Net-zero Emissions Future
Inquiry--Debate Adjourned
March 3, 2022
Rose pursuant to notice of November 24, 2021:
That she will call the attention of the Senate to the importance of finding solutions to transition Canada’s society, economy and resource use in pursuit of a fair, prosperous, sustainable and peaceful net-zero emissions future for our country and the planet.
She said: Honourable senators, I rise today to launch my second climate-related inquiry here in this chamber, on the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation, to call attention of the Senate of Canada to the importance of finding solutions to transition Canada’s society, economy and resource use in pursuit of a fair, prosperous, sustainable and peaceful net-zero emissions future for our country and our planet.
The purpose of this inquiry is to investigate, with your contributions, solutions to the most serious challenge and the most compelling opportunity facing our generation and our world today: climate change.
My intention is to first speak about why I am launching this inquiry. I plan to then briefly address the scope of the inquiry and what I hope all of you will contribute as we collectively move this forward. Finally, I will attempt to open up the investigation on one of the key solutions areas, the area of a just transition for people, workers and their communities.
Colleagues, when I sat down to craft the rather convoluted title of this inquiry, I chose each word with great care. When I included the word “peaceful” as a modifier for the net-zero emissions future we are striving for, I was thinking about both the international strife and the potential domestic upheaval that comes from people being seriously harmed and in some cases displaced by the dangerous effects of severe weather events caused by climate change. I was also focused on disruptions for workers, families, communities and whole regions of Canada as our economy undergoes the transformation to net zero.
Colleagues, my concern for a peaceful net-zero future has also been deepened given what we see so blatantly at work today: that powerful, well-networked and well-resourced disinformation machine that is accelerating the churning out of lies in Canada and in every region of the world.
We see that machine at work in Russia as Putin spins his propaganda to justify his brutal invasion of Ukraine. We saw and see that machine at work south of our border drawing millions of Americans into the lie that President Biden did not win the last election.
Colleagues, we see the power of that mendacity machine to influence significant numbers of our fellow Canadians who supported what became illegal blockades and the occupation of Ottawa and to bathe them in a toxic online stew of falsehoods about COVID-19; the efficacy of vaccines; Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms; Canada’s system of government and how political change occurs within it; and the intentional conflation of the Emergencies Act with its long since mothballed predecessor, the War Measures Act.
Colleagues, shockingly that mostly online lie factory is even imploring people:
. . . to focus on Canada not on Ukraine. It’s all a distraction because the real war, the war against your freedom, is happening right now in Canada.
Honourable colleagues, we know that there are people in Canada who are experiencing COVID fatigue. We know there are people who, for various reasons, are hesitant about or opposed to vaccines. We know there are people who disagree with wearing masks, capacity limits and vaccine mandates. And, of course, there are Canadians who have any number of grievances against the current government and its leadership.
Colleagues, I don’t think anyone would argue that people have a right to hold these beliefs, values and opinions and that they have a right to peacefully demonstrate against any policies they don’t agree with and to vote for a different party the next time we have an election if that is their choice. That is not the point. My concern is with the people who are vulnerable to being influenced and possibly incited to act in misinformed ways by these manipulative online perpetrators of false realities.
Colleagues, there were several brilliant articles on this theme in last week’s The Globe and Mail, including Andrew Coyne’s entitled “Our shared reality – and the knowledge that undergirds it – is being assaulted,” and David Shribman’s “From Trump to Putin, the Age of Disruption is now under way.”
Colleagues, why do I raise this concern, and what does it have to do with me launching this climate solutions inquiry at this time? I raise it because we know there has been a history of misinformation and intentional disinformation on matters related to the climate crisis. We also know that the effective widespread promotion of lies can result in unleashing the dangerously explosive trinity of fear, anger and division.
Colleagues, what we need now more than ever is confidence in the evidence, and we need unity as we face the burning imperative to meet our climate commitments. Just this week, the IPCC released its latest report, which further underlined the urgency to act on climate.
Ko Barrett, IPCC vice-chair, said, “. . . every fraction of a degree of warming matters and every action helps.”
We need all hands on deck and all boats sailing as quickly as possible in the direction of net zero. We do not need any disinformation tsunamis to blow us off course and distract us from our urgent climate action.
Julia Langer, CEO of The Atmospheric Fund, states that we have to match eco-anxiety with eco-action.
Colleagues, a whole-of-society approach, one which is focused on solutions and practical action, and one which encourages the engagement of Canadians rather than stoking fear, alienation and division, is what we need now, and that requires leadership from many quarters. My hope for this inquiry is that we can demonstrate our Senate leadership role in this critical undertaking.
Colleagues, we know that the next stage of the transition to net zero will require governments, the private sector and civil society to act at a scope, scale and speed that is unprecedented.
