May 28, 2009

Green Energy Act could create 90,000 “green” jobs, report concludes

RYAN BOLTON

correspondent

Ontario’s green sector could produce 90,000 well-paid jobs with energy investments under the province’s Green Energy Act (GEA), according to a recent report released by WWF-Canada, the Green Energy Act Alliance and Blue Green Canada.

By spending $47.1 billion over 10 years, the report concludes that about 90,000 “green-collar” jobs for positions including construction labourers, engineers, and sheet metal workers could be created annually in the province.

“It once again says what we have been thinking for quite a while, which is, the jobs of the future can actually be here in Ontario, they can actually produce environmentally-positive products and they can employ the people we have been representing,” said Bob Gallagher, head of communications at the United Steelworkers Canada, a member of Blue Green Canada.

“Building the Green Economy,” by Robert Pollin, the co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, concludes that for the job-creation targets to be met, eight green investment areas need to be included.

They are: conservation and energy efficiency, hydroelectric, onshore wind, offshore wind, bioenergy, waste-energy recycling, solar power and smart-grid development.

The report commends the province “for recognizing this opportunity and responding,” but urges the government to provide a more detailed framework within the recently-passed Green Energy Act.

The legislation is a good start, but the momentum can’t stop there, Gallagher warns.

“This basically allows for those 90,000 jobs to be created, but it doesn’t cause them to happen,” he said. He is calling for regulation to cement the possible creation of the green manufacturing jobs and to build a system of sustainability. Most of the possible jobs, the report added, would include a wide variety of positions in diverse industries and most would pay more than $20 an hour.

“The government has opened the door to a sustainable future for Ontario and we hope it takes this tremendous opportunity to get the most benefits possible for the people of Ontario,” said Dr. Rick Smith, Executive Director of Environmental Defence, a partner with the union in the alliance.

Gallagher noted that the steel industry is sometimes looked at as part of the cause of global warming and those who work in the industry wanted to show that producing steel can be environmentally-beneficial with the creation of wind turbines and other green forms of energy generation.

“We decided that we wanted to actually come into an alliance with environmental organizations to recognize that the challenges we face environmentally are also opportunities for us economically,” he said, in reference to joining Environmental Defence to form Blue Green Canada.

The partnership is now trying to create green manufacturing jobs and building strategies to battle climate change and reduce the use of toxic chemicals.

Manufacturers will be left behind if they don’t begin to implement green protocols and jobs, Gallagher says.

“The green job is really a blue-collared job that has a green product,” said Gallagher. “So you can have many people who produce steel either for a product that is wasteful or a wind turbine or for a solar cell.”

Ken Neumann, the national director for the United Steelworkers in Canada, maintains that the industry is ready for the green jobs, which will move both manufactures and the environment in the right direction.

“The members of our union are ready to produce the next generation of clean energy products and parts, such as steel for windmills and glass for solar panels,” said Neumann, in a press release.

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