cwf.ca Open in urlscan Pro
178.128.79.178  Public Scan

Form analysis
2 forms found in the DOM

GET https://cwf.ca/

<form role="search" method="get" class="searchform" action="https://cwf.ca/">
  <label>
    <span class="screen-reader-text">Search for:</span>
    <input type="search" class="search-field" placeholder="Search…" value="" name="s" title="Search for:">
  </label>
</form>

GET https://cwf.ca/

<form role="search" method="get" class="searchform" action="https://cwf.ca/">
  <label>
    <span class="screen-reader-text">Search for:</span>
    <input type="search" class="search-field" placeholder="Search…" value="" name="s" title="Search for:">
  </label>
</form>

Text Content

Search for:
Donate Now
 * 
 * 
 * 


 * Our Centres
   * Natural Resources Centre
   * Trade & Investment Centre
   * Human Capital Centre
 * Publications
   * View All
     
     RECENT PUBLICATIONS
     
      * UPCOMING EVENT | Global Energy Crises: What’s going on & what does it
        mean for Canada?
      * SUBMISSION | Comments on the People-Centred Just Transition Discussion
        Paper
      * The Future of Work and Learning Brief | Issue 14 – Truth &
        Reconciliation
     
     SERIES
     
      * Reports
      * 50th Anniversary
      * Events
      * What Now? Policy Briefs
      * Opinion
      * News Releases
      * China Brief
      * Energy Innovation Brief
      * The Future of Work and Learning Brief
      * What’s Being Said
      * Blog
      * Presentations
      * Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations Commission
     
     POPULAR TOPICS
     
      * Agriculture
      * Asia
      * Canada Project
      * Canada-U.S. Relations
      * China
      * Competencies
      * Education & Training
      * Energy
      * GHG Emissions
      * Literacy & Skills
      * Regulation
      * Trade Diversification
      * Trade Infrastructure
     
     BY RESEARCH CENTRE
     
      * Human Capital Centre
      * Natural Resources Centre
      * Trade & Investment Centre
 * Events
 * About Us
   * What we do
   * 50th Anniversary
   * Staff
   * Board of Directors
   * Annual Reports
   * Employment
 * Support Us
   * Donate Now
   * Become a Member
   * Our Donors & Supporters
   * 2020 Report Card (pdf)
   * 2021 Impact Report (pdf)
   * Subscribe
   * Gifting Policies
 * Contact Us

Search for:
Donate Now



SUBMISSION | COMMENTS ON THE PEOPLE-CENTRED JUST TRANSITION DISCUSSION PAPER

October 6, 2021
AddThis Sharing Buttons
Share to FacebookFacebookShare to TwitterTwitterShare to PrintPrintShare to
MoreAddThis

SUBMISSION | MARLA ORENSTEIN, NAYANTARA SUDHAKAR AND JANET LANE


COMMENTS ON THE PEOPLE-CENTRED JUST TRANSITION DISCUSSION PAPER

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Skip to pdf

For hundreds of thousands of Canadians, the transition towards a low-carbon
economy is set to be incredibly difficult. The transition is predicted to result
in a loss of between 312,000 to 450,000 jobs among workers employed by or
providing support to the oil and gas sector and its supply chain. This is a
staggering number of jobs gone at potentially great economic and social cost.
But there are actions government, organizations, communities and others can take
to significantly lessen, if not eliminate entirely, the sting.

There are numerous examples of workers and communities languishing for extended
periods after the main economic engine left town. Think of the “Rust Belt” in
the United States following the decline in manufacturing, North Rhine-Westphalia
in Germany as a result of the coal-phase out, and – within our own borders –
Newfoundland and Labrador after the cod moratorium. The ill effects often last
for decades; northeast England still hasn’t recovered its prosperity from when
coal mining died in the 1980s.

Clearly, if Canada does not learn from past examples and its own history, the
imminent energy transition could prove to be just as devastating economically
and socially, and particularly so for certain regions including Alberta,
Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador. As Canada works towards a low-carbon
future, governments and other organizations must pay close attention to
determining what elements are required in Canada’s just transition framework to
ensure workers, communities and companies are offered a prosperous economic and
social future.

In its document, “A People-Centred Just Transition: Discussion Paper,” the
federal government outlines four just transition principles. We support those
principles as a way of trying to make sure that Canada’s decarbonization targets
can be met fairly, and in a way that minimizes—rather than
exacerbates—inequalities. However, we also strongly feel that by themselves, the
four principles are insufficient and do not capture all the critical elements
that must inform a just transition.

