Natural resources minister defends plan to transition to green economy
Canada’s biggest challenge going forward won’t be job losses in the oilpatch, says Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson. It will be filling all the new jobs in the green economy.
Here is part of Wilkinson’s conversation with As It Happens host Nil Köksal.
Minister Wilkinson, what’s your message for energy workers who are getting anxious as they wait to see what is in your “just transition” legislation?
I’m not a big fan of the words “just transition.” I actually prefer to talk about this as sustainable jobs.
Ultimately, what we are focused on is ensuring that we’re building an economy that’s going to create good jobs, well-paying jobs and economic opportunity in every province.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith tweeted this week that your government’s “ill-conceived and short-sighted plan is extremely harmful to the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who are supported by the energy sector and will be detrimental to Canada’s economic recovery.” What would you say to Premier Smith?
I think it’s important for her to understand what the bill is and what the action plan is and what it’s not. And I want to give Premier Smith her due credit in the sense that she’s relatively new, so she hasn’t been part of some of the conversations on this that have been going on for some time.
But this is not about doing something to Alberta. This is about actually working with Alberta. We want to partner with Alberta in the context of talking about the opportunities going forward.
Those are the opportunities for the conventional energy sector. But there are also opportunities for other sectors of the economy that actually are going to be huge opportunities — like critical minerals in and the processing of critical minerals.
Certainly, we’re interested in Canada continuing to play a role as a provider of conventional energy products, but those need to be in the context of reducing emissions. And we want to work with Alberta on: How do we reduce emissions so that the products that we sell as we move through this transition are the lowest carbon products that exist anywhere on the planet?
That’s good for Alberta. That’s good for Canada. That’s good for the world.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Environment Minister Sonya Savage tweeted their criticisms of the federal government’s plan to move Canada towards green energy jobs. (@ABDanielleSwith/Twitter)
Alberta, though, is apparently not at the table … so what are Alberta energy workers supposed to take away from that? Why isn’t Alberta part of these negotiations?
We did actually go through quite an extensive series of consultations as we started to move towards developing this legislation and this action plan. It very much included companies in the energy sector. It very much included the labour unions in Alberta. And it did include the government of Alberta, where there were discussions between officials over the course of the past couple of years.
I do think there is enormous scope for collaborative work here.
Alberta’s Environment Minister Sonya Savage … [tweeted]: “This bill will phase out hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs in the energy sector. This should be of concern not just here in Alberta, but across the country.” What’s the disconnect here? Because how they are seeing what your plan is and what you’re saying are very far apart.
I think that there are ways in which we can move forward collaboratively. I think we need to be thoughtful about how we are using terminology. I think the … words around “just transition” are a bit of a loaded term for people in Alberta and Saskatchewan. I grew up in Saskatchewan. I’m certainly sensitive to that.
It’s one of the reasons why I prefer to talk about all of this as sustainable jobs. This is about ensuring prosperity and ensuring place-based prosperity because the opportunities that are available in Nova Scotia are different from those that are available in Alberta. And we need to be working collaboratively with the government, with labour, with industry and others to ensure that we’re actually making the appropriate steps forward.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says Wilkinson’s plan is ‘ill-conceived and ‘short-sighted.’ (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)
You told our CBC News colleagues that if you have a concern, you’re concerned that “there are so many opportunities” that will be coming through this with this plan that “we will not have enough workers to fill the jobs.” I wonder if you’re concerned that you’re over-promising [or] overselling here?
I actually don’t. I am very optimistic. And I think if you step back and you think about some of these opportunities — so you think about critical minerals, for example — you cannot have an energy transition without significantly augmenting the amount of critical minerals being produced and processed in Canada and in other jurisdictions around the world. That is going to create enormous numbers of jobs.
If you step back and you think through all of the different opportunities for Canada, they are big. If you are somebody who got to choose where you were going to live based on economic prospects in most places, you would choose Canada.
What kinds of jobs will come with this plan?
It is different in different parts of the country. But if you think about Alberta, certainly there are enormous jobs in carbon capture and sequestration, if we are focused on reducing emissions from the energy sector.
There are jobs in critical minerals and minerals processing, which heretofore has been done largely in China, which obviously cannot continue given the strategic nature of that.
There are going to be enormous construction jobs in building up the electricity grid, including small modular reactors in Alberta.
There are jobs in the biofuels sector. There’s enormous opportunity in hydrogen, both for domestic use and for export.
If you go to the East Coast, I mean, one of the big areas that both Nova Scotia and Newfoundland are extremely interested in is offshore wind for the purpose of producing hydrogen to provide to Europe.
I honestly am of the view that — particularly given some of the demographic challenges that Canada is facing on a go-forward basis — that our issue is not going to be that we have people for whom there are no jobs.
It is going to be that there are so many different opportunities that we are not necessarily going to be able to pursue them all as a country because of limitations on labour. And we’re going to have to be very, very thoughtful about that.
FREDERICTON – New Brunswick‘s finance minister says the province recorded a surplus of $500.8 million for the fiscal year that ended in March.
Ernie Steeves says the amount — more than 10 times higher than the province’s original $40.3-million budget projection for the 2023-24 fiscal year — was largely the result of a strong economy and population growth.
The report of a big surplus comes as the province prepares for an election campaign, which will officially start on Thursday and end with a vote on Oct. 21.
Steeves says growth of the surplus was fed by revenue from the Harmonized Sales Tax and federal money, especially for health-care funding.
Progressive Conservative Premier Blaine Higgs has promised to reduce the HST by two percentage points to 13 per cent if the party is elected to govern next month.
Meanwhile, the province’s net debt, according to the audited consolidated financial statements, has dropped from $12.3 billion in 2022-23 to $11.8 billion in the most recent fiscal year.
Liberal critic René Legacy says having a stronger balance sheet does not eliminate issues in health care, housing and education.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says the government is making some changes to mortgage rules to help more Canadians to purchase their first home.
She says the changes will come into force in December and better reflect the housing market.
The price cap for insured mortgages will be boosted for the first time since 2012, moving to $1.5 million from $1 million, to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
On Aug. 1 eligibility for the 30-year amortization was changed to include first-time buyers purchasing a newly-built home.
Justice Minister Arif Virani is also releasing drafts for a bill of rights for renters as well as one for homebuyers, both of which the government promised five months ago.
Virani says the government intends to work with provinces to prevent practices like renovictions, where landowners evict tenants and make minimal renovations and then seek higher rents.
The government touts today’s announced measures as the “boldest mortgage reforms in decades,” and it comes after a year of criticism over high housing costs.
The Liberals have been slumping in the polls for months, including among younger adults who say not being able to afford a house is one of their key concerns.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales rose 1.4 per cent to $71 billion in July, helped by higher sales in the petroleum and coal and chemical product subsectors.
The increase followed a 1.7 per cent decrease in June.
The agency says sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector gained 6.7 per cent to total $8.6 billion in July as most refineries sold more, helped by higher prices and demand.
Chemical product sales rose 5.3 per cent to $5.6 billion in July, boosted by increased sales of pharmaceutical and medicine products.
Sales of wood products fell 4.8 per cent for the month to $2.9 billion, the lowest level since May 2023.
In constant dollar terms, overall manufacturing sales rose 0.9 per cent in July.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
