Addressing climate change is a call to action from British Columbians. That’s why the provincial government has created the CleanBC plan. It provides a pathway to a cleaner, better future.
Building a cleaner future means new opportunities for people and businesses. And it means creating good jobs across the province by doing things better.
We want to make sure everyone has access to these kinds of opportunities. We want to make sure people have the right training for the different jobs. We want to make sure we empower people to overcome barriers to getting these good jobs.
As we take action keep pollution and as new jobs and professions emerge, people in B.C. need to be ready. We want to hear your vision for our future economy. Where do you see yourself, your friends, and your family as part of it? How do we help smooth the challenges or barriers you and your family might face?
Questions:
How do you see your children, grandchildren, or yourself working in these new areas? What’s your vision for these opportunities?
How do we help make sure that, as industries change and grow, that there can and will be opportunity for everyone?
I believe the province should work on supporting transition from fossil fuel based jobs to “green” or other jobs. Something to consider for example would be to use a percentage of carbon tax funds to invest in an exit strategy for fossil fuel based jobs. Voluntary re-education and re-injection program for people interested in transitioning. Support with education, employment services etc.
I concur with Laura that we need to work proactively to support transitioning away from fossil fuel jobs to a more green / renewable based economy, however we must be mindful that it took a century to build up our current infrastructure and we simply cannot turn off the fossil fuel switch and expect a new infrastructure to take its place overnight. This transition will be difficult, but we must remember that we have families, communities, and provinces that rely on this industry. This approach will certainly not meet the “purity” test for many eco-minded individuals, of which I count myself a part of, but I believe it is the best approach moving forward as a country.
I would whole heartedly support provincial and federal governments to aggressively direct carbon tax funds and royalties from the fossil fuel industry to seriously invest and support a new green economy. I would like these funds to be used in similar ways to how Norway has invested its North Sea royalties by supporting a new electric car infrastructure, wind and solar development, improved construction practices, geo thermal development, our version of a Sovereign wealth fund, etc..
These changes will help to address the concerns of climate change, while at the same time create job opportunities for everyone in Canada.
I dont get the question, what is “opportunity”
For you it means a good carreer or job
To me it means, workerizm and an acceptable form of slavery.
The engine made the average canadian 100x more efficient for buisnesses yet the worker get paid the same comparered to a man in the late 60s where is the extra 99% going? The global market basket is 99% backwards.
Smiling up for the future is going to be about broad self sufficiency and community first economics. This means that issues of resilience and sustainability are woven into community life and not commuter life.
For these opportunities, schools teach the younger kids about the opportunities, higher education trains them for it, policies encourage these positions over polluting/extractive jobs.
Support is provided to help workers in extractive (in particular all fossil fuel jobs including LNG) transition to green jobs such as retraining, pension bridging if workers are older and switching from subsidizing harmful jobs/industries to beneficial ones.
We need to ensure a just transition – that subsidies are directed away from fossil fuel industries, and into renewable energies, where they can be used to retrain workers from those fossil fuel industries. Jobs should be decently paid and unionized.
Also, many of these jobs and opportunities will be in helping our communities live more sustainably – for example, building more dense, affordable housing, and improving public transit so there is less need to drive.
We must look to indigenous peoples for leadership as part of reconciliation. They are already taking the lead in solar farms (Tsilhqot’in) and affordable housing (Squamish – under development in Kitsilano).
Fighting climate change is just a vehicle to move towards more socialism.
You talk about a transition to clean energy, but there is no transition, the government works to kill off our fossil fuel industry, there are no green jobs to go to. the investors leave the province, they don’t invest in green projects.
This is one big con job.
Funding channels should exist to equip ALL schools with technology tools – not just for coding – that enable youth to innovate and develop skills using these.
Teach CAD design, 3D printing techniques, Laser cutting, Electronic circuit design and bring back skills based physical workshops and laboratories in schools.
