Ottawa may delay sustainable jobs bill opposed by Alberta government, federal minister says

The federal natural resources minister has pushed back the timeline to introduce legislation guiding a transition of workers from emissions-intensive fields to what the government calls "sustainable jobs."

While on a visit to the Edmonton area on Wednesday, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said his government would table sustainable jobs legislation "this year."

The federal Liberals had previously pledged it was coming before the summer.

"I just don't have a date on when that's going to be done," Wilkinson said in an interview. "Obviously, we have to get through the legal drafting of the legislation."

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The pending plan to create a soft landing for well-paid oil and gas, agriculture and other workers in new, greener jobs while Canada tries to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions has been a point of contention in Alberta and other oil-producing provinces.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has called the proposal "short-sighted" and "harmful" to the province.

Alberta's NDP leader has called on Ottawa to provide more money for such a transition.

An interim sustainable jobs plan released in February includes the creation of a federal government department to oversee and coordinate the work. The plan said the emergence of clean technology, hydrogen, carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) industries will generate more jobs than there are workers — a perspective Wilkinson reiterated on Wednesday.

"I would say that Alberta is enormously well placed in terms of the scale and the number of opportunities that exist, and we're focused on ensuring that we actually help to maximize those opportunities," he said.

In the 2021 election, the Liberals also pledged a $2-billion "Futures Fund" to stimulate economic development specifically in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland, to help create good-paying jobs outside oil and gas.

The government has been silent on the rollout of that fund. Wilkinson said it would start before the end of the government's mandate, but had no timeline. He also pointed to billions of dollars of investment in tax credits and carbon capture in the federal budget that should stimulate green job creation.

Delay leaves environmentalist skeptical

Alienor Rougeot, climate and energy manager at Environmental Defence in Toronto, said Thursday it would be "a really dangerous delay" if the timeline for sustainable jobs legislation is pushed back.

The government has promised these steps since 2019 and has yet to deliver, she said.

"Many, including folks who were in favour of such plans, are losing faith that the government will actually deliver it because of how long it's been," she said.

Environmentalists are watching to see if the legislation commits the federal government to meeting specific outcomes and regularly revising the plan, she said.

In an email, Roy Dallman, press secretary for Alberta Jobs, Economy and Northern Development Minister Brian Jean, said the federal government has failed to conduct adequate consultation on the plan with the minister or provincial department.

"Our concern with the federal government's green jobs transition plan is the lack of compatibility between the current roles skilled workers are performing and their salaries, and the yet-to-be-determined replacement jobs," he said.

The province estimates the energy transition will affect 638,000 workers — a quarter of Alberta's workforce — in oil and gas, agriculture, mining, forestry construction and transportation, he said.

Budget investments designed to bolster greener jobs

Wilkinson was in Fort Saskatchewan, northeast of Edmonton, on Wednesday to promote last month's federal budget. If passed, it would grant tax credits to companies investing in renewable power generation and increased transmission capacity. It would also boost the amount promised to get CCUS projects going, offer tax credits for hydrogen plants and equipment to convert it to liquid ammonia for transport, as well as tax credits to extract and process critical minerals for use in batteries.

Mark Plamondon, executive director of Alberta's Industrial Heartland Association, recruits heavy industrial projects to an area northeast of Edmonton, where companies have easy access to natural gas and liquid hydrocarbons.

"Anything that is helping this region become more competitive on the global stage, it all becomes part of the overall competitiveness equation that is important," he said of the tax credits.

What businesses want is more certainty about the value of carbon credits they earn for reducing emissions, Plamondon said. If the value of those credits drop, then emissions reduction investments are riskier, he said.

Plamondon said there's plenty of overlap between the training and skills needed to build and operate any large industrial plants, and he doesn't see green and conventional jobs as a binary.

Rougeot, however, is concerned some of the new tax credits continue to subsidize the fossil fuels industry.

She worries that if Canada can't meet its emissions reduction targets, it will need to undergo a second, more aggressive energy transition.

"Denying the transition won't make it not happen," she said."It'll just make sure that it's not managed."

The Alberta government wants more detail on CCUS funding to give potential investors more certainty, said the energy minister's press secretary, Gabrielle Symbalisty. And the feds haven't accepted the province's offer to co-ordinate on CCUS incentives she said.

Although the province welcomed the critical minerals tax credit, it doesn't go far enough to put Canada on a level playing field with the opportunities in the U.S., she said.