Braid disagrees with column, says ‘Just Transition’ is a win-win LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Editor,

So the right-wing Canadian Taxpayers Federation is warning us that the “Just Transition comes with big costs.” Like so many pro-oil voices on Canada’s rightwing fringe, our friends at the CTF seem to have the unfortunate habit of staring into the wrong end of the telescope. They’re expressing concern over the costs associated with the Just Transition, but those pale in comparison to the costs of not addressing Climate Change, which remains an existential threat. In the words of Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s Minister of Climate and the Environment, “think whatever you like, but this is going to change. Because the world is not going to commit collective suicide. And if we don’t decarbonize, that’s what we’re doing.” (Globe and Mail, February 17, 2023.)

Listening to the CTF and some of Canada’s Luddite Premiers, one could easily get the impression that continuing with the status quo is actually an option, when clearly it is not. In fact, the transition to a low-carbon economy is already underway. Sadly for this country, years of foot-dragging by useless politicians has left Canada scrambling to catch up. Like the Globe and Mail article states, “Norway already has the lowest perbarrel carbon emissions in the world among major producers,” whereas “Canada is highest.” With investors increasingly reluctant to fund carbon-intensive projects, Canada needs to start decarbonizing--and quickly.

What is profoundly ironic about this entire so-called

“debate” is that the major players in the Oil industry are already onside with decarbonization. The six companies forming the Pathways Alliance organization represent 95% of Canada’s Oil Sands production and they say they have a “plan to achieve our goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.” The feds are completely onside, as indicated by their recent introduction of a 50 percent investment tax credit. That move earned rare praise from the Albertabased Pembina Institute’s Jan Gorski, who recently stated, “this is an important signal from the federal government that, far from unfairly targeting the industry for punishment, it is willing to work with the sector to achieve decarbonization in a way producers themselves have identified as workable and non-damaging to their operations.”

Despite what the CTF might think, that sounds like a win-win! Andy Braid