Oil Executives Are Greater Threat To Canadian Jobs Than Climate Change Bill

A Commentary by Doug Draper

It was just this past November, when Canada’s un-elected Senate killed a climate change bill, that Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended the Senate’s actions. He called the bill to cut carbon emissions “completely irresponsible,” claiming it could throw hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of people out of work.”

Cowboy Stephen Harper rides shotgun for his tar sands gang.

Throw possibly millions of people out of work, Mr. Prime Minister? There are only 34 million people in the entire country, and a lot of us don’t have jobs now. It’s interesting how the same individuals – a number of them climate change skeptics or deniers – who keep saying there isn’t enough scientific evidence to show that human activity has something to do with the more severe shifts in weather we seem to be experiencing more frequently these days, are demanding that Harper back up his claim that millions of jobs might be lost with some evidence.

But hey Mr. Prime Minister, we don’t need to implement a plan for reducing carbon or greenhouse emissions to eliminate jobs cost jobs in the tar sands of Alberta and other sectors of the oil industry. Your corporate pals in the industry may take care of that with plans they are reportedly now considering for outsourcing possibly thousands of Canadian energy jobs overseas.

That’s right, according to a December 28 story in The Globe and Mail, corporate consulting firm Accenture is now working for a number of corporations involved in Canada’s tar sands on options for outsourcing thousands of jobs to India and other overseas places where, yes, of course, the work can be done cheaper. A link for a piece in the Canadian Business Journal, containing the information in The Globe story is provided at the end of this sentence for your information, and after you check that piece out return to Niagara At Large and read on – http://www.canadianbusinessjournal.ca/business_news/canadian_business_news/28_12_firm_says_thousands_of_oilsands_jobs_could_lea.html .

Canada's tar sands

Now I wonder if we are going to hear Harper getting just as upset about possible job losses in the oil industry on this outsourcing scheme as he did around his claim that addressing climate change could cost significant numbers of oil industry jobs? Or was he just pushing the job-losses button last November to justify his party’s lack of interest in addressing climate change and other environmental issues?

Whatever the answer, what Canadians are left with now is a federal government that has no real plan to address climate change or move to greener energy alternatives, while its friends in the oil industry make plans to ship thousands of decent-paying Canadian jobs overseas.

(Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to our greater binational Niagara region.)