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Instead of stepping up a coherent plan for coal workers, Hogan finds, bureaucrats and politicians have done nothing more than tinker with employment insurance
Author of the article:
Don Bride • Calgary Herald
Publication date:
April 27, 2022 • 50 minutes ago • 3 minutes ago • 9 comments FILE PHOTO: Coal removal equipment at the new Keephills 3 power plant in Wabamun, west of Edmonton, Alberta on August 24, 2011. Bruce Edwards / Edmonton Journal
Content of the article
Ottawa’s promised “fair transition” to a new, low-carbon economy is now being revealed as a useless scam.
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Miners in Alberta and Saskatchewan have been facing a transition for several years. But the federal government has done nothing to help them, and they don’t have a work plan to get started, despite many promises.
This is the conclusion of the federal chief auditor, who found that bureaucrats are sitting on their fat wallets, even when coal workers lose their jobs.
Coal mining is itself a canary down a dangerous mine.
Only about 331 coal mines remain in Alberta, which is less than more than 1,100 in 2017.
If Ottawa cannot manage the transition for this group, how will it cope with the thousands expected to leave oil and gas, as well as agriculture and even forestry due to federal emissions policy?
Maybe Alberta will look like Newfoundland and Labrador after the federal cessation of cod fishing in 1992-93.
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Auditor General Karen Hogan raised the case in her report on coal for a reason. This is a horrific example of the pain that federal incompetence can cause to citizens.
Some 37,000 people in Newfoundland and Labrador – 15 percent of the province’s workforce – lost their jobs after fishing closed.
But Ottawa had no idea what was coming. “We have found that the government is not prepared to deal with the effects of the moratorium,” said the chief auditor.
There were problems with the direction of relief payments, there were no clear legislatures and no political compromises as a result of a lack of understanding.
The result was a catastrophe. By 2000, the province’s population had shrunk by 10 percent.
Federal understanding seems just as vague today. Instead of stepping up a coherent plan for coal workers, Hogan found, bureaucrats and politicians have done nothing more than deal with employment insurance.
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She said: “We believe this is a significant missed opportunity, as the phasing out of coal is the first of several transitions to a low-carbon economy facing Canadian workers, communities and governments.
FILE PHOTO: Auditor General Karen Hogan is seen at a press conference after the presentation of the reports in Ottawa on Thursday, March 25, 2021. Photo by The Canadian Press
Turn on coal cod fishing and we will have a hint of the damage that this government of high dreams and low achievement can visit in Alberta, Saskatchewan, northern British Columbia and, of course, Newfoundland.
An excuse for the failure of coal is supposed to be the beginning of COVID-19. But many Canadians without federal salaries or pensions have been able to work productively through all of this. Why not the national government?
The Auditor General says: “We have come to the conclusion that Natural Resources Canada, working with Canada for Employment and Social Development and partners on behalf of the federal government, was not ready to support workers and their communities for a fair transition to a low-carbon economy.
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“Although the new legislation was planned for 2021, there was no federal implementation plan, no formal governance structure or no monitoring and reporting system.
There were commissions and studies, of course. Former Alberta Computer Minister Robin Campbell, now president of the Canadian Coal Association, has found those he has encountered completely ignorant.
“There was no one who knew anything about coal mining or coal generation,” he said. “No one understood the economics of the communities affected.”
The politician at the top of this pile is Natural Resources Secretary Jonathan Wilkinson.
Canadian Secretary of Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson. Photo by REUTERS / Blair Gable / File Photo
He was at work in February when Ottawa formally rejected the Energie Saguenay LNG project in Quebec. This had already been rejected by Quebec, but Ottawa had to accumulate only to show this special zeal.
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Saguenay would transport huge quantities of natural gas to Europe. The following month, Russia invaded Ukraine, threatening supplies.
Wilkinson soon rushed to reassure everyone that heroic Canada would produce more oil and gas for Europe.
The Liberals, with the NDP online, are piloting a major change in the shape of the Canadian economy. They promise programs and assistance of equal scale. But when there is real work to be done, they disappear.
So we are ruled by unfortunate hypocrisy.
Don Braid’s column appears regularly at the Herald.
Twitter: @DonBraid
Facebook: Don Bride’s Politics
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