Let’s build good green jobs and a just transition for energy workers.

The shift to a low-carbon economy will mean changes for Canada’s energy sector – and the 185,000 Canadians who work in the oil and gas sector alone, together with countless Canadians whose livelihoods are indirectly linked to that sector, are expecting their leaders to help them secure the good jobs of the future. That’s why Canada’s leaders must be proactive and supportive in providing a fair, just transition not just out of the old economy, but into a new, developed low-carbon economy where good jobs can and should be the base.

Buildings, including the homes we live in, give off 18% of all carbon emissions in Canada.  The federal government has set up a grants program to help Canadians retrofit their homes to be more energy-efficient. But your home is only part of the picture. We need to retrofit more commercial and industrial buildings across the country, too. If Canada went all in on a green building-focused economic recovery program, the Canada Green Building Council estimates we could not only create 1.5 million construction jobs and add $150 billion to the economy, but we could also put a 53-megaton dent in Canada’s carbon footprint – an impact of 7.3%! Building a low-carbon future goes hand in hand with building good jobs – and that’s why Canada’s leaders must be committed to meeting Canada’s climate commitments.

Canada’s skilled trades workers stand ready to build the clean, renewable energy that will power Canada’s new economy – and those good jobs will make that economy even stronger. In fact, if Canada committed to building an electrical supply grid composed primarily of hydroelectric, wind, solar, geothermal, tidal, legacy nuclear power, hydrogen and small modular reactors, we could create more than a million construction jobs by 2050 . That’s why Canada’s leaders must commit to supporting Canadian skilled trades workers as they lay the foundations of the low-carbon economy.