 Welcome everybody. Thank you so much for joining us today for the Just Transition Act Town Hall. It's pretty awesome. We've already got almost 300 people in the room and over 900 have registered. We might hit our maximum limit of 1000 and have to go to our overflow room that we haven't we haven't hit that problem yet. Before we begin, we'll just take a minute for folks to join probably another minute or two before we get going. There's always more people who are three and four minutes into the meeting. So welcome. Maybe if you've got access to the chat, you can type in there where you are joining us from. People from Ontario, Coast Salish territory, a bunch of people from BC, Southern Territory, Winnipeg. Great to see everyone joining from across the country. Super wonderful. So welcome to the Just Transition Act Town Hall. My name is Anna Keenan and I'm the Global Digital Organising Manager at 350.org. I'm living on Epicwit, which is also known by the colonial name of Prince Edward Island. Epicwit translates to cradle in the waves and it's one of the seven territories of McMarky in Atlantic Canada. It's part of the unceded territory of the McMark people, and it's governed by the peace and friendship treaties and we're all treaty people. So we want to begin by acknowledging that all across Canada from wherever we're joining all across Turtle Island that we are living on unceded Indigenous territory and that our work for climate justice begins with recognizing and respecting Indigenous rights. I'm going to pass to my co-host Amara to introduce herself. Hi everyone, I'm Amara. I manage Canada campaigns at 350.org. I live in Toronto, which is part of Treaty 13 and also part of Dish with One Spoon Territory, which was a treaty between the Anishinaabe, the Mississaugas, and the Haudenosaunee that found them to share the territory and protect the land. So we're similarly here in a spirit of peace and friendship and respect. Today we are joined by a few special guests. So you can see their pictures on the next slide. Cam a second. So we're joined by Clayton Thomas-Mueller who's a campaigner at 350. He's going to be welcoming us. I'm joined by Elizabeth May who is the parliamentary leader for the Green Party and Laurel Collins who is the critic for environment and climate change with the NDP. We also invited Minister Wilkinson to join us, but he declined. He said that he had a prior commitment and when we asked what his prior commitment was at this time and what a better time might be his staff didn't respond. So we've we've asked for a statement from his office on the state of his promise to deliver the Just Transition Act and we haven't heard anything yet. It is, however, notable that he is very loudly promoting the fact that he's speaking at an event this week with bankers and CEOs and fossil fuel lobbyists. And he can't make time for us. Nonetheless, just in case the minister or his staff are listening in, we want to make it very clear that we are more than willing to host another town hall with him. And our Canada team lead, Cam Fenton is eagerly awaiting to hear from his chief of staff about another possible event. Clay, before I go into an overview of what to expect today. And can I can I pass it over to you. Absolutely. Thank you for that awesome overview. And I look forward to the rest of it. Hi everybody. Tonsay. I'm a member of the 350 Canada team, and I'm from Puget of Wagon Cree Nation treaty six territory however I live here in Winnipeg treaty one territory and home of the mighty Métis nation. In my hand I I've got a little just a little tiny bit of tobacco, so that we can set some intention today to share a bit of Cree culture with all of you. Hello to all or my fellow indigenous people that are on the call. I'm going to burn this tobacco with the prayer that I say so that things go well, and that we're all here to learn from one another in a good way, but our hearts minds and spirits together in a good way. And then that'll happen. And I'd like to take time to acknowledge Green Party parliamentary leader Elizabeth may very dear friend. And of course, NDP environment critic Laurel Collins and I want to thank you so much for taking time today to be a part of today's town hall. And in light of a Minister of Environment Wilkinson choosing to not come and to attend a meeting later this week sponsored by big oil. I want to share a few words from my Cree sister, Malina Lubicon Massimo. She's worked on just transition in indigenous communities for the past number of years, and build a 20.8 kilowatts solar project that powers the health center in her home reserve. Little Buffalo in Lubicon Cree territory, which of course is located in the midst of the Alberta tar sands. She founded an organization called solar. Which builds renewable energy and indigenous communities and she wanted to share with everybody today. She sends a regret she wasn't able to make it. But she says that a just transition means communities are no longer sacrifice zones a just transition to her is when our communities are no longer economic hostages and we have a choice in our present and future, and that we have agency and we are the creators of our own destinies. We need to see robust renewable energy policies that help communities transition to a clean economy locally, provincially and federally. She goes on to say quite a bit more, but in conclusion just in light of timing. She shares that a just transition means that we no longer put the impacts to our land and water out of sight or out of mind, and that we can no longer hide the devastation of sacrifice zones to what wider society. Just a quick prayer. Thank you so much for bringing us all together here in a good way today. And I asked ancestors to be with us in a good way that we can all share and have a good important conversation about the just trying to snack and, you know, when is it going to show up and help people in these lands that they call Canada. So after this prayer in a good way that you wash away any stress or distractions or negativity or anything like that. And I burn this tobacco to the foresaker directions and ask for that prayer. And of course, good blessings to everybody's families and all your lands and waters in your territory so I'll pass it back to Amara and and yeah, go ahead Amara. Anna. And yeah just while it can pulls up the agenda slide. Clayton I want to say thank you so much for grounding us in the reason that we're convening today the reason that we're gathering. I know I speak for all of us when I say we're grateful for all the work that you've done over the past many years in support of a just transition. Maybe if we could go to the next slide. I'll give you an overview of what to expect today