Labour, environment groups make plea for Liberals’ sustainable jobs bill to pass

Article content material

OTTAWA — A dozen setting teams and labour organizations are pleading with the Liberal authorities to finish a political stalemate over its forthcoming sustainable jobs invoice.

Alienor Rougeot, local weather and power program supervisor at Environmental Defence, mentioned the federal government retains saying Invoice C-50 is a precedence however has not moved to get it again onto the ground of the Home of Commons for a closing vote.

Article content material

Article content material

“It must move now,” mentioned Rougeot.

Environmental Defence and the Canadian Labour Congress joined 10 different setting and labour organizations Monday in writing to the federal government to specific their hope the federal government will make the invoice a precedence.

The pending laws is essentially bureaucratic. It will require the federal government to determine five-year plans and an advisory council to assist staff in industries affected by the clean-tech transition put together for the brand new abilities and job necessities which can be coming.

The federal government launched an interim plan final 12 months that promised coaching packages and higher information on the present and future expectations for Canadian power jobs.

Pure Sources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson insists the invoice is there to power the federal authorities to create and shield jobs, not kill them, and to provide staff in affected industries confidence they’ve a future.

The CEOs of a few of Canada’s largest oilsands corporations mentioned final 12 months that of their dedication to decarbonizing their manufacturing websites, their worry isn’t being shut down by a so-called simply transition plan, however by a labour scarcity.

Article content material

Article content material

They estimated they’d create 35,000 jobs to fulfill their sustainability objectives by 2050, and their largest fear just isn’t having sufficient skilled staff to fill them.

However the invoice has been mired in political controversy, seen by the Alberta authorities and federal Conservatives as a Liberal try to shutter oil and fuel completely in favour of renewable power.

The invoice handed second studying within the Home in October, with the Conservatives voting towards.

Pure sources critic Shannon Stubbs mentioned that month it was a “top-down central five-year planning method that can instantly destroy 170,000 jobs within the oil and fuel sector.”

And when the invoice moved to a committee so MPs might hear from witnesses with a stake within the concern, Tories did the whole lot they might to maintain it from transferring on.

For 27.5 hours over six weeks, they filibustered the committee hearings till the Liberals moved a movement within the Home of Commons to power the committee to convey its research of the invoice to an finish.

The filibuster included proposing practically 20,000 amendments to a invoice that’s simply 18 pages lengthy, together with the quilt web page.

Article content material

When the invoice was placed on discover to return to the Home, the Conservatives proposed 205 extra amendments.

It might have spurred one other marathon in a single day voting session, simply days after the Conservatives triggered a unique 30-hour voting marathon on the federal government’s spending plans.

The Liberals reacted by taking the invoice off the order paper completely, with then-Home chief Karina Gould saying she was placing the Conservatives in a “day out.”

However the authorities didn’t put the invoice again on its agenda when the home sat for 3 weeks in January and February.

Home Chief Steven MacKinnon, who’s changing Gould briefly whereas she is on maternity go away, moved Monday to pre-empt a repeat voting marathon by transferring a movement that might stop the Home from sitting between midnight and 9 a.m.

MacKinnon mentioned C-50 is among the many causes the movement is important, however wouldn’t decide to when the federal government will convey it again up for debate.

“That’s a part of an extended line of laws that we wish to make progress on, and we’re hoping that this movement helps,” he mentioned.

Rougeot mentioned if the invoice doesn’t move quickly, the timelines for creating the primary work plan and the advisory physique might be practically unimaginable to fulfill with the correct session required with staff.

She additionally acknowledged a worry that if the invoice and its parts aren’t well-established earlier than the subsequent election and the Conservatives win, it will likely be far simpler to undo any progress.

This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Feb. 26, 2024.

Article content material