• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance
  FEATURED
REVEALED: Imperial Oil, Alberta Regulator Knew of Toxic Seepage at Kearl Mine for Years, Kept First Nation in the Dark October 3, 2023
Oil and Gas, Buildings Drive 2.1% Rise in Canada’s Climate Pollution October 2, 2023
Shell CEO Doubles Down on Renewable Cuts Despite Internal Pushback October 2, 2023
Leading Climate Models Underestimate Clean Energy Progress, Overstate Cost, Study Finds October 2, 2023
UAE Holds Major Oil and Gas Conference Before Hosting COP 28 Climate Summit October 2, 2023
Next
Prev

UPDATED: Turnover at Finance Opens Door for a ‘Fundamental Retooling of the Canadian Economy’

August 17, 2020
Reading time: 5 minutes
Primary Author: Mitchell Beer @mitchellbeer

TTCFANBOY/Wikimedia Commons

TTCFANBOY/Wikimedia Commons

3
SHARES
 

The last 24 hours may have opened up an opportunity for the federal government to embrace a green and just recovery as a cornerstone of its COVID-19 recovery strategy, leading climate and energy strategists say, after Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland replaced Bill Morneau as finance minister and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prorogued Parliament, with plans for a cabinet retreat in September and a Throne Speech in October.

Morneau quit yesterday during a meeting with Trudeau, after speculation swirled that the two had disagreed on the importance of a green recovery and the level of financial support Ottawa should extend to Canadians in the initial phase of the pandemic. Morneau was also under a cloud after accepting, then repaying, more than C$40,000 in free travel from the scandal-plagued WE Charity.

  • Concise headlines. Original content. Timely news and views from a select group of opinion leaders. Special extras.
  • Everything you need, nothing you don’t.
  • The Weekender: The climate news you need.
Subscribe

The former Bay Street human resources executive is also resigning as Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre, CBC reports. Privy Council President Dominic LeBlanc was sworn in Tuesday afternoon to take over at intergovernmental affairs.

Attention now shifts to Freeland, and any shift in priorities that might follow her move to the finance portfolio, after a steady stream of news reports and analysis that identified the two senior ministers and Finance Canada officials as key obstacles to federal investment in a green and just recovery.

Freeland “will have to be open to a clean and just recovery because she is now the Finance Minister for all of Canada, and not just the Minister of Alberta,” Environmental Defence Executive Director Tim Gray told The Energy Mix in an email. “Canada must move in the direction of investing massively in a clean economy or risk being left behind as the EU, likely the United States, and China set the pace.”

The possibility of a policy shift for the Toronto-area MP and former business journalist might be reinforced by recent word of a rift between Trudeau and Morneau on government investment in a green recovery.

“The face value reporting was that there was some level of disagreement on whether to invest in more conventional economic recovery with a focus on resources and oil, which was apparently the view of the finance minister, and the view of many others that we really do need to spend all that we’re going to spend on the transition to a clean economy,” Gray said. “It looks like that view is dominating right now, and that’s a very encouraging sign.”

“It’s no secret that Bill Morneau was no fan of a green and just recovery, and was kind of the Bay Street voice within cabinet,” agreed Greenpeace Canada Senior Energy Strategist Keith Stewart. Now, “I’m hoping the first speech by our next finance minister talks about how climate change action will be at the centre of Canada’s COVID recovery strategy, and will be the guiding principle for infrastructure and policy decisions moving forward.”

Gray called the changeover in cabinet portfolios “our last, best chance” for a green recovery, pointing to the “green strings” the European Union attached to its €1.75-trillion recovery plan and budget in May, and the US$2-trillion climate plan that presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden has promised to introduce if he wins the U.S. election this fall.

To meet that standard, Freeland and her officials “need to be looking at every aspect of the economy and how it needs to be transitioned to a clean economy,” Gray said. “These are across-the-economy investment decisions that have to be made—from transportation, to infrastructure, to housing, to procurement. Everything needs to be through the lens of how it supports the transition of the Canadian economy to one that’s clean. So it really should not be seen as some kind of niche argument. It’s about a fundamental retooling of the Canadian economy.”

Freeland’s reputed skepticism about climate change as a vote-determining issue in last fall’s federal election might also bring new focus to an apparently accidental overlap in a national poll in late April. It showed that, by a 23-point margin, Canadians are more likely to support specific green job and recovery measures than they are to back a more general call to address climate change through post-pandemic economic stimulus.

The main survey conducted by Ipsos Canada, part of a wider omnibus poll covering 14 countries, found that 71% of Canadians considered the COVID-19 and climate crises equally important, while 61% agreed pandemic recovery efforts should prioritize climate action. But a separate question commissioned by campaigners at SumOfUs showed 84% public support for a green recovery plan in response to the pandemic.

“Canadians want a clean and just recovery by wide margins, including in Alberta,” Gray said, and “I would imagine almost everyone in Minister Freeland’s constituency expects her to aggressively pursue a clean and just recovery for Canada. They need to make sure she hears from them, and also from the rest of country, because now she is in charge of the economic future of everyone.”