and then Anna is going to take you through some of the, the more technical pieces around how we'll be going through this event together. So thank you again to clay for opening the space today, and I and I are going to give you a little bit of an overview of what the Just Transition Act is and then we'll have our discussion with Elizabeth and Laurel. And then we'll have an open q amp a so thank you to everyone who has sent in questions in advance, and I will go through how you can keep sending those in and we have a team of people who are curating the questions to that we're able to ask as many of them as possible and then near the top of the hour will close and move into next steps. Good thanks Amara. So where I'm sure that everyone is quite familiar after the coven year with how zoom works at this point but just a quick note on tech is that because this is a mass meeting we've muted everybody except the speakers. If you have any questions or comments or concerns, you can do that using the chat feature and 350 organizers will be there in the chat to respond to you if you're having tech issues. If you private chat at me or Amara we probably won't be able to read it so do post sort of to everybody in the chat or you can see who the other co hosts are in the in the participant list. And if you've got any questions for our special guests you can also put them in the chat and we're going to try to get to as many as we can in the q amp a. In the interest of time we're going to be moderating the q amp a and we're asking most of the questions. And we may identify some opportunities to hear directly from the audience will if we can't get to all of the questions we will be prioritizing, you know, according to the things that are most often coming up in the chat. So I think Amara you were going to provide a brief overview of the just transition act kick us off. Thank you. Okay, so before we hear from our special guests and get into the q amp a we wanted to provide an overview of the just transition act. In the 2019 election, shortly after attending the massive climate strike in Montreal Prime Minister Trudeau promised to introduce a just transition act. And this is a direct quote, ensuring that workers have access to the training and support they need to succeed in the new clean economy. So then, in early 2020, Trudeau's environment minister, environmental climate change minister Wilkinson said that passing the act would be among his top priorities which is why we were so eager to hear from him today because he built on the Prime Minister's promise and said that this would be one of his top priorities. But since then, there has been pin drop silence there's been absolutely no update on the just transition act, even during a severed job loss crisis that was driven by the global pandemic. So, meanwhile, with the cancellation of Keystone Excel and the federal government's own models that show Tarsens expansion process projects like the trends mountain pipeline are at odds with Canada's climate commitments. It's clear that the end of the fossil fuel era is accelerating and people are looking for answers on what are we going to do about a just transition. They can't keep waiting for help with the transition they need action now, and that's why people across the country are speaking up and calling on Trudeau and Wilkinson to keep their promises to workers and to legislate the just transition act. Over 12,000 people have signed the petition calling for a just transition act that would create millions of good green jobs, retrain workers in the oil and gas sector and support communities with the transition away from fossil fuels. When we finally do see this legislation, it needs to be fair and equitable and put people first, especially people workers and communities most impacted by the fossil fuel economy, putting a just transition into law is just one step on the road to a full scale made in Canada, Green New Deal. With that, as the basis and the background of why we as 350 are hosting this event, we're ready to pass the mic over to the federal leaders who joined us today. We're going to begin with Elizabeth May, parliamentary leader for the federal Green Party. And can you please kick us off, Elizabeth, with your quick reaction about what you've just heard on the Just Transition Act. We've got two minutes to speak, and I am going to interrupt her if she goes over time. And then, if we keep the opening remarks brief then we've got more time to get to audience questions later on. Yeah, so, and I want to start by acknowledging the territory that I'm on I'm speaking to you from with so much territory here on Southern Vancouver Island, and in the language of this territory, hushka hushka cm. Welcome and greetings and respect to all of you. I'm actually going to not give a reaction to what I've just heard I'm going to go back into a deep dive into where Just Transition Act comes from, and how it relates to the Paris Agreement. I still have, I do this, I don't know if you have something like it's just a messed up copy of the Paris Agreement various drafts. So I can say for sure that in the Wednesday December 9 draft of the Paris Agreement, just transition was not mentioned, but by the Friday December 11 version it's embedded in the act in our agreement the Paris Agreement says that one of the goals is to ensure a just transition of the workforce creation of decent work and quality jobs. Now where does that land. It definitely was, as you just heard from Amara, one of the things Trudeau said in the election. It is, it appears last that we can track it in the mandate letters that were sent to three ministers Jonathan Wilkins is not one of them. So it's a mandate to the Minister of Employment Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, that's Carla Qualtrough, to the Minister of Labor for Lamee Natasi, and to Seamus O'Regan Minister of Natural Resources. So where has it gone. It's absolutely essential. You cannot possibly talk about what we need to do to hold to 1.5 degrees without saying we have to move off fossil fuels very very quickly. Speaking of canceling pipelines. I'm just realized this morning it's getting close to the third anniversary of my arrest at the Kinder Morgan pipeline, and God bless the people who are still tree sitting and trying to stop it, because it needs to be stopped. But we can't be shutting down fossil fuels without climate justice, which also made its way into the Paris Agreement between Wednesday and Friday. And that means ensuring every worker in the fossil fuel sector has a job guarantee. Thank you very much Elizabeth. I was just turning off my timer under time. Thanks Elizabeth. And so yeah now we're going to go to Laurel Collins the NDP