The Green Transition and Jobs



When Jack Layton called for a Carbon Tax he was soundly rebuffed. Now here we are ten years later. The fact is the NDP is always ahead of the curve in progressive thinking. Calls for a carbon tax or pharmacare or long term care reform are not the job destroying, unfair taxing chaos the reds and blues would have you think they are. Their big business buddies aren’t ready for change and so they stir up rhetoric that “sounds OK so it must be true.”

Some parties would have you think that a move to a green economy will chase jobs out of Canada. Malarkey. A 2017 OECD report states that “To the extent that it can be predicted, it does not appear that the transition towards green growth is likely to imply rates of labour reallocation or rates of change in job skill demands that are outside of historical experience . . . especially for medium and high skilled workers.”

So while the reds are 10 years behind where they ought to be and the blues are trying to push us even further back in time we want to launch the world’s most ambitious climate plan, creating 100,000 well-paying jobs in Ontario that you can raise a family on. The Green New Democratic Deal will invest in green manufacturing, implement a zero-emissions vehicle strategy with support for the auto sector, implement a large-scale job training program, become a leader in clean technology, and ensure that essential workers in the caring economy have financial security.

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