The Broadbent Institute is an independent, non-partisan organization championing progressive change through the promotion of democracy, equality, and sustainability and the training of a new generation of leaders.
Source: Time for a new government to deliver progressive change – Broadbent Institute
With the United Nations Climate Conference in Paris next month, the Broadbent Institute has published, in partnership with the Mowat Centre, Step Change: Federal Policy Ideas Toward a Low-Carbon Canada, which comes at a crucial time with a new federal government leading Canada’s delegation.
The report’s message is clear: The federal government has a critical role to play in driving down greenhouse gas emissions beyond carbon pricing alone. Getting behind the package of seven policy measures outlined in the report will signal to the international community the seriousness of Canada’s commitment to taking action to tackle the climate crisis and transition toward a low-carbon economy.
It starts with you. You can read the report here and share it with your networks.
Over the last few years, Canadian governments of different levels have taken first steps in the fight against climate change. With a new federal government in power and COP21 in Paris now on the horizon, Canada must calibrate its climate policies with a view to the long term. In addition to carbon pricing — a core policy idea that is gaining ground at the provincial and, increasingly, federal level — seven preliminary policy ideas can also help the federal government steer Canada toward a low-carbon economy:
1. Green Bank of Canada
A state-sponsored financial entity that promotes greater private-sector investment in the low-carbon economy through a variety of mechanisms, such as credit enhancements, guarantees, project aggregation and securitization.
2. Tax Code Retrofit
A suite of changes to the tax code in favour of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other sustainable technologies, supported by a phase-out of remaining fossil fuel subsidies.
3. Accelerated Coal Phase-Out
Amendment to the Reduction of Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Coal-Fired Generation of Electricity Regulations, to accelerate the phase-out of remaining coal-fired power plants.
4. Green Building Compact
A packaged suite of federal energy efficiency and renewables policies, including a revamp of codes and standards, a National Deep Retrofit Program, and a renewable heating program.
5. ‘Lead by Example’ Mandate
A suite of ambitious initiatives for federal facilities and institutions, including on heat and power, transportation, and institutional investing.
6. Clean Transportation Strategy
A packaged suite of policies pertaining to transportation, including a progressive Vehicle Emissions Tax, a Zero Emission Vehicle mandate, and a revamp of infrastructure spending and transfer criteria to include GHG goals.
7. Bio Strategy
A suite of policies promoting best practices in the agricultural and forestry sectors, from cross-compliance with existing funding programs to voluntary initiatives in farming practices.
Considerable work is still required to refine these ideas and bring them to fruition, from costing to consultation. At this stage, this document offers a blueprint for policymakers in their search for the next step changes in federal climate action.
Tue, 11/19/2013 – 10:06
Posted by Andrew Jackson http://www.broadbentinstitute.ca
Two major recent studies – from Derek Burleton and his colleagues at Toronto-Dominion Bank, and from former senior federal government official Cliff Halliwell published by the Institute for Research on Public Policy – provide excellent overviews of recent developments in the Canadian job market, and an informed framework for thinking about our future skills needs.
This message seems to have finally got through to the Harper government. In a speech to the Vancouver Chamber of Commerce on November 14, Employment and Skills Development Minister Jason Kenney told employers to stop complaining and to stop relying excessively upon temporary workers. Instead, he said, employers should “put more skin in the game” by increasing wages in high-demand occupations and by investing more in the training of Canadians.
The TD and IRPP studies provide balanced overviews of our future skill needs. Neither see generalized shortages as an acute danger, notwithstanding the pending (if increasingly delayed) retirement of the baby boom generation. Indeed, Mr. Halliwell says we should welcome a tighter job market, after years of stagnant real wages for most workers.
Graduates from our postsecondary education system, together with new immigrants, will more or less match job vacancies opening up due to the retirement of highly skilled workers. And employers can be expected to minimize shortages as they emerge by investing in capital and skills so as to raise productivity.
All that said, these studies note that we face some specific skills shortages today in a limited number of occupations and regions, and that some employers may face increasing difficulties finding workers with the right education and skills to fill available jobs in the future.
This can, however, be seen more as an opportunity than a curse, given the significant unemployment and underemployment of today, especially for youth, recent immigrants and aboriginals. The challenge is to invest in skills to increase access to good jobs for Canadians who want to get ahead, and thus to forestall future shortages that might lower our economic potential.
One set of policies that makes sense is to raise the education and skills level of marginalized groups and to ensure that unemployed workers, especially the long-term unemployed, have access to retraining. While Canada has one of the most educated work forces in the world, we have a relatively high proportion of workers with low literacy and numeracy levels, and many recent immigrants need help to upgrade their qualifications.
Programs delivered by the provinces with the support of the federal government address these issues to a degree, although spending is well below the industrial country average. Unfortunately, the federal government proposal to introduce the Canada Jobs Grant will shift some funds away from training the most marginalized workers and toward employer-sponsored training.
Mr. Halliwell argues that our current educational and labour market policies fail the significant proportion of the work force that leaves the educational system with less than a postsecondary qualification and finds relatively low-paying, less-skilled jobs. These workers tend to receive little or no employer training – and are excluded from current government programs.
He suggests that we think about “second chance” programs for this group, to improve their opportunities in the job market later in life and to help fill employer needs for skilled workers.
One option that Mr. Kenney might consider is to give more employed workers access to Employment Insurance (EI) benefits for training leaves, on the model of apprenticeship training. Apprentices qualify for EI benefits when they are away from their regular job for the classroom part of their program.
EI-supported training leaves would allow workers to take a community college or similar training programs – still at some considerable financial sacrifice to themselves, since benefits only replace up to 55 per cent of normal wages and since tuition costs would have to be paid.
Employers could contribute by making sure that a worker could return to the job from which she or he took a leave and, perhaps, by providing a supplementary income if the training program met the needs of their business.
EI-training leaves would empower individual workers to invest in their skills, and help create a higher-skilled work force for the future. Mr. Kenney might consider this option as an alternative to the proposed Canada Jobs Grant, which has won few supporters to date.
This article originally appeared on the Globe & Mail’s Economy Lab.
Photo: Cristiano Betta. Used under a Creative Commons BY 2.0 licence.
Andrew Phillip Chernoff 