Canada - Alberta Workers See Their Future. Denial Blocks the View. The province’s workers have a plan for the global energy transition. Premier Smith offers only fear and spin. 3 Sep 2023The Tyee Gil McGowan is the president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, representing 175,000 unionized Alberta workers from both the public and private sectors. Is it Premier Danielle Smith, who suggests that anyone who questions the future of oil and gas in the province is essentially betraying workers?Or is it people like me, the president of Alberta’s largest worker advocacy group, who say workers in our province would be better served if we  prepare ourselves for change instead of burying our heads in the sand? This became a public question last week when Premier Smith decided to release a letter that I had written to her, along with her four-page reply. My letter added the voices of the 175,000 unionized Alberta workers I represent to the growing chorus of individuals and groups calling on her United Conservative Party government to rescind their ill-advised six-month moratorium on renewable energy projects. In my letter, I argued that the moratorium is “undermining a thriving home-grown industry, killing jobs and turning our province into an investment pariah.” It’s basically the same point that’s being made forcefully by many of my fellow Albertans — including academics, media pundits, labour and municipal leaders, businesspeople and ordinary citizens. In fact, one think tank has suggested that the moratorium is jeopardizing 118 projects worth $33 billion — projects which could create as many as 24,000 jobs for Albertans. In her reply to my letter, Smith professed to being shocked that I was “cheerleading the demise of Alberta’s oil and gas industry.” Of course, I did nothing of the sort. I simply pointed out that many credible forecasting agencies foresee a time in the not-so-distant future when global demand for oil will plateau and start to decline. In particular, I shared a link to a recent study prepared by the Calgary-based Canada Energy Regulator (hardly a radical environmental group) which concludes that demand for oil produced in Alberta could collapse in coming years as the world scrambles to address climate change. Given that the oil and gas industry has been one of the main engines for economic activity and jobs creation in Alberta for decades, I argued that “our governments, and political leaders at all levels, owe a duty to the workers of this province to think deeply about the change that is rapidly unfolding around us and plan for it.” I then challenged her to answer the following question: “in an oil and gas producing jurisdiction like ours, where will our future jobs and prosperity come from as the world accelerates the process of moving away from fossil fuels?” Smith’s reply was telling: “Alberta has no intention of moving away from the energy industry.”.....read on    https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2023/09/03/Alberta-Workers-Future-Denial-Blocks-View/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=040923