environment and climate change critic. Laurel what do you have to say about a just transition act. Yeah, first of all, thanks so much and I'm joining from the homelands of the Laquangan speaking peoples a song he's in a squimalt first nations and I just want to first thank Clay for his words for sharing Malina's words and just for grounding us in this conversation in the acknowledgement of the land we're on on the ongoing colonization and our commitment to fighting in solidarity with indigenous communities fighting for the rights. And when we're talking about the just transition act. It has to be grounded in a respect for indigenous rights and sovereignty. And also, a piece of this conversation that's often left out is the importance of looking at how indigenous workers, racialized workers workers communities of color are included in this there's a really great CCPA report that talks about who's included in the just transition, and that we have to have specific proactive policies that promote workforce diversification and share investments fairly. Otherwise we're going to just repeat the same kind of policies that have historically disadvantaged groups in the labor market. And so I hope we can maybe touch on that and in more of our discussions. But as Elizabeth laid out really clearly the Liberals promised a just transition act in the last election. And it was in a number of many letters year and a half later there's really no sign of it. I've been up in the house talking about just transition many times so has Elizabeth, but guess how many times Minister Wilkinson has mentioned the words just the words just transition. Zero. And when we pushed his office and really demanded, you know, where is this why is it not moving forward. They said that oh it's actually a responsibility of the Ministry of Natural Resources. How many times has Mr. O'Regan mentioned just transition in Parliament. Zero times. And so I am sad to say that it looks like the Liberals are treating this commitment, much like they treated their commitment on electoral reform on Universal Pharmacare on national childcare. And the idea that COVID is a reason for delaying this is absolutely ludicrous. You know, we are investing billions of dollars in stimulus and support, and the pandemic is not an excuse for delay. It's actually a reason why we need this now more than ever. Thank you. Great. So let's dive into questions we're ready to start taking questions from the audience so please throw your questions into the chat. Some of you have already sent us your questions. And, and we're sorting through them we're going to get started with the big one. So, why has there been a huge delay around the just transition, the sorry the just transition act, when it was promised as a top priority. Laurel do you want to start us off. We've seen the kind of pushback from the conservatives whenever the words just transition are mentioned and they've been kind of framing it as if this is somehow going to be detrimental to workers that the idea of transitioning away from fossil fuels is somehow a threat to those workers rather than an opportunity and I think, despite the liberals saying that they see that opportunity of transition to a low carbon economy. In practice, that's not the case they supported Keystone Excel, they bought the Trans Mountain pipeline. They wanted to move forward with tech, tech mine, they again and again and again may say the words make the promises around a just transition around climate action but the their actions don't actually match those words. Thanks, and Elizabeth, do you want to jump in. Yeah, and, and I also I recognize that I go through the participant lists and see, you know I could say hi to a whole bunch of friends but one that I want to mention is Lois Corbett, who's on one of his joined us as a as an observer participant one of the 421. I would like to co-chair with Hassan Youssef from the Canadian Labor Congress for a really groundbreaking piece of work that the previous Minister of Environment Catherine McKenna mandated and it's it forms the basis will certainly for Green Party policy around just transition. It was a task force looking specifically at coal sector workers. What would just transition look like and it established some foundational principles. What we have foundational principles the next step was yet the just transition act. We know how to deal so they got started a bit and as I mentioned the mandate letters say they're going to do it but it's not in the speech from the throne. It's not in the fall economic statement. So it is like other things that Laurel mentioned quickly disappeared, but I don't think it's gone for good we cannot get to climate justice without social justice we cannot get to climate justice and going off fossil without attention to the workforce and I'm, although I represent Southern Vancouver Island. In Parliament, I'm from Cape Breton and I sure remember what happened when 30,000 fishermen and fish plant workers lost their jobs overnight from one of the largest ecological disasters. Well, we certainly have money more to come, unless we arrest fossil fuel use. I never want to see a workforce pretty like that again. The workers from the asbestos mines in Quebec also represented time that because of government policy, I mean the case of the cod fishery. It was government policy but it was negligence and mismanagement. In the case of Quebec shutting down the asbestos industry was the right thing to do and brave of Pauline Marois, but they didn't get transition right they tried, but they didn't get it right. We have a chance to get this right and it's really a priority. So a beautiful segue to the next question this was submitted in advance by David in Hamilton, and that is what should legislation to ensure a just transition for workers in the fossil fuel industry look like so there's been examples of where it's been done badly. We've been working from Atlantic Canada where the cod fishery collapse, you know, still resonates years and years later. We've also recently seen a pulp mill closure that had, you know, a lot of, like there was a decent package in place for that just transition to happen. So, in your mind, what are those elements to ensure a just transition for fossil fuel workers that need to be in the legislation. Well I'm going to return to the coal sector worker strategy which which was when I look at what happened and I remember living through it for the cod fishery. They had a program called tags which was specifically to each Fisher person to be able to access some money and it had insulting slogans like trade the fishnet for the internet you're going to tell somebody who's 55 years old and has grade three, but they're going to