In addition to the principles stated by the Government of Canada, we recommend
the following two principles be added:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

JUST TRANSITION RESOURCES SHOULD BE FOCUSED ON THE REGIONS AND COMMUNITIES
DIRECTLY IMPACTED BY JOB LOSSES AND CLOSURES.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Family-supporting jobs need to be replaced in the same regions that are losing
them; it’s not good enough to create a similar number of jobs across a much
larger geography.

As written, the principles do not acknowledge the need not just to preserve or
increase the total number of jobs, but to ensure that jobs are made available in
the same regions and communities in which job losses occur. This may seem
obvious, but if not made explicit in the principles, it could easily be
overlooked, resulting in undesirable outcomes, including mass migration, the
collapse of the tax and revenue base for entire communities and the development
of ghost towns.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A JUST TRANSITION MUST SUPPORT WORKERS, COMMUNITIES AND COMPANIES: EACH HAS
UNIQUE NEEDS AND ALL CONTRIBUTE TO THE PROSPERITY OF PEOPLE.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Individuals are affected because they are the ones who face the loss of jobs and
income.

Supports for individuals must be targeted to maintain their current quality of
life. Often, as work in one sector disappears, new sectors open up, but that
does not always happen in the same locations. In a transition as wide and deep
as this one, the need for relocation of large numbers of people must be avoided.
New employers can be enticed to affected communities if, among other factors,
they are guaranteed an adequate pool of talent. To provide this guarantee,
dislocated workers will need to improve the range and depth of their skills and
competencies to meet the demands of potential employers. Individuals will need a
range of options to upskill or even reskill based on their interests and
aptitudes and the new occupational choices that are presented. Any training
solutions must be as targeted and as rapid as possible.

Communities are vulnerable to the out-flow of skilled labour, the loss of tax
revenue, and the loss of resources (both money and people) to maintain local
infrastructure and institutions. Just Transition support for communities should
be targeted to support economic diversification, through identifying skills and
capacities available in the community, matching these with the labour and
resource needs of different industries, and then attracting new employers to the
community.

The government’s Just Transition document acknowledges the key role of
individuals and communities but has very little mention of companies. It is more
efficient to transition existing companies to providing a new product or service
than to create new companies or attract different ones to a specific location.
Keeping companies intact keeps jobs local. It also maintains the support and
supply chain of that company, with knock-on effects. And it keeps intact
relationships and management structures that have been built over years and have
been successful. As an example, the Calgary Herald recently profiled a company
that pivoted from making downhole tubing to producing 100 percent compostable
PPE for COVID protection—enabling the company to not just retain its employees,
but to create 350 new jobs in the process.

In addition to the two principles above, we also suggest one specific action
that the federal government should take to help achieve the objectives of the
Just Transition:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ROBUST LABOUR MARKET INFORMATION (LMI) SHOULD BE COLLECTED NATIONALLY TO SUPPORT
IDENTIFICATION OF NEW EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR WORKERS IN REGIONS DIRECTLY
IMPACTED BY JOB LOSSES AND CLOSURES.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The distribution of employment in the fossil fuel sector is concentrated within
certain provinces and communities and during the transition to a low-carbon
economy those areas will face more worker dislocation. Regional policy-makers
and local economic development agencies must work to attract new employers. To
guarantee a talent pool that will match the needs of potential employers their
needs to be robust, granular, regional level labour market information about the
size of the talent pool and their full competency profiles.



Currently, however, there is no comprehensive database that maps the knowledge
and skills (competencies) of workers at each community level. Rather, LMI is
collected by the four- and five-digit NOC (National Occupation Classification)
codes and by industry sector. This fails to differentiate the number of people
with specific competencies that will be required by new employers. It also does
not illuminate the competency gaps within the talent pool, making transition
training much less targeted and therefore more likely to fail.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to comment on this discussion paper.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marla Orenstein is the Director of the Natural Resources Centre at the Canada
West Foundation
Nayantara Sudhakar is a policy analyst at the Canada West Foundation
Janet Lane is the Director of the Human Capital Centre at the Canada West
Foundation


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Download PDF

« Previous post

Stay up to date
Subscribe Now


GET IN TOUCH

cwf@cwf.ca*protected email*

 * 
 * 
 * 


© Copyright 2021 Canada West Foundation - All Rights Reserved
Website development by Cornerstone Digital