The 81 page document, Trudeau's "just transition" legislation, singles out Alberta’s 187,000 oil and gas workers, acknowledging that transitioned workers without adequate “green skills or knowledge” could wind up in menial roles, such as “janitor or driver working for a solar energy company .”
Albertans have every reason to be alarmed by the contents of this document. Nearly three-quarters of Canadian oil and gas workers lack a university degree and the demographics of the industry skew older (just seven per cent of the oil and gas workforce was 24 and under in 2016; nearly one-fifth were over 55). “Transitioning” to custodial work would mean a 70 per cent pay cut for the average oil patch worker (from $150,000 to just over $30,000 per year ). This would hardly make for a “just” transition.
Just as alarming is the abysmal track record of prior federal government programs aimed at transitioning workers displaced from other industries. The federal auditor general released a damning report last year showing that past efforts to transition workers to new industries, such as in the case of the Newfoundland cod industry, have failed, noting that the federal government was “not prepared to support a just transition to a low‑carbon economy for workers and communities.” Likewise, it found that, “Federal programs and benefits fell short of a just transition for coal workers.”
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