Mulcair’s anti-oilsands message risks alienating union base
Photograph by: Adrian Wyld , THE CANADIAN PRESS
If his recent tour of the oilsands didn’t convince federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair about its importance to all of Canada, perhaps this will. The day after Mulcair’s oilsands tour, skilled trades unions — one of the NDP’s main constituencies — announced a partnership with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) to make Canadians aware that the oilsands is the nation’s largest employer of skilled trade workers.
An ad campaign launched by CAPP and Canada’s building trades unions features members of the United Association of Pipefitters and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. Unlike Mulcair, they deal in reality.
“Canada’s oilsands industry provides more than 200 million work hours annually for 14 unions with locals from coast to coast,” says Robert Blakely, director of Canadian affairs for the Building and Construction Trades Department, an arm of the building trades unions.
It’s a figure worth repeating for Dutch diseasers like Mulcair — 14 unions representing locals from coast to coast — including Ontario, the country’s second-largest beneficiary from the production of Alberta crude. According to a study by the Calgary-based Canadian Energy Research Institute, Ontario stands to realize $63 billion in economic spinoffs and 65,520 oilsands-related jobs between 2010 and 2035.
Mulcair says he doesn’t want to see the oilsands shut down, only be more sustainable. “We want an energy future that is sustainable, we want an economic future that’s sustainable,” he told the Federation of Canadian Municipalities last week. Nobody disagrees with that, least of all the unionized skilled workers who are the NDP base.
“Ongoing responsible oilsands development is our goal, working with the industry to ensure Canada has the skilled people needed to grow our economy over the next several decades,” Blakely notes.
CAPP, too, sees sustainability as a key. “CAPP’s mission is to enhance the economic sustainability of the Canadian upstream petroleum industry in a safe and environmentally and socially responsible manner, through constructive engagement and communication with governments, the public and stakeholders in the communities in which we operate,” the association says.
While Mulcair may have a legitimate beef with the Harper government over environmental regulation, it can’t go without note that Canadian oilsands companies are working feverishly to reduce their environmental footprint. As for Dutch disease, which Mulcair is now downplaying, it’s a simplistic analysis that ignores the many factors that have contributed to the strength of the loonie over the past decade, not the least of which is the declining value of the U.S. dollar against all major currencies. The rise in all Canadian resource commodities, not just oil, is responsible for about only half of the rise in the loonie in that same period, according to one recent analysis.
If Mulcair persists, he risks alienating not just western premiers, but the skilled trade union workforce that has been among his party’s most ardent supporters.
Editorial: Mulcair
Photograph by: Adrian Wyld , THE CANADIAN PRESS
If his recent tour of the oilsands didn’t convince federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair about its importance to all of Canada, perhaps this will. The day after Mulcair’s oilsands tour, skilled trades unions — one of the NDP’s main constituencies — announced a partnership with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) to make Canadians aware that the oilsands is the nation’s largest employer of skilled trade workers.
An ad campaign launched by CAPP and Canada’s building trades unions features members of the United Association of Pipefitters and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. Unlike Mulcair, they deal in reality.
“Canada’s oilsands industry provides more than 200 million work hours annually for 14 unions with locals from coast to coast,” says Robert Blakely, director of Canadian affairs for the Building and Construction Trades Department, an arm of the building trades unions.
It’s a figure worth repeating for Dutch diseasers like Mulcair — 14 unions representing locals from coast to coast — including Ontario, the country’s second-largest beneficiary from the production of Alberta crude. According to a study by the Calgary-based Canadian Energy Research Institute, Ontario stands to realize $63 billion in economic spinoffs and 65,520 oilsands-related jobs between 2010 and 2035.
Mulcair says he doesn’t want to see the oilsands shut down, only be more sustainable. “We want an energy future that is sustainable, we want an economic future that’s sustainable,” he told the Federation of Canadian Municipalities last week. Nobody disagrees with that, least of all the unionized skilled workers who are the NDP base.
“Ongoing responsible oilsands development is our goal, working with the industry to ensure Canada has the skilled people needed to grow our economy over the next several decades,” Blakely notes.
CAPP, too, sees sustainability as a key. “CAPP’s mission is to enhance the economic sustainability of the Canadian upstream petroleum industry in a safe and environmentally and socially responsible manner, through constructive engagement and communication with governments, the public and stakeholders in the communities in which we operate,” the association says.
While Mulcair may have a legitimate beef with the Harper government over environmental regulation, it can’t go without note that Canadian oilsands companies are working feverishly to reduce their environmental footprint. As for Dutch disease, which Mulcair is now downplaying, it’s a simplistic analysis that ignores the many factors that have contributed to the strength of the loonie over the past decade, not the least of which is the declining value of the U.S. dollar against all major currencies. The rise in all Canadian resource commodities, not just oil, is responsible for about only half of the rise in the loonie in that same period, according to one recent analysis.
If Mulcair persists, he risks alienating not just western premiers, but the skilled trade union workforce that has been among his party’s most ardent supporters.
Editorial: Mulcair
