Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Saturday, December 01, 2012

Federal investment in clean energy would create 20,000 new jobs

If the federal government invested the $1.3 billion it gives the oil and gas industry annually in subsidies into clean energy, the cash injection would create nearly 20,000 new jobs across Canada, according to a report by an organization of unions and environmental groups.

Blue Green Canada hopes the report, to be released Thursday morning, will spark a serious discussion about a national green energy strategy going into the 2013 budget, said Mark Rowlinson, United Steelworkers assistant to the national director and president of Blue Green Canada.

“If you look at the federal government’s own economic reports, it’s becoming increasing tied to oil and gas exports,” he said. “We’re on this sort of natural resource roller-coaster.”

Discussion about how we equalize the effects of being so dependant on oil and gas need to happen with a focus on a green energy economy, he added.

“We understand that fossil fuel jobs are going to be here for some time, but we think a viable way to create good-paying manufacturing jobs across Canada is to invest in clean energy.”

The debate over oil and gas dependency centres around anti or pro environment, however, the discussion needs to be more about job creation in industries hit hard by soaring fuel prices, said Dave Coles, national president of the Communication, Energy and Paperworkers Union.

“Workers are being really left out of the national discussion,” he said. “It’s about profits and the economy, but there really hasn’t been any discussion around workers and jobs and this is problematic.”

Since 2006, more than 500,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost due to a strong Canadian dollar linked to oil and gas development.

“The current strategy of focusing on oil as our only economic driver, that’s where the federal government is wrong-headed,” said Gillian McEachern of Environmental Defense. “We have opportunity to create jobs on other industries.

“Yes, we’re going to continue to use oil for some time, but it’s the wrong direction to double down and invest in a rapid expansion in one industry, when instead we could be shifting to cleaner, less polluting sources.”

In 2011, $280 billion was invested in renewable energy globally, more than five times the amount spent in 2004, and the report argues Canada is missing the boat on tackling energy issues and climate change. Canada’s 2009 stimulus spending on clean energy was less than Saudi Arabia, China, Australia, France and the United States.

The sector is growing rapidly globally, McEachern added, “and we’re going to need to catch up with that at some point.”

Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Andrew Livingstone 

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