trade the fishnet for the internet and this is going to be a livelihood for them. One of the first principles that came out of the fossil fuel sector coal sector worker strategy was consult. Talk to the community, work with the community, ask a community not individual workers alone, what, what are you going to need to get through this, because we want you getting through it whole. We want you to get through it with your roof over your head you don't want your, your kids where they're not going to be able to go to university, because you as a 55 year old pipe fitter can't work there anymore. You've got a lot of transferable skills in the in the fossil fuel sector, you're going to be building going to be putting up windmills, they're going to be doing geothermal. If you're a well trigger digger and Driller, you can be drilling for geothermal or in setting down the abandoned wells, there's 100,000 abandoned wells in Alberta, approximately 10% of them have heat at depth to produce geothermal electricity, which is really renewable and really clean. Those jobs and transferable skills need to have a framework around them. So the workers and the communities that they support know they're going to get through it okay which means starting now for shutting down the oil sands by 2030 just as an example. Thank you I'll pass that one to Laurel as well if there's anything you'd like to add. You know, when we're talking about a just transition, it has to include income supports it has to include kind of a safety net to ensure that in our employment, we know that AI is not working for many people we saw that in the pandemic. We need to make sure there are income supports for folks who are losing their jobs already. We need to make sure the support is available to workers regardless of their immigration status, you know, as well as, you know, you know, migrant undocumented workers. We also need to make sure that we are retraining workers and have massive investments in retraining programs. Just a quick shout out to someone on the call here my colleague MP, Taylor back rack who is our critic for transportation infrastructure and we've worked a lot on what, you know, ambitious, just and sustainable recovery would look like what we need to invest to create the jobs in retrofits and transit in, you know, all these different kinds of energy efficiency technology healthcare renewable energy. And we also need to make sure that the programs that we put in place and Elizabeth mentioned the orphaned wells, you know, this is the kind of opportunity where we could create really good jobs but it requires us to have targeted policies that are tied to regulatory changes are not actually just going to subsidize the fossil fuel industry. We're seeing this already in Alberta where Jason Kenny is not adhering to this kind of idea that the polluter pays that the public is left with all of these liabilities. And so we need to have smart policies, ones that are going to take care of workers. And, and really, I think I just want to echo Elizabeth's words that, you know, this has fallen off. I think the liberals agenda, but it's not too late to really mobilize to put it back on. And we would love to, you know, make sure that we have a huge concerted push for the upcoming budget to make sure the liberals put this back on the agenda it is vitally important. Thanks. And yeah, this question feels a bit related so I'll ask it now Steven is asking in the chat that the, the right seems to be capturing workers by scaring them around job losses is what can we do to counteract that that fear. I just, I'll jump, you know, the iron and earth and the really good groups of oil sector workers who are championing the better jobs that they're finding in renewables really are the best voices. I mean, it's, it's appalling to me that, that, that anybody in parliament we hear this quite a lot that, you know, that I was jubilant when Keystone was canceled and I've been slammed badly. I wasn't cheering that people's jobs were lost. I was cheering that my children and grandchildren might have a future. I don't want to see any worker or community that's now dependent on fossil fuels left twisting in the wind wondering where their future is the divide and conquer approach of any kind of wedge style politics is really very anti democratic and it, and, and appealing to people's fears is what politicians like Trump did and do. We have to avoid that and we have to go way out of our way as climate activists to make it clear that our priority is to ensure that workers in the fossil fuel sector are not left. That is not acceptable. That is not just. Yeah, echoing much of that and I also I want to make sure that we expand this conversation, you know when I hear conservatives talk about how they are the ones representing workers. And I do think that in, in many ways, we've seen it in terms of electoral politics in Alberta and Saskatchewan absolutely we have a lot of conservative MPs. But the workers in those industries, what they care about is ensuring that they have a livelihood for their families. What they care about is really making sure that they can take care of themselves and they're not going to be left behind in this transition. And so this kind of just transition act is one of the reasons why it's so vitally important, but we also need to be thinking about workers in a variety of sectors not specifically just working in oil and gas, you know, auto sector workers are being left behind as we transition to electric vehicles. There are a ton of sectors that we need to make sure are actually included in this kind of just transition plan. And I've spoken to a number of liberals in committee and in parliament, and really I think they have put a narrow focus really on oil and gas. But we need to make sure that this conversation is expanded to have a just transition for everyone moving to a low carbon economy. Because I meant to mention earlier but I only had that first two minutes. The success in getting just transition embedded in the Paris agreement is Canada's success. That was the fight on this was led in the COP at COP 21 by trade union representation from Canada. It was CLC and COPW and the Toronto District Labor Council that did the heavy lifting in twisting the arms to get the text to change. So again, if we're looking at how do we how do we counteract the right wing saying that they only care about jobs. Where were they, when the oil sands decided that they could create higher levels of profits through artificial intelligence and driverless trucks. They have been steadily reducing by 10s of thousands of jobs in the oil sands through efficiencies and didn't hear Jason Kenny screaming about that. I'm going to go to the next