We know that governments have a central and essential role to play in establishing the right conditions for meeting our climate targets. Governments can adjust or create new regulations. They can employ the tax system. They can make strategic investments. They can provide industrial incentives and they can take measures to ensure that no one is left behind.
Honourable colleagues, with the launch of this inquiry, it is my intention today to set the table with places for every senator who would like to contribute to this climate solutions feast. As we fill this metaphorical inquiry table with climate solutions, some of you might be interested in speaking to comprehensive pathways or road maps to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
Some colleagues will be keen to focus on adaptation and resiliency solutions. Others could sharpen their pencils and examine the costs of the required climate action or look at the economic opportunities side of the ledger.
Some will want to focus on the role that Indigenous peoples can and should play in determining, developing, implementing and benefiting from climate solutions. Colleagues will have important northern, coastal, regional, provincial and municipal perspectives to bring to the table. Colleagues will have something to offer on the critical area of the energy transition; on coal, oil and gas, clean fuels, wind, solar, hydro, hydrogen, nuclear, geothermal, tidal; on battery technology, strategic minerals, carbon capture; on energy and electricity distribution systems; on the potency of efficiency solutions of all types; and on the role of artificial intelligence.
Given our Canadian advantage, some colleagues will have contributions in the area of nature-based solutions: our forests, oceans, grasslands, soils and the importance of agriculture to our net-zero future; decarbonization of industry, of transportation of all types, of buildings and the innovation drivers required to make it all happen; the power and the role of the private finance sector in the net-zero equation; carbon pricing and how it relates to other incentives and disincentives.
Certain colleagues will want to probe global matters: global competitiveness and business and trade opportunities, supports and investments in developing countries, climate migration and refugee solutions as well as the importance of global alliances.
With all eyes on Ukraine and Russia at this time, we are reminded of the link between climate and national and international security as well as the matter of energy security.
Colleagues, we have room for all kinds of climate solutions and a place for you at the table.
As mentioned earlier, the final section of my inquiry intervention today introduces the concept of a just transition: finding innovative and effective ways to ensure the people, communities and regions most closely impacted by the transition to a net-zero economy are considered, have a voice and are supported.
In its June 2021 initial observations report, Canada’s new Net‑Zero Advisory Body recommended a “seize the upsides” approach, stating that climate action is a net creator of jobs and economic benefits and has the potential to advance justice if done right. No one should be left behind because of where they live, work or their identity.
In his former role as President of the Canadian Labour Congress, our colleague Senator Yussuff said:
Labour will be looking to the federal government to make good on its commitment to supporting local job creation, skills training, apprenticeships and decent wages for workers, especially to those historically underrepresented in the skilled trades sector, including Indigenous workers, racialized workers and women. . . . Canada needs strong Just Transition measures to assist workers in resource communities and fossil fuel-dependent economies to access new job opportunities in clean energy, green transportation, efficient buildings and conservation . . .
Honourable senators, the Liberals promised to introduce just transition legislation as part of their 2019 election platform. An engagement process was launched in July 2021. A report and just transition legislation are expected soon, as well as the creation of a just transition advisory body. These will be foundational for Canada’s just transition plan, which one would expect to operate in tandem with the expected emissions reduction plan due later this month.
The IndustriAll Global Union, which represents 50 million workers in the mining, energy and manufacturing sectors, outlines what their trade unions are looking for in a just transition. One, a social dialogue, and with that, ensuring that there is a seat at the table for workers. Two, industrial policies and plans that are sustainable. They call for public policy developed in the public interest with a goal to create decent work. And three, labour market adjustment programs that recognize the importance of customization; one size definitely does not fit all in a successful just transition.
Honourable senators, there are many examples of just transition strategies in other countries, as well as our own early and current experiences with transitioning from coal in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and Alberta to learn from. Getting Canada’s just transition right is imperative. It is complex, and so much depends on Canada’s ability to pursue the right future-focused economic opportunities. At the same time, our net-zero future rides on the success of the just transition strategy. We need a lot of attention on job creation opportunities, and we need to ensure Canadians in all regions are well equipped for those jobs.
Honourable colleagues, as I move towards the conclusion of this first intervention, I want to again extend an invitation to each of you to participate and contribute your climate solutions perspectives to this inquiry. The Senate of Canada’s engagement on climate matters. We have a collective opportunity to take a leadership role in examining and influencing action on the defining issue of this century.
Honourable senators, two years ago, I heard former Governor General David Johnston speak about shared responsibility of parliamentarians as builders of trust in our democratic institutions, referring to trust as the glue and the grease in our society that keeps us together and helps us to move forward. Honourable senators, I believe by demonstrating our sincere engagement on climate solutions and our collective commitment to helping Canada transition to a fair, prosperous, sustainable and peaceful net-zero future, we can contribute to building that trust. Honourable senators, Canadians expect that of us. Thank you, and Wela’lioq.
