The Canadian government is moving to establish a promised sustainable jobs secretariat and associated advisory council, meant to guide a labour strategy for wide-scale decarbonization. Minister of Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson has tabled proposed legislation to enable both bodies, and to ensure the government will continue to devote resources toward training, skills development and matching the workforce to employers’ and the wider economy’s evolving needs.

“Workers will lead our energy transition,” maintains Seamus O’Regan, Canada’s Minister of Labour. “It’s workers who know how to build up renewables and lower emissions. We need them. We need more of them.”

Bill C-50, the Canadian Sustainable Job Act, would begin to implement measures outlined in an action plan released earlier this year. As envisioned, the sustainable jobs secretariat will be a new stream under the existing Union Training and Innovation Program along with a new training centre. It will provide “a one-stop shop for workers and employers and provide the most up to date information on federal programs, funding and services across government departments” and will take the lead in negotiating policies and programs with provincial/territorial governments.

The sustainable jobs partnership council is to be comprised of stakeholders representing government, employers and workers, including industry organizations and labour unions. It will consult nationwide and provide advice to the government.

“Canada’s Building Trades Unions are pleased that this government is conducting meaningful consultation with labour on the transition to net zero,” says Sean Strickland, executive director of the umbrella group, which represents 14 international unions encompassing more than 500,000 workers in more than 60 different trades and occupations. “We have, and will continue to work closely with the government on this important legislation because workers must be at the forefront of the transition to net zero, one of the greatest economic transformations of our time.”