Honourable senators, “Keep the jobs. Cut the carbon. Build the future.” This is the slogan of Blue Green Canada, a membership organization comprising labour, environmental and think tank organizations.

Colleagues, “Keep the jobs. Cut the carbon. Build the future.” That is, in essence, the purpose of Bill C-50, An Act respecting accountability, transparency and engagement to support the creation of sustainable jobs for workers and economic growth in a net-zero economy — the economy of the future of Canada and the world.

While we cut the carbon and build our future net-zero emissions economy, we must ensure we have good-quality jobs for Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

Colleagues, five years ago, the government committed to introducing legislation to support workers while unlocking economic opportunities. In February 2023, the government released an interim Sustainable Jobs Plan for 2023 to 2025. That plan outlined 10 actions, including the commitment to introduce this legislation.

This legislation aligns with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and specifically with a number of its Sustainable Development Goals, including Goal 7, on affordable and clean energy; Goal 8, on decent work and economic growth; Goal 9, on industry, innovation and infrastructure; Goal 11, on sustainable cities and communities; and Goal 13, on climate action.

Senator Yussuff, the eminently qualified sponsor of Bill C-50, has explained the background of the bill, highlighted its key elements and cited support for Bill C-50 from various quarters. I will remind you of a few points he made; it has been a little while.

The bill is fundamentally about workers — protecting their rights and interests, supporting their families and enabling their communities to grow.

Climate change is causing economic change. Change can be good or devastating. Recognizing change and having the will and means to prepare our economy and those who work in it to embrace that change is of fundamental importance.

Bill C-50, the Canadian sustainable jobs act, articulates a number of guiding principles.

It establishes a sustainable jobs partnership council with representation from labour, industry, Indigenous communities, environmental organizations and other experts. It will designate ministers responsible for planning and implementation. It will create a sustainable jobs secretariat to assist and coordinate federal actions and requires updated action plans every five years.

As Canada works hard to align its workforce policy with its climate policy, this act will ensure workers have a seat and voice at the table.

Senator Bellemare, our in-house economist, spoke at second reading as well, agreeing with the fundamental principles of Bill C-50 and saying that it is important to facilitate a labour market transition. However, she did raise questions about some of the details in the bill. As she said, “. . . the devil is in the details.”

She questioned whether Bill C-50 will allow a labour market transition plan to be developed and implemented within a reasonable time frame and with noticeable results in terms of sustainable jobs.

Senator Bellemare reminded us that the Employment Insurance, or EI, system in Canada remains the primary source of funding for public interventions in the labour market.

She also highlighted important studies on the impact of the green transition on the labour market, which show that the success of these plans depends heavily on the workforce’s ability to carry them out. She cited a Canadian Chamber of Commerce report, which stated:

A recent study scanning 48 countries found that only one in eight workers has the skills relevant to a net-zero economy. This research also concluded that there is a growing demand for workers with net-zero skills, but this demand is not being met by today’s labour force.

Senator Bellemare said the green transition will create new jobs and transform existing ones. She cautioned that Canada’s economy is affected by the accelerating changes in climate and technology, including AI and demographics.

Skills upgrading will play a vital role in workforce development in Canada, and EI will be one of the major funding sources.

Given this, Senator Bellemare suggests that EI commissioners sit on the sustainable jobs partnership council and that those with the labour and industry seats on the council be appointed to represent the most representative workers’ and employers’ associations rather than on an individual or personal basis.

She ended her second reading speech with a call for urgency.

Colleagues, on this matter of urgency and on the matter of the context of this labour transition, I wanted to share with you some points relevant to our debate on the Canadian sustainable jobs act made by panellists at our recent Senators for Climate Solutions session. It was entitled “Keeping the Lights On, Ensuring Energy Security and Stability During the Transition to Net Zero and Beyond.”

I will quote excerpts from the presentations of two panellists, Dr. Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, and Mr. Mathieu Johnson, Vice President for Strategy and Development at Hydro-Québec.

Dr. Birol provided a snapshot of some of the indicators and the trends of the global transition to net-zero emissions. He said:

Energy is at the heart of the climate debate because more than 80% of the emissions causing climate change come from the energy sector, which means without fixing the problem in the energy sector, we have zero chance to reach our climate goals.