question now so this one's coming from Carrie who submitted this from Luskville. And she's been asking how best can individuals faith communities and civil society apply the pressure necessary to ensure that government is responding with the level of ambition that's necessary to address the climate emergency. I think, you know, we've, those of us in this room would recognize climate as an emergency. And yet, there always seems to be other priorities that jump in front of it so what's your advice for how individuals faith communities and civil society can apply that pressure. I just want to first acknowledge the work that's already been done. You know, I just, I've seen the letters being written the mobilizations the these groups are out marching in the streets along with youth. And so the things that you've already been doing, they, that is why this conversation is happening this is why we can even really have a conversation about that they promised a just transition act is because of the mobilization that's happened so please, keep writing letters, keep marching in the streets, keep actually contacting and setting up individual meetings with your members of parliament, especially if you happen to be in a writing where there is a liberal member of parliament please reach out to that member, meet with them one on one, tell them about your concerns tell them about the importance of just transition about climate action. That actually makes a difference. And so just want to encourage you to keep doing what you're doing and do more if you can. I would say that we have to raise hell. We've been way too quiet, we've been, I was just on discussions about the TMX pipeline with some recently with some wonderful people with transition salt spring and realizing it's almost as if we turn the page on stopping the transmount pipeline wait a minute. That is still there. That is still a fight we have to make. We should not be accepting that somehow we bought it. Right. So we talk about Anna with this is weird, we agree it's a climate emergency parliament voted a motion. June 18 2019 that we're in a climate emergency and the next day Trudeau committed to going ahead and building the transmount pipeline with public funds up to we're now up to $17 billion in public funds committed to a climate killing pipeline that violates indigenous rights of many nations along the route. We have to actually talk about the fact that C 12 is a farce. The idea that that's a climate accountability. It says the first milestone year is 2030. If, if you understand the IPCC report on 1.5 degrees, you know that 2030 is after the window closes on being able to hold to 1.5 degrees, and we must hold to 1.5 degrees, that's the Paris commitment. If we miss that we're running and I think I'm preaching to the converted here you all know this, we're running the risk of runaway global warming loss of permafrost permafrost thoughts slowing our ocean currents are already the indicator lights on the dashboard that were past emergency. We're at the point that we are on the on the verge. We're not there yet we've still got hot time. We've got hope, but we do not have hope if we buy into the idea that net zero by 2050 is a target worth achieving. Got to turn workers right net zero by client by 2050 is surrender. If you don't have near term targets that are meaningful like twice what our government is currently committed to doing so one cheerful thoughts and some getting very depressed is at least Trump is gone. The US is back in Paris, Biden is actually doing things that one might imagine a prime minister here who thinks he's a climate leader might do a point. Since we're, since we're talking about what civil society might do, how, how we can push. And I guess on that I just want to note penny made a really good point in the chat about the fact that serve wasn't budgeted it happened because we're in a crisis there are we're learning a lot of lessons during the pandemic about what an emergency response looks like on the part of the government on the part of the media. On all of our parts. And but we're talking a bit about what civil society can do. There are some questions coming in about what political parties can do, and what the NDP and the Greens in particular can do to maximize the likelihood that the, the Just Transition Act comes into force so thank you to Claire and Peter on Bowen Island and Neil and Winnipeg for these questions. What are both of you doing to ensure that the need for a Just Transition Act is communicated clearly in the House of Commons and that you're pushing for it and making it more likely that it will actually be introduced. Well, I'm unfortunately down to one question in question period a month. I used to get a question a week, and the other parties haven't wanted us to have questions. So I'm doing my best, every chance I get to stress the need for climate action that's meaningful and to stress the need for just transition act. I also get to use time in presenting petitions on climate and other related issues. And so to Paul Manley and so does Jenika Atwin so we have a three person caucus, and we must be effective because the other parties keep trying to keep us from saying things. And yeah, I kind of want to echo some of the things that Elizabeth has said, you know, I did a quick search you can search on open parliament but also you can search answered, who's talking about Just Transition. Elizabeth and I are tied for the people who speak about it the most in Parliament. The Greens are talking about it all the time the NDP is talking about it all the time, more just because we happen to have more time allotted to us in Parliament. And honestly, we are going to keep pushing I have complete faith that Elizabeth is going to keep pushing ministers and in the House of Commons, I will keep pushing on this. And we do need you we need you to mobilize because honestly, even though we're in a minority Parliament, the liberals get to choose between whichever party they want to collaborate with at which moment. And what we've seen again and again and again is that they will listen to mass mobilization. And so if you will mobilize with your community if you are willing to go and meet with your MP if you're willing to really work to push this forward. We have seen, at least sometimes small adjustments from the liberals on their policies when it looks like they're backing away from their promises. So, yeah. Yeah, I just wanted to say that there's a lot of questions in chat about what people can do what civil society can do and I don't want to blow by that. And maybe you would have. But letters to the editor really matter. I know that seems so really not exciting compared to getting arrested or