Industry leaders fight back against perception green energy hurts economic growth

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – BC has the reputation of being the greenest province in the country. But there is also a perception that clean energy growth hurts our economy.

As the annual BC Clean Energy Conference continues, industry leaders want you to know that going green doesn’t have to put the economy in the red.

“Everyone is concerned about jobs. No one is going to be able to instantly say we’re going to get off fossil fuels, but as we make the transition to more clean electrification, we’re going to see jobs added,” says Paul Kariya with Clean Energy BC.

Kariya says if BC meets clean energy targets by 2025 and 2050, it could mean thousands of new jobs.

“By 2025 for example, we could see 29,000 clean energy jobs. Now that’s not just in our sector, its research, its clean technology,” says Kariya. “In that whole clean space, [Clean Energy Canada’s] projection is that job growth could be quite significant. In fact BC could be a great leader if we make those targets.”

He adds they’re not advocating abandoning fossil fuels. “We’re demonstrating that we are a job generator. No one wants to hurt the economy. We’re saying that by working with us, by seeing us expand, by seeing the economy de-carbonize, to go from dirty fossil fuels, which still have their place, we’re not going to lose jobs to our economy.”

BC’s clean power sector produces renewable energy for more than a million and a half homes right now.

Moving away from oil-based energy altogether is a realistic goal, according to economist Dr. Gordon Laxer, founding director of the Parkland Institute in Edmonton, but he says there has been a lack of political will stretching back through a number of federal governments.

“You have to start building the new economy while phasing out the old one,” says Laxer, author of After the Sands: Energy and Ecological Security for Canadians. “But you have to figure out a transition — a phasing out — because you don’t want a sudden, abrupt change.”

He points out that the majority of jobs in the oil-sands sector are in construction. “You could take those construction workers and I’m sure they would be much happier living in their home communities retrofitting buildings, building LRT or building inter-city trains.”

But Laxer says governments have either been beholden to or frightened of the power big oil has over the Canadian economy.

“If big oil suddenly pulls out then there are all these jobs lost and it’s chaos for the economy,” he explains. “I think ordinary citizens have to start pushing the government because the government is going to be pushed back the other way by big oil and that kind of pushback has to be overcome.”