QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Canadian Heritage—Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
Transition from Coal
May 11, 2022
Minister, two weeks ago, the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development released a report which criticized your department in spending funds that are intended to help communities in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to transition away from coal. This audit found that the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency funded many projects that “. . . lacked a connection to the coal transition.”
Minister, your department still has over $30 million from the Canada Coal Transition Initiative–Infrastructure Fund to spend between now and March of 2025. What are you doing to ensure that those taxpayer dollars are better targeted to specifically help coal workers and their communities in those two provinces?
Thank you so much for that question. Once again, I’m fully aware and have read the report that was provided by the commissioner. The transition to a low‑carbon economy is a massive economic opportunity, and ACOA is certainly vigilantly working towards that. Creating sustainable jobs will look different across the country to meet the needs of each region’s unique landscape. Because a one-size-fits-all approach is not ideal, ACOA officials are working closely with communities across Canada to build inclusive solutions that can mitigate potential future projects for employers and workers. We are focused on outcomes that create non-coal jobs that diversify local and regional economies and that allow our communities to develop and prosper economically now and well into the future.
Once again, we welcome the commissioner’s report, and we really are looking at finding ways to boost economic growth while also doing so in a green way.
We will suspend until the minister returns from the vote.
