What is “just transition?”
Humanely transitioning energy workers to green jobs
The Alberta oilsands remain an extremely important part of the Canadian economy.
A recent report published by the MacDonald-Laurier institute indicates that in 2020, $8.3 billion of new capital was invested in the oilsands representing 4.5 percent of Canada's business investment that year.
That is four times the capital spent by auto manufactures in eastern Canada.
The oilsands now dominate Canada's crude oil production with 70 per cent of total output. Recent capital investments mean production will continue to grow. Until a national pipeline gets completed to Canada's west coast, most of the oil is destined for the U.S. market.
This is despite President Joe Biden's unwise cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline project that was intended to replace risky rail deliveries of Alberta oil to USA Gulf Coast refineries. Demand for Canadian oil in the U.S. has risen steadily because of declining supplies of heavy oil from Mexico and Venezuela, as well as the lower price Americans pay for Alberta oil.
Oilsands mining and production technology have advanced significantly over the past 30 years. Considerable production now takes place using in-situ mining where steam is injected to recover the oil avoiding scaring of terrain using open-pit mining practices.
The oilsands industry, often referred to as the “tar sands” by hard-left environmentalists, long ago lost the public relations battle about its environmental impact. The improvement in its record as in-situ operations has overtaken surface mining has been largely ignored.
The chief economist of the International Energy Agency (IEA) acknowledged this new reality when he recently said the contribution of the oilsands to global emissions “is not peanuts, it is a fraction of peanuts.” Yet hard left environmentalists persist in keeping the oilsands as their global poster child for environmental abuse.
On a recent video call with President Biden, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to slash Canada's greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 45 per cent (compared to 2005) over the next nine years, but he offered no specifics on how to meet the more ambitious goal.
The American president is skilled at bringing a naïve Trudeau onside for issues dear to Democrat's hearts but has little compassion for issues that negatively impact Canadian jobs. I am thinking of Biden's knee-jerk, illinformed reaction to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office and the silence around that gut-punch decision that followed from Trudeau's government.
Back in 2016, Hilary Clinton promised if elected she would shut down West Virginia and Kentucky coal mines and redeploy workers into the green economy. Her plan frightened voters in fossil fuel-dependent communities around the country since there was no believable transition plan for these workers and their communities to green jobs. She thus lost her election bid.
Lack of a credible worker transition plan was again evident In January 2021 when President Biden abruptly cancelled Keystone XL pipeline construction. While he promised green jobs, he delivered no credible plan for transitioning 2,000 unemployed pipeline workers to new green opportunities. Democrats are slow learners, I guess.
Back in 1967, the Cape Breton Development Corporation was formed by an act of parliament to take over coal mining in industrial Cape Breton. The corporation had two divisions: one focused on coal mining and another on industrial development.
Oil was quickly displacing coal as a fuel for electric power plants and the federal government felt coal mining's days were numbered in Cape Breton.
A plan was hatched to close the coal mines and help transition coal miners to become skilled tradesmen reconstructing the Fortress of Louisbourg, establish sheep and cattle farming, expand aquaculture, build a crafting sector, boost tourism jobs and build “heavy water” plants to mention a few initiatives.
Then the 1973 middle east oil embargo came along and a focus on Atlantic Canada's lack of energy security sparked the opening of new coal mines and another 30 years of coal mining history in Cape Breton.
However, when coal mining and steel production ended 20 years ago, there was a much weaker effort made by government to help workers and communities with the difficult transition. Well-paying industry jobs with pension plans were replaced with call centre minimum wage jobs and little benefits. Coal communities faced major population outmigration and the collapse of their commercial downtowns.
Today, finding new employment and retraining for Canada's fossil fuel workers displaced by the green economy is referred to as “just transition." It is intended to be a transition of compassion. When the time comes to phase out fossil fuels, political leaders had better not follow President Biden's Keystone XL actions or they will learn Hilary's lesson.
Cape Breton has been down the “transition” road. We know how difficult a journey it is. Perhaps if our prime minister had grown up in Cape Breton, he would better understand just how concerned energy workers in Canada remain and why there is distrust in his government's policies. Maybe a long overdue visit to Cape Breton would bring him witness to the negative impacts of an illthought “transition” on families and communities. Are you listening JT?