Good morning. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to present our point of view on the topic of this study.
Unifor members are active in every economic sector, including aerospace, education, fisheries and food, in addition to a number of industry sectors that are facing very rapid transformations in terms of decarbonization and biodiversity protection efforts. From natural resources to manufacturing, every sector is affected. Whether we are talking about vehicle and bus manufacturing, aluminum, energy, aerospace, forestry, and a host of other fields, our members are leading the way.
Major transformations are under way. While these create historic opportunities, they also raise crucial issues for the future of workers. Will the same number of workers be needed for the production of electric vehicles, which have far fewer parts than today's vehicles? With the transformation of aluminum manufacturing technology, will the same number of workers be needed when anodes need replacing only every 30 months rather than 30 days? Will the cost of decarbonization initiatives be taken into consideration for our industries when they have to compete with products from countries that are less environmentally conscious? Will some border procedures be adjusted? Will the new green low-carbon economy result in good, well-paying jobs for workers, and enable them to exercise their right of association?
Unifor firmly supports the transition to clean energy. It is nevertheless very vigilant about the risk that this transformation might become a pretext for doing away with good union jobs. We shouldn't have to choose between the creation of vulnerable new jobs in a “green” economy on the one hand, and the decent retirement provisions, health and safety benefits and years of skills we have all fought so hard to acquire.
The fact is that the transition is not being deployed everywhere in the same way or at the same speed. That's why support mechanisms have to be flexible and adapted to the circumstances.
Unifor believes in a comprehensive approach tied to compensatory and transformative measures. Although support measures may be compensatory and designed to protect things like income security or facilitating requalification, we think that in most instances, support measures will be needed to assist with the transformation of existing activities and jobs and to help workplaces make the transition to decarbonization.
This requires an enormous effort that is going to increase over the coming decades. To meet the challenge, we need a broad and coherent industrial strategy. We need intelligent investment and targeted support measures for workers in key sectors. We have seen how the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act was a game changer in that country and everywhere else. According to estimates by the Climate Power non-governmental organization and others, approximately 300 clean energy projects in more than 40 American states led to the creation of no less than 170,000 jobs. That's impressive.
Canada is not being left behind. In the most recent federal budget, nearly $80 billion has been allocated to similar incentives. From Volkswagen to Northvolt, we can see that some efforts have yielded results. Nevertheless, we believe that these substantial investments of public funds need to have conditions attached.
Last January, during the consultation on clean energy and hydrogen credits, Unifor gave some concrete illustrations of the methods we advocate. One example was the introduction of a salary floor, a requirement for a 10% to 15% percentage of apprentices to offset the labour shortage and ensure the transfer of skills, the need to provide credits for activities other than those linked to the construction of new projects, such as production, in addition to ensuring the neutrality of recipient companies during unionization activities.
To conclude, I wish to underscore just how grateful we are for the language used by the federal government in its last budget. I am speaking more specifically here about the explicit reference to the role of unions as stakeholders in sustainable job initiatives.
Unifor believes that a fair transition must be planned, fuelled by social dialogue, and in particular that it should involve unions. Through the creation of the Sustainable Jobs Partnership Council, Bill C‑50 gives us an opportunity to walk the talk. To succeed, however, the current wording needs specifically to require that one-third of the seats on the council be for union organizations. It's not too late to get things right and to improve the bill.
Thank you for your attention. I'm available to answer any questions you may have.