Honourable senators, I am speaking to you from Treaty 1 territory, the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dene and Dakota, the birthplace of the Métis Nation and the heart of the Métis Nation homeland.
Senator Coyle, I accept your invitation. I rise to add a visual and museological perspective to your inquiry, which calls our attention to the importance of finding solutions to transition Canada’s society, economy and resource use in pursuit of a fair, prosperous, sustainable and peaceful net-zero emissions future for our country and the planet.
I fully support this objective, and I believe that we can find these solutions. We know that collaboration between multiple sectors, both in Canada and in the world, will be necessary, with a constructive vision and a commitment from individuals, communities, industry, scientists, environmentalists and not‑for‑profit organizations — in short, from everyone.
Colleagues, I applaud the many ways that the Senate’s standing committees and working groups are rising to these challenges. The intersections of these approaches are encouraging and important.
Museums are responding to this crisis in their collections, exhibitions, shipping, mechanical systems and even their restaurant menus. Museums’ and galleries’ roles are to communicate realities, including eco-awareness to educate audiences through exhibitions and their programs. More than 550 organizations have formed the international Gallery Climate Coalition to “facilitate the decarbonisation of the visual arts sector and promote zero waste practices.” They have a decarbonization plan.
But museums must also consider their carbon footprint. An article in Canadian Art, entitled “The Green Cube,” states:
Museums are regularly forums for such big ideas. But seldom do we consider: are they also places that practice them?
Noting art and exhibitions do have environmental costs, what are their impacts? How are museums mitigating those impacts? A 2021 Statistics Canada survey showed that nearly two thirds of Canada’s arts, entertainment and recreational organizations and businesses have some type of environmental practice or policy, but that:
“Requirements for climate action are still quite rare in national cultural policy”, as are connections between government departments that are responsible for culture and the environment.
And that:
The cultural community needs “the policy frameworks and authority, funding and accountability to be fully mainstreamed into national environmental planning”.
I know improvements will come. This sector is aware of the goals and is transitioning, adding to the dialogue and drawing from that dialogue.
Individual artists have been giving visual voice to environmental and climate change concerns for years. I thank Senator Coyle and Senator Kutcher for their idea to include art in the possible commission of a piece heralding the Senate working group’s goals. Rather than commissioning, which is complex, costly, time-consuming and with clearly articulated processes, we have been exploring borrowing art.
We have chosen instead to borrow two works by two established and internationally renowned Canadian artists, Roberta Bondar and Ed Burtynsky. The theme is “Visual Voices: Climate Change & Environment.”
Artists have for decades portrayed the realities of environmental preservation, and more recently the understanding of the effects of climate change. One — astronaut, neurologist and artist Roberta Bondar, working with NASA — depicts endangered species. Another — recipient of the Governor General’s Awards in the Visual and Media Arts, Ed Burtynsky, with support from industry and business — documents human impacts on various locales in his art. In their photographs, both these artists honestly present what they see and call us to preserve our planet and to sustain life — human, flora and fauna — and to work together as individuals, communities and industry.
Artists’ visual voices are drawing global citizens into the reality of our planet’s crisis.
Let’s go back to 1939. As I said earlier today, I believe Emily Carr was the first Canadian artist to address environmental issues in art. From 1939 to the early 1940s, she did a number of paintings depicting the concerns of clear-cutting, such as Logged‑over Hillside. Each summer, a friend towed her trailer, called “The Elephant,” to the site she wanted to paint. I would be delighted to take you to some of her favourite sites.
In her journals Hundreds and Thousands, Carr revealed her observations and hopes for renewal:
Yesterday I went into a great forest, I mean a portion of growth undisturbed for years and years. Way back, some great, grand trees had been felled, leaving their stumps with the ragged row of “screamers” in the centre, the last chords to break, chords in the tree’s very heart. Growth had repaired all the damage and hidden the scars. There were second-growth trees . . . that stood at the foot of those mighty arrow-straight monarchs long since chewed by steel teeth in the mighty mills, chewed into utility, nailed into houses, churches, telephone poles, all the “woodsyness” extracted, nothing remaining but wood.
Many artists, working in all media, have since portrayed the realities of place and change, beauty and devastation. Not wanting to be negative but wanting to show where we are “at,” they call us to action to turn the tide of potential environmental devastation.
We must preserve the miracle that former grand chief, artist and poet Ovide Mercredi reveals in his poem The Earth:
The Earth is a great miracle
The author of its unique destiny
A traveler in unending space
The designer of all its beauty
The orchestra of all natural events
Benign or catastrophic.