The most important sector in energy use is electricity generation. In 2023, of all power plants built in the world in that year, 85% were renewable, with about 5% nuclear and 10% powered by fossil fuels.

As for transportation, only 4 years ago, 1 in 25 cars sold in the world was electric. This year, it is expected that one out of five cars sold will be electric. In China, almost every second car sold today is electric.

Dr. Birol continued:

Our numbers show that this year, the total energy investments in oil and gas, renewables, nuclear, et cetera are about US$3 trillion. Of this, US$1 trillion is for fossil fuels, and US$2 trillion is for clean energy investments — with clean energy investments doubling in the last 10 years.

I notice a trend here.

Dr. Birol says there are three reasons for that:

One is simple economics — renewables are now cheaper compared to fossil fuel alternatives. Solar is the cheapest source of electricity generated in most of the world.

The second reason is energy security. Many governments . . . understand that clean energy is not just good for the environment . . . . Since it is usually generated locally, reliance on other countries —

— I will not name them —

— will be reduced, thus resulting in greater energy security.

The third reason for clean energy investment and fast clean energy transitions is industrial policy. Today when you look at clean energy manufacturing — solar panels, windmills, batteries, electrolyzers for hydrogen — there is one country dominating: China. This is not necessarily driven by climate policies, but by China’s industrial policy.

Dr. Birol illustrated how quickly the transition is moving and how industrial policy and global climate policy have come together.

Our panel discussion also looked at the real-world case of Hydro-Québec, the fourth-largest hydro producer in the world. Vice President Mathieu Johnson spoke of the scale and scope of the challenge his company faces in this transition.

I will share a few key excerpts. He said:

I’ll start by sharing with you what is keeping us up at night. Historically, what utilities have been doing when they do forecasts is they ask themselves what is going to happen by 2050 and then they do an action plan according to what they think is in their crystal ball. We at Hydro-Québec used to do that. But if we take this approach, we will not get to carbon neutrality by 2050 because we are asking ourselves the wrong question. It is not what is going to happen, but rather what needs to happen by 2050 in order to meet the targets that we set as a society, starting with the outcome and do the reverse engineering to identify what actions we need today. It might change. There is a lot of disruption. There are new technologies, so the plan will evolve.

We need to double the electricity produced in Quebec in order to be carbon neutral by 2050. We are going to have to build the same capacity in the next 25 years that it took us 80 years to build previously. That is the scale of the challenge.

There will be new hydro, and also we are going to rely on wind power in Quebec. Just in the next 10 years, we will need to cover an area equivalent to 15 times the area of the Island of Montreal with wind turbines. It is enormous. To connect the power to the consumer, we will require 5,000 new kilometres of transmission lines.

Currently, we’ve been investing on average $4 billion a year on capital expenditures. For the next 10 years, Hydro‑Québec will have to invest over $150 billion on capital expenditures.

The biggest challenge we —

— in this case Hydro-Québec —

— have is the workforce. If we don’t have the workers, we will not be able to spend all that money to build new assets in order to electrify. Even at our current rate of annual capital expenditure, we are experiencing serious labour shortages.

We estimate that we will need 35,000 employees just to work on our projects in Quebec over the next 10 years — at peak, it is going to be 20% of the current construction workforce that we have in Quebec.

We need to change the way we do things.

The recipe that we have been using for the last 80 years cannot be the recipe for success for the next 25 years.

Mr. Johnson particularly stressed the importance of forging a completely new kind of relationship with Indigenous partners.

The urgency that Senator Bellemare spoke of becomes immediately real when we listen to Hydro-Québec’s Vice President Mathieu Johnson’s telling of the scope, scale and pace of the challenges that this important utility faces. Dr. Birol echoed the same scope, scale and pace points on a global level.

Colleagues, Canada cannot afford to miss this boat. We even have a chance to captain some new boats in this significant and historic industrial and labour transition to a net-zero future.

Many countries are already further down the road — or should I say “stream,” to keep with the boat reference — in their efforts to keep the jobs, cut the carbon and build the future.

Honourable colleagues, let’s move Bill C-50, the Canadian sustainable jobs act, to committee for thorough study. Canadian workers need it. Canadian industry needs it. Our communities and regions need it.

Colleagues, Bill C-50 is one essential component of our plans to ensure a prosperous and sustainable future for generations to come here in Canada and globally. Let’s move it forward without delay.

Thank you, wela’lioq.