• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
BREAKING: UN Nature Summit, the ‘Paris Conference for Biodiversity’, Moves to Montreal in December June 19, 2022
‘LET’S SUE BIG OIL’: Legal Team Launches Class Action Campaign for B.C. Municipalities June 17, 2022
‘It Could Have Been Any of Us’, Colleague Says, After Brazil Confirms Murders of Bruno Pereira, Dom Phillips June 17, 2022
Infrastructure Gap a ‘Life and Death’ Matter as Northern Canada Warms June 17, 2022
Ban Fossil Fuel Ads Like Tobacco Promos, Doctors Urge Ottawa June 10, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Climate & Society Jobs & Training

Just Transition Advocates See Legislation on the Horizon after Federal Roundtable

March 13, 2022
Reading time: 3 minutes
Primary Author: Mitchell Beer @mitchellbeer

Lindsey G/Wikimedia Commons

Lindsey G/Wikimedia Commons

1
SHARES
 

An April 30 deadline for the federal government’s just transition consultation, announced as part of a virtual roundtable last Thursday, is being taken as a sign that Ottawa will be getting started on legislation to help fossil fuel workers and communities navigate the shift off carbon, more than two years after then-environment minister Jonathan Wilkinson’s pre-pandemic promise to make it happen.

In January 2020, Wilkinson identified a new just transition act as one of the first elements of the then second-term Trudeau government’s response to the climate crisis. Last September, 20 months and multiple pandemic lockdowns later, the government extended a looming deadline for public input on a federal just transition strategy, prompting a flurry of questions about when the legislation would be tabled.

Last Thursday, in his more recent role as natural resources minister, Wilkinson and Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan hosted the roundtable “to hear from key stakeholders on the government’s approach to this legislation and to discuss existing federal investments and commitments to support workers and communities,” NRCan said in a release. Participants included representatives of Indigenous organizations, labour groups, industry associations, academia, non-governmental organizations, and skills and training organizations.

The roundtable took place just two days before a day of action that produced 47 community events across the country, all of them calling for fast action on a just transition act. Many of the rallies took place outside the offices of local Members of Parliament, and nearly a dozen of them consisted of mock grand openings and ribbon-cuttings for a new Ministry for Just Transition.

Robin Tress, climate and social justice campaigner at the Council for Canadians, said organizers behind the day of action heard nothing about the roundtable until after it happened. But “this new deadline is news,” she told The Energy Mix in an email. “I am speculating here, but I would guess that they put a deadline on it so they could wrap consultation and develop a bill.”

“I think the two ministers are very much acknowledging that the work that needs to be done to get Canada through a just transition must be done from the ground up,” agreed Iron & Earth Executive Director Luisa Da Silva. “They are looking to the organizations on the ground working at the front line of change, the affected communities, and the workers themselves, for guidance on how to achieve a path forward towards net-zero.”

Da Silva said she “would not be surprised to see something this summer that starts to lay the tangible groundwork for a path forward through training and managed transition activities that will lead to job creation.”

Tress said groups had made good use of the months when the consultation was extended indefinitely, with hundreds of people across the country meeting with their MPs to champion a just transition act. She said 30 MPs from four parties had promised to table a Parliamentary petition calling for just transition legislation that “winds down the fossil fuel industry and related infrastructure, ends fossil fuel subsidies, and transitions to a decarbonized economy.” Ten have already done so.

“People across the country have been demonstrating for months that they are more and more united in their demand for a bold just transition act,” Tress added. “I am sure that these two streams of pressure (petition and day of action) had an impact on the government.”

Da Silva said the timing of the roundtable on the eve of the community rallies “may be by design or by coincidence,” and “how much that coincidence matters will be left up to history to debate.” For now, she added, it’s “no small feat” that just transition has achieved widespread awareness across the country.

“The just transition legislation is needed, we need to ensure no one is left behind, and it feels like we are right now in the messiness that always comes when change is on the horizon,” she told The Mix. “This is all a very, very positive signal that Canadians will soon have something to look forward to, in law, to move our country and our workers towards net-zero.”



in Canada, Climate Action / "Blockadia", Jobs & Training, Legal & Regulatory, Oil & Gas

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Jason Woodhead/Flickr
Pipelines / Rail Transport

Trans Mountain Pipeline On Track to Lose $600 Million, Parliamentary Budget Officer Finds

June 24, 2022
314
Ben_Kerckx/Pixabay
Petrochemicals & Plastics

Plastics Cited as ‘Fossil Industry’s Plan B’ as Guilbeault Announces Partial Ban

June 24, 2022
197
zephylwer0/pixabay
Supply Chains & Consumption

North American Steel, Aluminium Giants Lumber Toward Green Transition

June 24, 2022
170

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

The federal government's Cliff Street Power Plant is at the centre of Ottawa's plans to reduce natural gas demand. Photo: PWGSC

EXCLUSIVE: Ontario Regulator Refuses New Pipeline, Tells Enbridge to Plan for Lower Gas Demand

May 30, 2022
5.1k
Ben_Kerckx/Pixabay

Plastics Cited as ‘Fossil Industry’s Plan B’ as Guilbeault Announces Partial Ban

June 24, 2022
197
zephylwer0/pixabay

North American Steel, Aluminium Giants Lumber Toward Green Transition

June 24, 2022
170
Jason Woodhead/Flickr

Trans Mountain Pipeline On Track to Lose $600 Million, Parliamentary Budget Officer Finds

June 24, 2022
314
Bruce Reeve/Flickr

Opinion: Ontario’s New ‘Carbon Tax’ Looks Like the One Doug Ford Fought

June 7, 2022
1.6k
Michael and Diane Weidner/Unsplash

Scientists, Politicians Debate Ethics of ‘Climate Tinkering’

June 7, 2022
74

Recent Posts

Erik Whalen/wikimedia commons

Yellowstone Park Reopens, But Flood Recovery Could Take Years, Cost Billions

June 24, 2022
73
TAFE SA TONSLEY/Flickr

Clean Energy Investment to Exceed $1.4T This Year, Still Falls Short of Climate Goals: IEA

June 24, 2022
95
Nemaska Lithium/Facebook

Critical Minerals, Hydrogen Lead Ottawa’s Low-Carbon Industry Strategy

June 24, 2022
79
Cjp24/Wikimedia Commons

UK Green Shift Won’t Repeat Job Destruction of Deindustrialization, Report Finds

June 24, 2022
37
/PxFul

Canadian Farmers Offer Ottawa a Roadmap to Cut Agriculture Emissions

June 24, 2022
95
Pavlofox/Pixabay

Millions Face Famine as Climate Disasters, Ukraine War Slash Food Supplies

June 24, 2022
51
Next Post
UNFCCC

Storylines for 2022: Where Does Climate Journalism Hit the Wall?

The Energy Mix

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

Navigate Site

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

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

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}