Last month, Ottawa passed the long-awaited Canadian Sustainable Jobs Act, legislation that aims to create new jobs for workers and communities affected by Canada’s “transition to a low-carbon economy.”
The government claims the act, which was initially billed as the Just Transition Act, positions the Canadian workforce to participate in the international race for a more green economy.
The act “ensure[s] the Canadian workforce is well-positioned to seize economic opportunities in the global race for low-carbon investment and jobs,” said Carolyn Svonkin, a spokesperson to Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson, in an emailed statement.
But critics on the left say the law doesn’t go far enough — or do much of anything — to advance the transition away from fossil fuels. While critics on the right say the government shouldn’t be facilitating such a transition at all.
“My biggest criticism of the legislation would be … that it’s just a framework,” said Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood, a senior researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a progressive public policy think tank. “If you’re a worker, there’s nothing in this legislation for you: no tangible support, training or investment.”
Jerome Gessaroli, a senior fellow at the market-oriented Macdonald-Laurier Institute, views the legislation as a “top-down centralized planning approach to managing part of the economy.”
“The government is assuming it can effectively predict and plan for future job markets and technological developments, which many economists argue is impossible,” he said.
“The potential for negative unintended consequences is very real with this type of government involvement in the economy.”
‘Privileged access’
The act — which was a key component of the NDP’s 2022 supply-and-confidence agreement with the Liberals — will create two new bodies dedicated to Canada’s energy transition. It will also require the government to publish a Sustainable Jobs Action Plan every five years.
One body, the Sustainable Jobs Partnership Council, will be composed of representatives from labour, Indigenous, environmental organizations and industry. The council will provide a designated cabinet minister with independent advice on how to “foster the creation of sustainable jobs,” the act says.
The council won’t have any decision-making power, says Aliénor Rougeot, a program manager at Environmental Defence, a non-governmental organization that was part of the consultative process for the legislation. But it is supposed to have “privileged access” to the minister, she said.
The act defines a sustainable job as, “Any job that is compatible with Canada’s pathway to achieving a net-zero-emissions and climate-resilient future and that reflects the concept of decent work, namely work — including a job in which the worker is represented by a trade union that has entered into a collective agreement — that can support the worker and their family over time.”
It’s a problematic definition, says Gessaroli of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
“A job could be compatible with net-zero emissions and be well-paying with benefits, but not be considered sustainable if that job is not in a recognized trade union.”
Mertins-Kirkwood is critical for different reasons.
The act doesn’t allocate any new money for the creation of sustainable jobs. It is, however, part of the government’s 2023-2025 Sustainable Jobs Plan, which included $99-million for a Sustainable Jobs Training Fund.
This isn’t enough money to ensure success by the government’s own definition, says Mertins-Kirkwood, while being enough to anger those who would like to see their “unsustainable” jobs stick around.
“The numbers just aren’t big enough for what they’re trying to achieve. If you are committed to transitioning your workforce to cleaner industries, then you need to spend a lot more money to do that,” he said.
‘Fundamentally misguided’
The other body created by the legislation is the Sustainable Jobs Secretariat. Its role will be to “support the implementation of the Sustainable Job Action Plans and coordinate work across federal departments.”
The council and secretariat are currently in the process of being set up and will contribute to the first Sustainable Jobs Action Plan, says Svonkin, the government spokesperson.
The implied changes to policy — which could be widespread manipulation of labour and energy markets — are fundamentally misguided, says Gessaroli.
And while the government has a moral obligation to support workers whose jobs were lost as a result of its green industrial policy, it could be hard to make them whole again.
“There is substantial evidence that, even with government retraining or transition assistance, communities often never fully recover economically, and unemployment remains higher than it was previously,” Gessaroli said.
Rougeot, at Environmental Defence, views the legislation as necessary but not sufficient. “It … puts into the law the fact that impacted parties like unions are going to have to be consulted,” she said.
“We want to make sure that the first action plan is really comprehensive and has things like retraining, recertification and options for early retirement for those who choose to do so,” she said.
The first Sustainable Jobs Action Plan isn’t due until the end of 2025, after the next federal election.
Rougeot notes there was “pretty intense” opposition to the bill from the Conservative Party, provincial governments and the fossil fuel industry. But the Conservatives’ rhetoric has also reflected strong support for workers.
“I’m seeing all parties signal very strongly that they want to be working for workers,” she said.
But in Mertins-Kirkwood’s view, “It’s hard to imagine the Conservative Party taking the advice of this council.”
“They could decide to scrap the act and make a big show of it. Or they could let it putter along in the background, let the council and secretariat do their thing, but ignore their recommendations,” he said.