something but especially in covert times. There's a lot of really good activism you can do from your home computer, writing to the editor, Globe and Mail or Times colonist or monitoring the social media places which Laurel and I can tell you are vile places to be that love those places, especially for women politicians but right as often as you can, and, and, you know, kind of weed out the trolls and defend the truth. People need to know because Canadians are being misled, I believe, by a media that is climate illiterate. So you have someone like Paul Wells proclaiming in McLean's that Justin Trudeau is quote all in on climate because of a commitment to the carbon tax hitting $170 a ton by 2030, that's a good commitment I'm not against it. So if you're building a pipeline and you're still putting billions of dollars into fossil fuel subsidies, both end of the British Columbia government, someone else asked about that. LNG and fracking, if we're serious about climate action, we cancel the pipelines, we ban fracking, we cancel the subsidies, but these are things that can be communicated to more Canadians through Canadians speaking to each other. In the media, opinion pieces, letters to the editor, please write them, please send them you won't get published every time you send them, but it's worth the effort. Okay, let's stay in strategy land for a second. One of the Laurel one of the opportunities you mentioned is the upcoming budget. If we ever find out when it is. What are the other opportunities that both of you see on the horizon where we might be able to leverage pressure from civil society society to make this happen. I mean, I think, honestly, the, the conversation around recovery when it comes to the pandemic is an opportunity for us to push on this. It's a very clear argument that if we are going to have a just recovery if we are going to recover from the economic impacts of COVID-19, we have to do it in a way that takes care of workers that leaves no one behind that is moving us rapidly towards a low carbon economy. I would definitely lead up to the budget of people probably have heard that, you know, usually we would have those in March looks like maybe the end of April, hopefully, sometimes soon. And I do think that we're likely going to be in an election this year I don't want to be in one, but I think the liberals are going to go to the governor general at some point when their polls are up and call an election and I think that is a huge opportunity for people to hold this government to account. I mean, they're going to be, I mean, the pathway to opportunistic elections has been set by Blaine Higgs and John Horgan and Scott Moe and all of them and in Newfoundland and Labrador. So it looks to, if you're a minority government, a pathway to getting 100% of the power. Another issue that Anna Keenan and I have worked on together over years is the question of fair voting and proportion representation and Laurel mentioned it is one of the earlier promises completely broken by Justin Trudeau that 2015 to be the last election held under first but that, you know, our unfair voting system. It's so enticing for a government, riding out COVID to recognize that even governments that have largely failed to protect their population and I would say that the Quebec record is not really good. Yet let go and cat are enjoying popularity, because people are looking to government in a way which is actually good news for ending neoliberalism that we now have a period where citizens are seeing that government is actually the key actor to protect them. This may, I hope, forever break the notion that the corporate sector is the best way to go in looking for public good. We're seeing governments act and we need to get them to act on climate the way they act on COVID. Thank you both. I'm going to pull us back from sort of electoral strategy discussion back onto like policy elements of what we'd like to see in a just transition act. There's a couple of questions here from people like Don in Yellowhead County, Alberta and Terrence in the chat and Peter in Montreal and I'm going to try to sort of lump these into one overall questions like what's it going to take to get people who are currently employed in the fossil industry supportive of a transition to renewable energy knowing that they're going to be going through transitions in their jobs in their lifestyle. How does it relate to a universal basic income. And how does it also relate to to the economic opportunities that are getting projects for them to work in because as Terrence observed individuals aren't going to decide to go and drill for geothermal production they need projects in place and strong businesses and projects that that they can move to so how can we articulate what that pathway looks like for workers who are currently in the fossil fuel industry and as Laurel pointed out also other industries that are a part of the the outgoing economy. Elizabeth do you want to take. Sure. Yeah, I'm just looking at it. The pathway needs to be marked out clearly so people see it's real. We did this, not to be partisan about it but people can find it on the Green Party website there's a PDF that actually walks you through how we get to 60% below 2005 levels by 2030 which is double Canada's current target in terms of at what pace you're ramping down fossil fuels and at what pace you're ramping up renewables. One of the best job creation strategies imaginable is the retrofitting of our buildings. We're going to take more carpenters electricians and plumbers than we've got to actually retrofit Canada's buildings to where buildings are actually carbon negative, we can get buildings from carbon neutral to carbon negative and right now, a big source of our emissions is is leaky So it takes, that's one of the reasons I love iron and earth, it's tangible, it's real, you can talk to real live people doing the work with a yellow I used to be on an already, but now I'm putting on solar panels. Those, those real life examples are enormously encouraging but I would say it's not just saying what's going to happen. Again, it's consulting the workers consulting their communities and saying, what kind of jobs do you want. And some people by the way another essential feature of just transition legislation that I should have mentioned before is that for workers of a certain age you should be able to say, you know what, we're going to top up your pension now, as if you'd held that job in the oil sense till you were 65, you just, you can go you can retire now, we're topping that up and you can choose what you want to do next. And by the way one of the other questions going through in the chat quickly I was going to say, yes, guaranteed education