Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First, I live and work in the Treaty 6 territory in the city of Saskatoon, but I'm joining this meeting today from the unceded lands and traditional territories of the Mohawk and the Algonquin peoples. We also call this Montreal.
My organization, Blue Green Canada, was founded in 2010 by Canada's largest private sector labour unions and prominent environmental and civil society organizations to do what we're all here to do today: advocate for working people and the environment and to promote solutions to environmental issues that have a positive employment and economic impact.
So far we've seen that the federal government has climate plans, but it does not have plans that lay out the future of workers, particularly those working in oil and gas. It doesn't have a future in mind for those workers that aligns to the global 1.5° temperature limit and our own goals of net zero by 2050. This approach is leaving people with an uncertain future.
It's crucial that the government understand and consider the impacts on workers and communities as we're acting to address climate change, because we have to plan for a well-managed and inclusive transition. That has to be guided by those very communities and workers who are feeling the impacts.
As we work to collectively meet the challenges of climate change, we have to do so building a movement that's inclusive and addresses the needs of indigenous people, young people, workers, women, newcomers and even environmentalists. We must find solutions so our economy is just, inclusive and fair. It's clear this has not been the approach that's understood so far.
For instance, concerning NRCan's recent “People-Centred Just Transition” discussion document that was used to guide the consultation with Canadians, nowhere in that document will you find the words “fossil fuel”, “oil” or “natural gas”. There's also no mention of retirement, security, unions or even equity.
One outcome of this process is to create an advisory body to help further government knowledge on this topic. As it's currently envisioned, it's not the solution. What we've done so far is we've managed to divide this work across many government ministries.
The experience of the task force that Mr. McGowan mentioned with the Canadian task force on “Just Transition for Canadian Coal Power Workers and Communities” was that they required interventions of ministries of labour; Finance; Infrastructure and Community; Northern Affairs; Innovation, Science and Industry; Natural Resources; and Public Services and Procurement, and, of course, it was housed in Environment and Climate Change. The result was that no one was given the jobs to do, so the jobs then didn't get done.
We just saw this outlined to us in great detail by the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development. The key findings were that, overall, NRCan and Employment and Social Development Canada were not prepared to support the just transition to a low-carbon economy for workers and communities. Although the government had identified this as a priority, NRCan began as the lead in 2019 and took no identifiable action until 2021.
Frankly, federal departments and agencies have not established frameworks to measure success, to monitor the work or to support Canadians in this transition.
Some of the initial challenges are pretty clear. Again, Gil did a great job of laying them out. There are hundreds of thousands of workers in dozens of communities who have a larger than average dependence on the fossil fuel industry for their livelihoods. The current—and I say the current—unmanaged transition to a low-carbon economy is causing significant hardships for these people and for their regions. We need our governments to give employers and workers certainty about the future. For instance, are there going to be constraints on oil and gas production? Are we going to take the steps needed to limit temperature rise to 1.5°? Are we going to be able to do so in a fair way?
Workers need the government to be honest about the future of work under this new framework and this idea of net zero by 2050. More generally, transition plans and policies shouldn't be limited just to workers who are in energy-intensive industries or who are directly or indirectly in the fossil fuel sector. It's very important that we prioritize those workers, but they're not the only ones who are going to be impacted by this. Whether you're an auto worker, a teacher, a postal worker or a health care worker, your workplace is going to be changed as the climate changes.
One thing I'd like to suggest is that the government consider mandating joint worker-employer low-carbon transition committees so Canadian workplaces can continue to be prepared for the changes that are coming. We have health and safety issues in every workplace, so decarbonization should also be considered an issue to add to that in every workplace.
I'll wrap up by saying that this would be a more effective approach than bringing out more blanket grants for some unproven technologies and payments without conditions.
Thank you for your time.