Jean: Alberta government has never been invited to 'just transition' discussions

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Last week, Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan claimed in a Herald column that the government of Alberta has been missing out on intergovernmental talks on the “just transition.” As the minister responsible for employment training and Alberta’s workers, allow me to set the record straight.

Our government has never rejected an invitation to sit down with the federal government and discuss proposals for just transition. There has never been such an invitation. When the just transition discussion paper was released in 2021, it promised meaningful consultation and round tables with impacted groups and provincial governments. No meaningful consultation has happened.

There was one introductory round table meeting with select, invite-only industry groups, environmental groups, unions and Indigenous nations, but provincial governments were not invited to attend.

Federal ministers continue to promise that there will be “regional round tables” with the provinces to discuss Trudeau’s just transition proposals, but so far there have been no meetings and it does not appear that any are being planned.

Of course, just because elected politicians aren’t invited to meetings doesn’t mean that government officials can’t be making progress behind the scenes. But that is not happening either. It is not just that neither I nor my colleagues were invited to take part in any conversations with the federal government. Our department officials also have not received any invitations or proposals from their federal counterparts.

This problem is not unique to Alberta. Conversations with other provinces show that the federal government hasn’t included provincial governments in conversations on its just transition plans, despite information in leaked memos that suggest those plans will be disastrous for Canada and especially Alberta.

McGowan said that Premier Danielle Smith’s request to the prime minister for a face-to-face meeting to discuss this federal overreach made his “head explode.” He claims a table has been set and that he has been consulted often. Maybe he can tell Albertans what the Trudeau government is planning, because so far they aren’t talking to anyone else, except in the broadest of generalities.

But there’s a history of generalities and platitudes from proponents of the just transition. McGowan was part of a panel that advised Rachel Notley’s and Trudeau’s Just Transition 1.0, the Canada Coal Transition Initiative. They claimed it was supposed to help Alberta coal workers who lost their jobs when Notley rapidly ended coal-fired electricity. Let me be blunt: coal workers and their communities did not get a “just transition” off of coal.

Impacted coal workers and impacted communities did not get the federal help they were promised. Of the roughly $28 million that Trudeau set aside to help Alberta coal workers about two-thirds —almost $18 million — was used to pave a highway in an NDP riding. Actual retraining of coal workers was minimal and that leaked briefing note advised the federal minister to talk about employment insurance if asked what the Trudeau government had done for coal workers.

As an Albertan, I find this offensive. As the elected representative for many workers and families who will be massively impacted by the just transition, I am deeply disappointed. As the minister responsible for worker training, I am frustrated.

Albertans deserve more than generalities and platitudes.

If McGowan really wants to speak up for Alberta workers, it’s time for him to join all of Canada’s provinces in demanding that Trudeau live up to his commitments to supporting employment training through the Labour Market Transfer Agreements.

Right now, the Trudeau government is holding hostage over half a billion dollars that the provinces and territories were supposed to get in LMTA funds for 2023-24 — Alberta’s share is almost $80 million. These funds would support made-in-Alberta training programs that could make a difference for workers and our economy. Alberta knows better than Ottawa what types of training Alberta workers need.

Your UCP government will be there to fight what we believe is an unjust transition Trudeau has planned for Albertans. We will keep pushing to have decisions that impact Albertans made in Alberta. We don’t believe that platitudes are consultation. When there are actual proposals, as the premier has stated, we will be happy to come to the table and discuss them.

Brian Jean is Alberta’s minister of jobs, economy and northern development.