Our friends at Iron & Earth are continuing their quest to help oil, gas and coal workers transition to work in the renewable energy industry.
Iron & Earth is a worker-led non-profit organization that launched out of Alberta in the spring of 2015 when oil prices began to plummet and lay-offs were rampant. The workers, including boiler makers, electricians, pipefitters and ironworkers, want to tackle climate change and unemployment through supporting green energy investments and retraining tradespeople for work in the renewable energy sector.
The group recently held a five-day training program through its Solar Skills campaign in the First Nation community of Louis Bull Tribe in Maskwacis, Alta.
“It’s a rapid intensive training program that is specifically designed to capitalize on really valuable skill sets that workers already have yet enable them to take on different work opportunities,” Iron & Earth’s Jen Turner told Global News.
Since 2016, Iron & Earth has publicly called on the federal government to provide renewable energy training for skilled but unemployed tradespeople.
New Brunswickers would benefit greatly from these opportunities, too.
This summer, The Green Economy Network released A Roadmap Toward 23,478 jobs for New Brunswick, part of its broader, Canada-wide initiative One Million Climate Jobs in Five Years: Green Buildings, Renewable Energy, and Public Transit.
Looking at the renewable energy sector alone, the network calculates that New Brunswick could get 10,019 tradespeople working over five years with a total public investment of $779 million in renewable energy. The investment would also lower the province’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by up 3.7 megatonnes.
The network calculates that an additional 10,950 jobs could be created over five years through a targeted public investment of $750 million in energy efficiency and conservation, dropping our annual GHG emissions by up to 0.6 megatonnes.