makes everything more accessible in the area of climate justice and social justice, and, and learning from what we've learned about the inequalities of our society, which mean a lot of us knew before but we definitely have post COVID learnings that we need to move forward on, including you Elizabeth. Yeah, I'll pass it over to Laurel. I mean first echoing the shout out for a guaranteed livable income and just want to, you know, also shout out my colleague Leah Gazan who's really been a huge champion of this issue, and brought forward emotion and in Parliament and is really working to have that happen. When it comes to actually convincing or talking to oil sector workers, workers who will be impacted by this transition, I think probably strategically we don't want to necessarily go to a guaranteed livable income. We do want to talk about just like Elizabeth mentioned the pathways to getting there but we also want to show them the tangible jobs I, my colleague Heather McPherson she is the only new Democrat only non conservative member of Parliament and Alberta. She, we've had lots of conversations about this because she has lots of people in her writing, who have, who say, you know, all of these green jobs, like where are they what, and I personally I don't blame them when you have the liberals, talking about a just transition about economic opportunities, but not actually making the investments that will get us there. Of course, workers are going to be disbelieving a skeptical about whether or not this is real. So, you know, the first step is to actually put the money in, put the investments into the second the things like retrofits the things like geothermal alternative energy, create the jobs, create the movement of the workforce into those jobs, but also make the money for retraining the money to train young workers in and the bridging of pensions just like a little bit mentioned. Thank you and I'm going to ask one last question before we move into a closing. I'm going to try to pull a few things in here but while I'm curious about the most exciting ideas you've seen around a just transition and around just transition legislation. Amanda raised the idea of more crown corporations in the chat is there a place for more crown corpse. We've recently seen Biden introducing a civilian climate core. Maybe we can learn from that. What, what are the most exciting ideas that you've seen around a just transition and Elizabeth let's start with you. I really do think it comes from the principles I mean I'm going back to this and this was a pretty groundbreaking report and Canadian is the report on the coal sector workers it it's exciting because it's based on a respectful engagement with every single coal community. I mean this was an amazing to do I talked to Hassan yourself about it. When it when it first came out and he said you know that the government people said, you can't be serious you're going to go into the communities where people are dependent on coal. So that you can write a report about how you shut down coal and provide workers some sense of security, and they said yeah this is going to be run out of town. He said every community went to people they know it's coming. They're not going to be surprised. They know that coal has to be shut down. But what they want to know is that they're not going to be on the outside looking in. It's a critical importance and the most important element of any just transition strategy is respectful engagement with the people who will be affected. Yeah, I just want to quickly pick up on something Amari you said around the climate core I honestly I think this is such an exciting idea. We had been talking about what kind of investments, when we're talking about a transition, and the kind of work that can be created. You know, I think that things that jump to mind are those huge generators of jobs like retrofits like electrifying the fleet and, and like moving to renewable energy, but there is, there are a ton of jobs that could be created in conservation in, in so many other areas and the idea of, especially right now when we know young people have been specifically hard hit by COVID-19. And by the economic impacts of this pandemic. Having this kind of climate core, you know green jobs for young people could make a huge difference and it's, it would make a difference when it comes to creating employment would make a difference when it comes to our conservation efforts and a goal of getting to 25% protected land, air, water, or land, freshwater and oceans by 2025 protecting 30% by 2030, and we actually need to see the investments again, this is something the Liberals have committed to, but nature Canada is telling us that we need about 4.3 4.8 billion more invested if we actually want to do that and part of that could be a job generator, and I think so often we see these as problems or challenges when really there are huge opportunities here. Thank you so much, Laurel and Elizabeth, we are reaching the end of the hour now so I'm afraid it's time to start wrapping up I apologize to those whose questions we might not have got to in the chat there's always more questions that is possible to get to get to in the time. So we're going to go to final remarks first we'll go to Elizabeth and then to Laurel and then Amara is going to do a closing and invite people to take some collective action before we get off the call so first Elizabeth for closing remarks and then what do we have for this. Again two minutes thank you. Good just checking, setting my timer. Look, my closing remarks are that we're in an emergency. This focused discussion today on just transition is so important, but given that we're an emergency I'm, I'm calling for help here. Every Canadian to be writing and phoning and protesting and saying to Justin Trudeau, don't skip out on our responsibility as a nation to double our target and be serious. We skipped out on something we promised to do in Paris, we had a commitment in the COP 21 discussion document not COP 21 decision document paragraph 24. It was required to table a new target that was tougher in calendar 2020. We didn't bother doing it. Now we have another chance because Biden has created a climate leaders summit for Earth Day April 22. And Trudeau has said we'll put forward our new target then I think you probably all know because you're very well informed that what the Canadian media calls the Paris target is really the Harper target. We set by Stephen Harper six months before Paris, and it's completely incompatible with meeting what we required were required to do by science, but we must do to ensure the survival of human civilization to the end of the century, and that is holding to 1.5 degrees. We can't do