“This transition, if completed appropriately and if we’re capable of considerably decarbonize the Canadian barrel of oil, I really suppose it ought to result in extra jobs – and considerably extra jobs – within the Canadian vitality sector.
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Does Alex Pourbaix, CEO of one among Canada’s largest oil sands operators, suppose the “simply transition” and vitality transition laws will imply fewer jobs within the nation’s oil and gasoline sector?
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No, he says flatly on the cellphone from Toronto.
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However the head of Cenovus Power additionally dislikes the “poorly chosen time period” of simply transition and the message it sends that his sector just isn’t a spot the place employees wish to be part of.
“I’d be involved if I believed this was going to show right into a critical effort to maneuver extremely paid employees out of the oil and gasoline business and into new industries, however I do not suppose it’s . . . which is the (federal) authorities’s intention,” Pourbaix mentioned in an interview Wednesday.
“This transition, if completed appropriately and if we will considerably decarbonize the Canadian barrel of oil, I really suppose it ought to result in extra jobs — and considerably extra jobs — within the Canadian vitality sector.”
The problem of the federal authorities’s incoming Simply Transition laws, which Ottawa is anticipated to introduce early this 12 months, has developed right into a political battle in Alberta.
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The invoice is meant to assist employees and communities put together for a transition to a low-carbon financial system because the nation goals to scale back its greenhouse gasoline emissions and attain a net-zero purpose by 2050, a part of Canada ‘s local weather plan.
A federal dialogue paper says Ottawa “additionally acknowledges that the transition may have completely different impacts throughout the nation.” In Alberta, the place 1000’s of jobs are rooted within the sector, that is important.
There’s speak that oil slick employees affected by the transition might transfer to new areas, such because the nation’s rising cleantech sector; areas comparable to geothermal, hydrogen and renewable vitality are increasing.
“The federal authorities’s plan for sustainable work just isn’t about eliminating jobs; it is meant to create jobs,” Ian Cameron, director of communications for Pure Assets Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, mentioned in an electronic mail Wednesday.
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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and a few within the oil patch consider that is merely a federal sign that Ottawa is getting ready to maneuver jobs out of the fossil gasoline business.
“They should cease this language,” Smith instructed reporters not too long ago. “This implies the phasing out of oil and pure gasoline employees. And it is not on.”
Pourbaix believes that the Canadian oil sands can develop employment – and manufacturing – sooner or later if it efficiently lowers its carbon emissions.
The Pathways Alliance, a gaggle of oil sands operators in Canada – together with Cenovus – is working collectively to succeed in the net-zero goal by 2050.
Their technique contains spending $24 billion by 2030 on numerous decarbonization initiatives, together with $16.5 billion for a carbon seize and storage system connecting a number of oil sands amenities to a hub close to Chilly Lake.
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They’re additionally searching for important incentives from each Ottawa and the provincial authorities to make investments in carbon seize, utilization and storage (CCUS), placing them in a fragile place between two warring governments.
“We are attempting to decarbonize the oil sands barrel and we consider that if we’re profitable . . . we have to have a inexperienced gentle to develop the manufacturing of Canadian oil,” mentioned Pourbaix.
“The capital initiatives that may come from the decarbonisation, the carbon seize, the CO2 pipeline. . . I actually see this as form of the following huge increase for Alberta.”
The group estimates that its plan might make use of as much as 35,000 extra individuals by 2030, linked to building and cleantech, if it continues with its numerous initiatives.
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“This can be a uncommon second the place oil executives and Greenpeace agree that the vitality transition goes to be an enormous job creator,” mentioned Keith Stewart of Greenpeace Canada.
“We won’t agree on precisely what the relative share of these jobs will probably be.”
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Power analyst Jared Dziuba of BMO Capital Markets agrees with Pourbaix that low-carbon initiatives — comparable to work on biofuels, hydrogen and CCUS — will create extra jobs within the oil and gasoline business.
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The query is whether or not the federal legislation, together with a cap on oil spill emissions, is meant to power a motion of individuals from the sector, he mentioned.
“That is the place the controversy is: Ought to the federal authorities actually step in and attempt to speed up the motion of the mobility of labor from one business to a different,” Dziuba mentioned.
About 188,000 Canadians labored within the oil and gasoline business in December, together with 137,000 individuals in Alberta, based on knowledge from the PetroLMI division of Power Security Canada.
Pourbaix would not just like the simply transition time period, a degree Smith and lots of others have made. He mentioned it “wrongly places out the view that this business just isn’t a spot the place individuals wish to work or the place new employees wish to go. And I feel that’s demonstrably not the case.”
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Whereas Pourbaix would not suppose it makes it more durable for Cenovus to draw new employees — the built-in producer has greater than 6,000 workers — oilfield companies companies have criticized it for making recruiting harder.
He additionally doesn’t see an awesome urgency to proceed with the laws till there’s a assembly of the minds about what it means and the way it will work.
However the potential for extra jobs sooner or later rests with the sector persevering with with main capital spending plans. It can require each ranges of presidency and the personal sector to succeed in an settlement that may set off CCUS funding.
Pourbaix believes they’ll discover widespread floor, but when that does not occur, it is going to be a “actually tragic day for Canada,” he mentioned.
“The end result of that might most likely be a a lot smaller business, and it might be a tragedy for Canada if that have been to occur — and that is why I do not suppose it is going to occur.”
Chris Varcoe is a Calgary Herald columnist.
cvarcoe@postmedia.com
