tech sector.