that. If we continue to use fossil fuels. We must plan to eliminate fossil fuels as quickly as possible. And thanks to Dorothy Golden Rosenberg. Yes, not with SM SMR reactors. We must move away from fossil fuels rapidly. And in doing so, we must ensure that we focus on indigenous reconciliation and justice for the workers, protecting the workers in the fossil fuel sector, so that they don't feel insecure. And just don't miss this chance we need to pressure every possible person within the liberal party that they have to take climate change seriously. C 12 doesn't cut it, but a new target by Earth Day will make a difference. Thank you very much Elizabeth exactly two minutes again you're an absolute pro at that I'll pass it to Laurel. Thanks so much. And yeah, I think maybe just to end. I want us to be thinking about the things that we want. The things like investments in retrofits in electrifying transit in rapidly transitioning to renewable energy, low carbon economy, and the investments needed in that and that we need to be working at the scale of the crisis that we're facing. We also want to be thinking about the things that we don't want to do. We don't want to be subsidizing the fossil fuel industry we don't want to be buying pipelines or allowing projects like Trans Mountain to move forward we want to make sure that we take the money that's been put into those things and put it into the transition. It I've been so inspired by seeing labor movements, environmental movements, indigenous movements young like youth movements coming together around these issues and pushing for a just transition, pushing for a bold, green new deal. So vitally important right now. And, you know, I think so often we can get disheartened and scared and the climate crisis is huge and daunting. And it is, I think really terrifying for a lot of people. And so what always kind of brings me back to being able to mobilize and to be able being able to act is to, to gather with the people who share our values to mobilize together, and to really take action we talked about some concrete steps. I think maybe I'll just leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Tommy Douglas and it is courage friends is not too late to build a better world. Thank you very much Laurel. And thank you so much to everybody who's joined us today. It's been a really dynamic event. I'm really exciting to be having this discussion and a reminder for us all to push further. We just want to share one final action. Actually we've got to, I'm going to share one tomorrow is going to share an even more fun one. So please stay on the line for just a few minutes. And one final action that you can take to demand a Just Transition Act from the current government. At this point, 12,000 people have signed the petition calling on Trudeau to deliver the Just Transition Act hundreds of us just participated in this town hall. Yeah, to share our questions about the legislation, nearly 4,700 emails were sent to Minister Wilkinson inviting him to join today and answer the public's questions about the act. And we've all heard in response, all that we've heard in response is silence from the Trudeau camp leaders are willing to champion a Just Transition Act in Parliament and that's why we're inviting you today to join us in amping up the pressure. We invite every single one of our MPs to speak up in support of a Just Transition Act in Parliament. So before you turn off your computer today, please take two minutes to log on to 350.org slash MP to send an email to your MP with just one click. MPs from the country here from their constituents, we can push the cross party action on the Just Transition Act so once again that's 350.org slash MP, put that into your browser to send them your message and my colleague Katie is just putting that link in the chat. So, bring up that page and before you get off your computer this afternoon or tonight depending on wherever you are in the country, make sure you're sending that message to your local MP. I'll pass it to Amar. Okay, great. And we can stop sharing the slides now. I have a final request. And I know the zoom fatigue is real and probably many of you have your cameras off for good reason. But if you're feeling comfortable. I want to invite you to turn on your cameras because we're going to take a group photo but it's not just any group photo we're going to take a group photo with our best puzzled expression, because we're looking for the Just Transition Act, and we're wondering where it is. We're going to send our photos to Johnson Wilkinson. So show us your best puzzled confused expression. You're looking for the Just Transition Act you're wondering where it is and then hold that expression just a little bit, because my teammates are going through and taking photos. Yeah, right. What, yeah there's some really great ones. There's some really hilarious expressions. Thank you. I don't know if anyone has a magnifying glass on your desk. If you do, this is a good time to get it out. How are we doing on screenshots Katie to Chris. Let me know when it's time. We'll just hold it until they tell us a couple more minutes a whole bunch of people came up on their camera. How many people have magnifying glasses nearby binoculars. I don't know if anyone has binoculars. Oh hey Seth. This is amazing. Yep. Where is it I don't know. At the UN climate negotiations many years back we were looking for a climate plan and somebody had a full birder outfit. So it really came in handy. I was talking to fill the time has it going on screenshots. Oh my gosh Rosemary has actual binoculars that's hilarious. So many binoculars. Larry that is an impressive magnifying glass to be the what I didn't know they made rectangular ones. Oh my gosh, this is so great. I will also send this out to all of you. Aaron love those binoculars. And while we keep taking photos I just really want to thank all of you so much for joining us. Remember to go to 350.org slash MP to send a message to your member of parliament. We'll pass on all of these great questions and a recording of this gathering to minister Wilkinson along with all of these amazing screenshots of us looking understandably very puzzled by where this promise just transition act is. Are we still are we still taking photos. We're good. Okay, well in that case thank you so much everyone. Thank you so much to Laurel Collins and Elizabeth may for joining us thank you, Anna for co moderating with me and thank you to the 350 team for making this event run smoothly. This was a pleasure to host, and we will see all of you soon. I think a friend of my name Sheila from Halifax I haven't seen in 30 years is on so I just want to say hi. Bye. Bye everyone. Thank you for coming.