Energy efficiency is one of the key areas where that investment will have to take place, said Efficiency Canada Policy Director Brendan Haley. Earlier this year, Haley wrote that governments will need long-term investments to get a green recovery right—a point Morneau partly echoed during his news conference last night.

“As we move to the next phase of our fight against the pandemic and pave the road towards economic recovery, we must recognize that this process will take many years,” the departing minister said.

Freeland “was previously tasked with ensuring national unity and cohesion, and I think when she looks into it, she’ll realize that proposals for a green recovery are something that every region of Canada will benefit from,” Haley said. “That’s because clean energy opportunities are decentralized and available in all regions, unlike regionally concentrated oil and gas and hydroelectricity resources.”

Energy waste “is everywhere,” he added, and “energy efficiency is a resource capable of creating jobs and helping Canadians throughout the country.” Which means that “unlike uniform climate policies like carbon pricing that have triggered regional tensions, green investment policies can be tailored to particular regional circumstances” in a way that brings the country together and promotes national unity.

Some of the recent reporting on the path to a green recovery has suggested officials see a conflict between green stimulus and federal programs to address the recession’s outsized impact on women’s employment. In May, Efficiency Canada Stakeholder Engagement Director Natalie Irwin pointed to energy efficiency training as a ticket out of job loss for women caught in the COVID-19 “she-cession”.

Haley elaborated on the point last night.

“As we do energy efficiency in new ways in the future, there’s going to have to be really innovative marketing and customer outreach, where skills are transferable for people who might previously have had service sector jobs that no longer exist,” he told The Mix. “And within the traditional trades sector, the work force is aging, the sector will be in need of new workers, and it’s going to have to have much greater gender diversity if it’s going to continue to function. If it’s a challenge to try and move toward a more diverse trades community, there’s no time like the present.”

The wider context, Haley added, is that “a gender-balanced recovery is not about trying to protect people who were in precarious, service-based employment by putting them back into that precarious situation. It’s to provide higher-wage, longer-term, more secure employment, and proper child care and healthy schools are prerequisites to those types of better jobs and better careers”—so the two employment tracks can co-exist in a single recovery strategy.



in Buildings & Infrastructure, Canada, Cities & Communities, Community Climate Finance, Demand & Efficiency, Electric Mobility & Auto, Ending Emissions, Energy Access & Equity, Energy Politics, Jobs & Training, Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion, Solar, Supply Chains & Consumption, Transit, Wind

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

jasonwoodhead23/flickr
Tar Sands / Oil Sands

REVEALED: Imperial Oil, Alberta Regulator Knew of Toxic Seepage at Kearl Mine for Years, Kept First Nation in the Dark

October 3, 2023
147
Dawn Ellner/flickr
Carbon Levels & Measurement

Oil and Gas, Buildings Drive 2.1% Rise in Canada’s Climate Pollution

October 2, 2023
62
Ramon FVelasquez/Wikipedia
Finance & Investment

Shell CEO Doubles Down on Renewable Cuts Despite Internal Pushback

October 2, 2023
142

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

jasonwoodhead23/flickr

REVEALED: Imperial Oil, Alberta Regulator Knew of Toxic Seepage at Kearl Mine for Years, Kept First Nation in the Dark

October 3, 2023
147
Ramon FVelasquez/Wikipedia

Shell CEO Doubles Down on Renewable Cuts Despite Internal Pushback

October 2, 2023
142
Iota 9/Wikimedia Commons

‘Huge Loss’ for Local Green Economy as Vancouver Shutters Its Economic Commission

September 28, 2023
359
YouTube

UAE Holds Major Oil and Gas Conference Before Hosting COP 28 Climate Summit

October 3, 2023
75
Solarimo/pixabay

Leading Climate Models Underestimate Clean Energy Progress, Overstate Cost, Study Finds

October 2, 2023
261
Jon Sullivan/flickr

Thorold Gas Peaker Plant Won’t Be Built After Unanimous City Council Vote

September 21, 2023
880

Recent Posts

Dawn Ellner/flickr

Oil and Gas, Buildings Drive 2.1% Rise in Canada’s Climate Pollution

October 2, 2023
62
Northvolt plant in Sweden, Spisen/wikimedia commons

Quebec Lands $7B Battery Gigafactory Investment from Sweden’s Northvolt

October 2, 2023
62
GFDL/Wikimedia Commons

Clean Energy Funding Isn’t Just About Money, Policy Expert Warns

October 2, 2023
39
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Wikimedia Commons

Climate Change Brings Rapid Ice Loss to Antarctica, Arctic, Swiss Glaciers

October 2, 2023
58
Duffins Agriculture Preserve/North Country House Media via Greenbelt Foundation

Green Space Groups Gear for Bigger Fights After Ontario Reverses Greenbelt Land Grab

September 28, 2023
221
DiscoverEganville/wikimedia commons

EV Rentals to Improve Transportation Access for Ontario Townships

September 28, 2023
82
Next Post

Greenland is losing more ice than it gains annually

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
The Energy Mix - Energy Central
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}