More Green Jobs in Ontario, Labor Groups Declare
By The Skilled Worker
John Cartwright looks to the other side of the 49th Parallel and sees a greener, better place for skilled workers. What the Toronto union leader wants is what America has got. In Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, the economy is sinking because of the loss of manufacturing and automotive jobs. With those positions outsourced overseas or lost altogether because of the recessionary times, workers are searching for new industries for employment.
Cartwright thinks Ontario should follow the lead of California and other U.S. states in aggressively promoting the creation of green jobs. The same economic factors that hinder parts of Canada leveled traditional manufacturing centers in the United States, but that country is developing new industries to replace lost wages.
A recent report co-produced by Cartwright’s group, the Toronto and York Region Labour Council, advocated a similar push to reinvigorate the lagging Ontario economy with “green-collar jobs”. Entitled “Work Isn’t Working for Ontario Families”, the 27-page report was presented to Ontario politicians by Campaign 2000, a national non-poverty group, the Canadian Labour Congress and Cartwright’s organization on Monday.
“In the United States, cross-sectoral coalitions … are working to create jobs and renew the manufacturing sector by focusing on green economic opportunities,” the report says.
The three promoters of the paper think the economic downturn caused by the loss of 205,000 Ontario manufacturing jobs between 2002-07 can be alleviated with government incentives for industries. The develop of environmentally conscious projects that require skilled workers to perform such tasks as installing solar panels and building more sustainable housing complexes can get people back onto payrolls fast.
“Green-collar jobs download Nightmare Man – manufacturing for the developing global green economy – can replace disappearing blue-collar work,” Anne Decter of Campaign 2000 told reporters. “American Great Lakes states are fostering alliances between environmentalists, labor and green innovators to rejuvenate abandoned manufacturing capacity. This is a direction Ontario can take as well.”
The international growth of green jobs continues to be a hot trend in the construction industry. At this week’s meeting of leading industrialized nations in Japan, labor and environmental policies were linked for the first time by the Group of Eight. In a joint statement, the G8 said the need for green-job stimulation is so great that not to pursue it “would entail catastrophic consequences for human society, the global economy, and prospects for sustainable jobs.”
The G8’s stance backs up the case for more green ventures in Ontario.
PHOTO: Toronto and surrounding areas can benefit from government incentives that promote green-collar jobs.
Tags: anne decter, automotive jobs, blue-collar jobs, green jobs, green-collar jobs, group of eight, john cartwright, manufacturing jobs, ontario, skilled workers, solar panels
