'Just transition' would be oilsands next boom says Cenovus CEO
CBC
The CEOs of some of the biggest oilsands companies in Alberta say transitioning their workforce for a net-zero emissions future isn't about cutting jobs, it's about creating them.
"We estimated that we will spend somewhere in the range of $70 billion over the next 30 years to decarbonize the production of the oilsands," Cenovus CEO Alex Pourbaix said in an interview with The Canadian Press this week.
"If we're successful in doing that, that is going to create a boom in the oil-producing provinces that is equivalent to what happened in the '80s and the '90s."
Cenovus is one of six oilsands companies in the Pathways Alliance, a consortium created to work together to decarbonize their production entirely by 2050. Pourbaix said the companies believe reaching their goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 will create 35,000 jobs.
The "just transition" debate is raging in Canadian politics this week as Alberta politicians slam a federal plan to introduce legislation intended to guide the adjustment to a clean energy economy.
The Liberals have promised such legislation since the 2019 election and are expected to introduce it in the House of Commons sometime this year.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith jumped on reports that a federal memo suggested millions of jobs will be lost in the transition. The memo actually referred to the number of jobs that currently exist in industries that could be affected by decarbonization.
Despite that clarification, Smith doubled down on her insistence that a "just transition" is a plan to shut down Alberta's energy industry.
"I will fight this 'just transition' idea with every tool at Alberta's disposal," she said in a video posted to Twitter Wednesday.
Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley added her voice to the fire, telling the Edmonton Journal in an interview that Ottawa should scrap plans for the legislation.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday that transitioning to clean energy is about creating good middle-class jobs "in a world that is changing."
"The energy workers that we rely on, the natural resource workers, will continue to be essential parts of our economy moving forward," he said.
Randy Boissonnault, the associate finance minister, had a hurried op-ed published in the Edmonton Journal Tuesday decrying Smith's accusations as fearmongering.
"I can be unequivocal about this: with our sustainable jobs plan, your federal government is interested in creating and supporting jobs, not eliminating them," he wrote.
The Rachel Notley government's consumer carbon tax wound up becoming a weapon the UCP wielded to drum the Alberta NDP out of office. But that levy-and-repayment program, and the wide-ranging "climate leadership plan" around it, also stood as the NDP's boldest, provincial-reputation-altering move in their single-term tenure.