Unions Should Go Big on a Green New Deal for Canada

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2018/12/10/Unions-Go-Big-Green-New-Deal-Canada/
Date Written:  2018-12-10
Publisher:  The Tyee
Year Published:  2018
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX23182

Canada's unions need to play a much larger leadership role on climate change, not just because it deals with economic policies directly affecting members but also because it will be difficult to get where we need to go without them.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

We Canadians talk a good game about moving to where the puck is going, but we sure don't act like it. If we did, then the $9-billion automaker bailout in 2009 would have looked different, insisting that automakers shift rapidly towards making low or no emission vehicles in Oshawa and other Canadian cities.

We recently followed that up with a $4.5-billion purchase of an old oil pipeline, doubling down on the dying internal combustion engine economy rather than helping Alberta's workers transition to what's next.

These large public expenditures show that Canadians governments are willing to spend big when there's a perceived crisis. That's good for temporarily protecting existing jobs and the families who depend on them, but unless it sets us up for where the puck is going, it's not good for creating and keeping new jobs, particularly when other countries - our competitors - are skating well ahead of us.