Youth Unemployment and the Climate Crisis Requires Shift in Economic Priorities
Fredericton – David Coon, MLA Fredericton South and Leader of the Green Party of New Brunswick is asking Premier Gallant to bring substantive commitments to the summer meeting of Premiers being held in St. John’s. In a letter dated July 9th , he asked the Premier to commit to kick-start the transition toward a low carbon economy in New Brunswick by committing to establishing a carbon fee on dirty energy imports .
“Moving to a low carbon economy will drive job creation in New Brunswick, while the status quo will not,” said Coon. “Building infrastructure for dirty energy provides temporary work, but not sustainable jobs. The clean tech sector needed to make the transition from dirty to clean energy is a trillion dollar global market, and it is rapidly growing. Canada’s share of the clean tech sector is $12 billion, and New Brunswick needs to jump at this opportunity to create sustainable jobs,” said Coon.
In June, statistics Canada recorded an increase in unemployment for New Brunswick over the previous month to 10.8%. Youth unemployment sits at a staggering 21.8%. The Leader of the Green Party says we need a vison for the future to drive job creation now, and making the switch to clean energy will create jobs in diverse areas of the economy.
Premier Gallant is meeting with Premiers from across Canada from July 16-17 to discuss economic development and climate action. Up for approval will be a Canadian energy strategy with the contradictory goal of building more pipelines, more quickly to expand the Alberta oil sands.
“New Brunswickers need lasting jobs that employ both men and women. Let’s embrace a low carbon future, and put in place the economic policies we need to get there, such as a carbon fee on dirty energy imports. We have the raw materials in our forests and on our farms to create the bioenergy and biofuels to replace dirty energy. We have the expertise in finance, engineering, IT, project development, manufacturing and service. We just need to seize the moment ,” said Coon.
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Click here to see the letter David wrote to the Premier