Governor General’s Visual Arts Award recipient Carole Sabiston, long interested in space, worries about the debris we leave up there. Her textile assemblages, like Take Off: Point Of Departure And Mode Of Travel, 1987-1989, bring that issue to light.
Multi-award recipient artist Aganetha Dyck worked for decades with global scientists researching the international concern of decreasing bee populations. Bees were her art collaborators.
In his compelling elevator sculptures, Don Proch, who grew up on a Prairie farm, has drawn attention since the 1970s to farmers’ acid rain concerns. His 2019 From Asessippi to Altona portrays Prairie fields, skies, the grain elevator with its characteristic drive-through and the wind farm near Altona, Manitoba.
Artist David McMillan photographed the immediate devastation of Chernobyl after the nuclear disaster. He returned to the same sites annually, for years — almost two decades — documenting the changes, the deterioration of the man-made structures and the slow appearance of bits of vegetation.
Inuit artists across the North have also created compelling work over decades, depicting their changing lives and concerns about climate change.
Let us now turn to Roberta Bondar and Edward Burtynsky. I have organized exhibits of these two esteemed artists. Both of them truly love our planet. Neither one hesitates to show it and to call on society to make changes.
Much-honoured astronaut, neurologist and artist Roberta Bondar draws from her experiences and accomplishments in each of her professions, tying them together in her art. Seeing our planet from space made an indelible impact on her, which she shares with us through her art.
She hangs from planes, climbs trees and balances on limbs to get the images she wants. She has no fear in creating her images but fears for the world’s endangered species. Her well-known Discovering Canada’s National Parks series documents the richness of our country’s land, taking us to parts of this nation we may not have seen in person. She is working with NASA again, this time as an artist, to create her project on endangered birds.
Bondar wrote to me about her image Endangered Shadows:
. . . the abstract three-dimensional background of a remnant pond in the Prairie Pothole Region of Saskatchewan looks like a wave that threatens to engulf [the Whooping Cranes], portending dangers that they will face during this twice yearly flight. The long, fall shadows of the cranes underscore their evanescence.
Years ago, Alberta’s energy sector sponsored the exhibition of Ed Burtynsky’s Oil Sands series, clearly indicating their active part in finding solutions. I applaud their development of clean energy and the increasing number of wind and solar installations across Canada.
Burtynsky’s 2018 London Photo Festival submissions, as international celebrated guest artist, were captivating. I was pleased to see his work in that context and to hear his lecture. His two- and three-dimensional works showed landfills with mountains of discarded tires and computer elements. I am sure he is aware of the new museum in Nigeria showing issues of waste.
Burtynsky’s National Gallery of Canada and Art Gallery of Ontario exhibitions, and 2018 book Anthropocene explored these issues with artistic honesty and integrity, and he presented next steps. He does not harp on particular industries. Rather, he calls for collaboration of thought, action and vision.
We need fuel to heat our homes, for travel and in making the materials we use daily. He states:
When I first started photographing industry it was out of a sense of awe at what we as a species were up to. Our achievements became a source of infinite possibilities. But time goes on, and that flush of wonder began to turn. The car that I drove cross-country began to represent not only freedom, but also something much more conflicted. I began to think about oil itself: as both the source of energy that makes everything possible, and as a source of dread, for its ongoing endangerment of our habitat.
Colleagues, Hill Strategies Research underlines the inextricable link between the arts and the environment in their January 12 blog. The international Climate Heritage Network identifies some of these relationships:
Culture anchors people to places and to each other. It can create cohesion in ways that enable community-building and collective action. Artists and cultural voices drive public awareness and actions; their work can be a powerful tool for climate mobilization. Through public accessibility and trust, cultural institutions like museums and libraries provide platforms for listening to communities and hubs of multicultural and inter-generational exchange, capacity building and knowledge-sharing.
Colleagues, I was delighted to learn that, in December, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, brought together academics and musicians for an environmental solutions initiative entitled “Artists and Scientists Together on Climate Solutions.” This proves that the solution to climate change will not emerge from a single area, but from all cultures.
Dava Newman, a professor at the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, noted that while scientists collect vast amounts of data that demonstrate the changes happening on our planet, communication is the biggest challenge faced by the scientific community. According to Dava Newman, human behaviour will require working together across the boundaries of different disciplines and areas of expertise, which could be crucial to winning the battle against climate warming.
Colleagues, we have the opportunity to garner support and awareness from all regions and all sectors in our country, as we are from all regions and all sectors. Let us follow the vision of scientists and artists; let us be proactive in our collaborations and open to hearing the hard facts and learning from the inspirations of many.
Let us do our part: listen, examine, study and change the ways that need to be changed.
Thank you, Senator Coyle. Thank you, colleagues.