To ensure opportunity for everyone as industries (and economic model) shifts, there needs to be job retraining opportunities for existing workers to transfer their skills into meaningful employment within the green economy. In addition to teaching students about financial literacy, planning and management, all K-12 and higher education institutions should teach content about the role and value of natural capital and our dependency on healthy, functioning ecosystems. Carbon accounting and life-cycle analysis should become the norm, not the exception.
To achieve CleanBC goals, step-changes in technologies are required. Today, these technologies either have yet to be invented or are not cost-effective compared to business as usual. A good part of the need then is greater support for innovation: inventions put into service, delivering business results. More job opportunities needed for academia, climate solution R&D, funding for clean energy/materials start-ups and for green city initiatives.
With urban communities gaining a larger portion of the population in the future, changes within cities will need to drive the climate action agenda. Do not make the same error as federal job-support programs such as Mitacs that are NOT available to governments that have jurisdiction over municipalities but are often running large industrial processes.
As a person who has worked in domestic and foreign policy and overseas development, I have been advising my children since they were little that climate change is one of the three or four truly serious issues that will affect them in their lifetimes. Now they are adults and have assumed life-styles or mastered technologies that are likely to help, in their own way. But we don’t always agree on the details. Moreover, we are not even on the same continent. Climate change is global. A continuing problem is the inability to point to incontrovertible, public information that documents how climate change is already affecting us, today, and the lack of direct access to experts. The IPCC and UN COP meetings are too busy and bureaucratic for the average person to understand or draw conclusions from. The media is often compromised by the nature of their ownership. These problems are compounded by deliberate mis-information campaigns, cynics or others that have a vested interest in business-as-usual. In sum – we are all working on the issue of climate change in our own ways, but fail to convince or influence the majority of our friends and sometimes colleagues of the need, for example, to scale back and do things differently.
On the question of job opportunities … I believe that the public sector needs to be strengthened side-by-side with the private sector so that our societies are in a better position not only to mitigate, but to adapt to what lies ahead. But there are various obstructions and outdated ways so this will not be an easy task.
I have a son that works in the alternative energy business. While we know there is industry focussed on the changes that are coming down the road, we still have sunset industries fighting to stay alive. The workers in those industries don’t have the skills for the shift. How can we speed up the shift? The oil and gas industry doesn’t need support to increase production. Incentives for new clean energy R&D and start ups are needed.
Support in education, start in the public school system to provide the thinkers for post-secondary and beyond. Ensure Universities and Tech. schools have the capacity for the new economy.
Working with schools and academic institutions would be a key step. People need to know what’s coming not be surprised with it or scared by it. By making people aware of the problem, it will allow us to innovate and somehow get ourselves out of the situation we have created for ourselves. As for my own children, grandchildren and myself, I’ll continue to educate them and myself on the issues that are impacting us and encourage to change the lifestyle that was live by generations before because that’s just not sustainable anymore. Climate change won’t end the world but it certainly will change the quality of life that we have currently. We will all need to adapt to a different lifestyle and by preparing our loved ones for it today, we are reducing the risk of stresses that are yet to come. Essentially, collaboration between Ministries of Health, Mental Health, Education and Climate Change needs to considered as best as possible.
o Encouraging the transition off coal and supplying Asian markets with clean, responsibly produced natural gas will be a significant British Columbian contribution to global GHG reductions in our generation and for the next 40 years. There are clean air benefits domestically as well. LNG bunkering will offset diesel and heavy fuel oil bunker, and significantly reduce local air pollution.
o We are aligned with the Government of B.C. and acknowledge one of the most effective ways to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a price on carbon. We also think that as the Province considers Clean BC job readiness, the inclusion of an alternative compliance mechanism regime is an essential opportunity for new careers and is also part of any functional carbon pricing program. Including offsets as a compliance tool could allow the BC LNG industry to continue to grow and engage other parts of the clean tech economy, spurring new jobs in climate solutions, including Indigenous economic participation.