Federal department says 'just transition' document refers to industry size, not job loss
CBC
On Monday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she had a "pit in her stomach" after a federal document was written about by three Alberta columnists, who suggested the "just transition" would cost hundreds of thousands of Canadians their jobs.
Referencing the document again on Tuesday, Smith wrote on Twitter that the plan would "eliminate 2.7 million jobs."
But the federal government said that those numbers had been misinterpreted, and that the figures referred to the overall size of the workforce of various industries, not anticipated job losses.
"The federal government's approach to sustainable jobs is about creating jobs, not eliminating them," said Natural Resources Canada press secretary Keean Nembhard in an email.
The 81-page briefing document was addressed to the minister, who was appearing before a committee, discussing coming "just transition" legislation.
The federal government says the legislation is intended to "seize economic opportunities associated with" a low-carbon economy, while provincial officials argue it is code to shut down the oil and gas sector.
"It's worse than I feared. 'Just Transition' isn't about a transition at all … it's about eliminating entire sectors of our economy and hundreds of thousands of good Alberta jobs deemed too 'dirty' by elites in Ottawa," reads a statement from the premier's office sent to CBC News on Tuesday, attributed to Smith.
Columnists at three Postmedia publications were responding to an initial story from the Ottawa-based online news publication Blacklock's Reporter. "Energy jobs, about 202,000 workers gone," reads a Calgary column. "In Alberta, 187,000 jobs toast. Read that number again."
"If you're from Alberta, Saskatchewan or Newfoundland and Labrador, this plan might well strike you as madness," reads an Edmonton column.
The document is publicly available on the federal government's website. It consists of speaking points prepared for Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson in June 2022 before speaking to the Standing Committee on Natural Resources.
On page 68 of that document, a hypothetical question is posed: "What sectors and regions will be most affected by a transition to a low-carbon economy?"
The document states that "significant labour market disruptions" will take place across Canada as a part of the transition, including in agriculture, energy and transportation.
The memo then goes on to list various job numbers associated with each industry — for instance, 202,000 workers, or one per cent of Canada's employment, in the energy industry.
And though the premier attributed that figure as being the number of jobs lost, a press secretary with Natural Resources Canada said those numbers were included to provide a snapshot of the total number of people working in each industry.