Good morning, everyone. Thanks very much for having me.

My name is Jamie Kirkpatrick. I'm the program manager with the Blue Green Alliance Canada. Blue Green is an alliance of some of the country's largest labour unions and most influential environmental and civil society organizations. Our purpose is to advocate for working people and the environment by promoting solutions to environmental issues that have a positive employment and economic impact.

Our alliance formed based on the realization that a sustainable economy must provide good jobs and protect the environment, not one or the other. We've produced reports and research showing how good jobs can be created across the country by making renewable energy, by using energy more efficiently, and by building more public transit to fight traffic.

I'm pleased to be here today to share the disruptive potential of a transition to a green economy through clean technologies. One prominent part of the clean technology sector is renewable power generation. It's experienced solid growth in the past decade globally, despite the global economic crisis and subsequent challenges to many of the world's economies. Worldwide there are now more than 7.7 million people employed in the clean technology industry. This is an 18% increase in the last year.

This growth has occurred despite falling prices of solar PV and wind technology because there has been an accelerated growth of solar PV installation, operation, and maintenance. These are good green jobs that are being added to the global economy through renewable technology and clean technology. These industries are excellent job creators.

In Canada we're seeing some progress on this front as well. According to the “Canadian Clean Technology Industry Report” that was issued just last month, Canada's clean technology industry directly employs more than 50,000 people in more than 800 firms. While these figures are impressive, unfortunately Canada's global market share of environmental goods has steadily declined, shrinking 41% from 2005 to 2013.

We can and must do better for a number of reasons. Renewable power offers a diverse array of green technologies from solar to wind, to geothermal, to run-of-the-river hydro. These zero or near zero carbon-emitting power generation forms all employ skilled workers and greatly reduce the negative impacts on our environment. For Canadians to truly benefit from the disruptive potential of clean technologies, Canadian economic and environmental policies must also be disrupted.

The International Energy Agency says that the global cost of fossil fuel subsidies in 2013 was $550 billion or more than four times that of the incentives provided to renewable energy. In Canada we're in a situation of putting all of our eggs in the oil sands basket and that has a couple negative impacts.

First, it dramatically accelerates Canada's contribution to global climate change. If oil sands production is allowed to expand as forecast by industry and government, in 2020 Alberta's pollution levels, with 11% of the population, will be approaching pollution levels of the three biggest provinces, Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia, which together have 75% of the population.

Second, the current approach of working to make Canada a fossil fuel energy superpower hinders the real opportunities for renewable power and green technology growth. Canada has at its disposal some of the world's best solar and wind resource potential and we risk missing an opportunity to be a green energy superpower that exports green power and technologies. Solar energy itself is the largest energy resource on earth and it's inexhaustible. Advances in energy storage technologies mean that the potential for solar power is nearly limitless now.

The volatility of oil prices means our national economy is vulnerable if too heavily dependent on the oil and gas sector. One recent study predicted 185,000 jobs could be lost this year due to the fluctuating price of a barrel of oil and a glut of oil on the world's market. It seems like every day unfortunately there are announcements of more job losses in Alberta's oil patch.

We don't see these same issues with renewable power. Despite far less government investment in renewable power it continues to grow. At a time when growth in well-paying jobs is erratic, clean technology continues to outperform other industries.

Blue Green Canada released a report called “More Bang for Our Buck” that found that for every $1 million the government invested in support of the oil and gas sector it would net two direct jobs, while that same $1 million invested in clean technologies and renewable power would net 15 jobs.

Green jobs use many of the skilled labourers currently employed in more traditional fields. This means that with a little effort it's possible to transition workers and their skills into green jobs as we phase out more non-renewable resource-based employment. Investments in green technology not only net more jobs per dollar invested, they also have the added benefit of helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Clean technology exports are at the same levels as mining, wood, livestock, and processed foods, and these are really important sectors for the economy. Each has a single minister and ministry responsible for their economic stewardship. There is no formal provincial or federal policy for clean and green technologies. To fully capture the benefits of transitioning to a green economy, this should change.

Other important components of the clean technology sector include things like public transit, the growth of hybrid electric and fully electric vehicles, green building designs, smart grids. I could go on, but to respect everyone's time I won't read a laundry list.

I'll just say, in closing, all of these 21st century clean technologies deserve our attention. We do present and future generations of Canadians a disservice if we continue to treat them as boutique industries rather than recognizing them as crucial parts of our economy. Thank you.

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