QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Labour
Just Transition
February 9, 2023
Minister O’Regan, welcome back to the Senate.
My question to you is related to your responsibilities as Minister of Labour and minister responsible for Newfoundland and Labrador, and it is about the energy transition. It is in two parts.
One is the just transition that we hear so much about. To be clear, the just transition — the front part of that is the phasing out of the oil and gas industry, which we’ve heard from your government. Can you tell us how that phasing out of the oil and gas industry is “just” for the Newfoundland and Labrador workers on all our offshore rigs and for all our onshore suppliers, who have gone through education to learn about their craft and get well paid and keep that money in their families and keep our communities alive and, in fact, fill the coffers of our province? That is the first part.
The second part relates to a comment from your cabinet colleague Associate Minister of Finance Randy Boissonnault, who said the cost of this will be $100 billion to $125 billion a year up until at least 2050.
Given that Canada has — that contributes to 1.5 —
Minister O’Regan.
It is about the emissions and the cost.
Well, that’s just it. It is. It’s all about the emissions, senator. That’s what it is about. All of it is about the emissions. I completely agree with you on that. I cannot stand the phrase “just transition.” I’ve said this for years. “Just transition” is a phrase that workers hate, and my constituents don’t like, and so I don’t like it either. We tried, anyway, within the bureaucracy and amongst ourselves to say the words, “sustainable jobs.”
This is not about phasing out the oil and gas industry. The oil and gas industry will be with us for quite some time, and I would argue proudly so. I am proud of what we have done in this country and what workers have accomplished in this country. Some 30, 40 years ago we asked workers in Saskatchewan and Alberta to figure out how to get oil out of sand, and, by God, they did it. We are the fourth-biggest producer of oil and gas in the world. That is a remarkable accomplishment.
As the senator well knows, out my way, Exxon Mobil has said there is no harsher environment in the world in which to extract oil than the North Atlantic of Newfoundland and Labrador. What we have managed to do — and I acknowledge this, senators — what we have managed to do as our government is sometimes — frequently — isolate the very people that we need to lower emissions and build up renewables, which is the workers of this industry.
My job is to make sure — I need more workers in the oil and gas industry, not less. We need more. We have a mission in this country because the world’s eyes are on us, because we have the natural resources and because we have the expertise to show that we can lower emissions, build up renewables, increase the prosperity of this country and not have it done on the backs of ratepayers. That’s our challenge.
Sorry, minister, your time has expired.
