No One Left Behind: Pathways to a Gender Just Transition in Canada

Catherine Dunne

Environmental activists and governments alike recognize that it is vital for Canada to undergo an economic transition to mitigate the effects of climate change. Without the appropriate frameworks, this economic transition risks reinforcing existing gendered inequalities on the path to a new green economy. This blog highlights challenges to a gender just transition, and some possible pathways to mitigate these risks.

Image: Kindel Media

In October 2021, Canadian environmental activists hosted a “Climate Code Red” week of action to demand that the Trudeau government pass just transition legislation within the first 100 days of its new mandate. This timeline reflects the reality that for Canada to meet their international climate change obligations, an economic and energy transition from fossil fuels is imperative. Such a transition would be no easy feat – the fossil fuel industry remains an economic backbone to many provinces and a dominant source of livelihood for workers across Canada. To implement this transition equitably, the transition must be paired with appropriate re-skilling, training and support for workers and communities.

A “just transition” legislative framework is one option that could help Canada to shift towards a low-carbon future and to support workers and communities throughout this transition. “Just transition” is a concept that first emerged out of the worker’s movement in the 1970s. Proponents emphasize the need to incorporate equity into the design of environmental policies and into preparations for an energy transition towards a zero-carbon society. The stakes of proceeding without a just transition are high. While Canada has weathered labour transitions before, from the cod moratorium to shifts in forestry, unemployment and hardship also peaked in these times. A just transition could help to avoid repeating these past mistakes.

Energy transitions are also not felt equally among workers or communities. Groups that have traditionally been left behind in economic structures – including women – are disproportionately hit by economic transitions. For this reason, both the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Government of Canada have recognized guiding principles of a just transition, including accounting for gender, promoting equitable outcomes, and fostering inclusivity by creating opportunities for marginalized people. Accordingly, this piece will review the relevant factors needed for the government to implement a legislative framework that specifically advances a gender just transition.  

Gender inequalities are entrenched within Canada’s natural resources industry. While men and women often enter the industry for similar reasons – access to high-paying income and good benefits among them – women represent less than 20% of the workforce in the natural resources industry and face persistent wage gaps. Barriers to accessing these good jobs reflect various aspects of gender inequality, such as unequal hiring practices, obstacles to higher paid positions, and gender-based harassment, all of which stem from a male dominated culture that exists within the natural resources industry.

Gender-neutral approaches to energy transitions exacerbate existing gender inequalities. Thus far, the Canadian government’s just transition engagement emphasizes its plan to implement supports for those employed in oil sector jobs and to reskill workers to green energy jobs. These initiatives fail to articulate support for women, who are overrepresented in sales, administrative and support services in the sector. Supportive measures failing to capture these types of jobs widens the financial and social inequities experienced by women while transitioning into new energy industries.

Beyond incomplete income support programs, failing to design just transition policies that speak to the root causes of gender inequalities may reproduce them in the new green economy. Currently, transition initiatives in Canada include expediting decarbonization projects in partnership with large emitters, scaling up clean tech, accelerating Canada’s industrial transformation, retrofitting homes, and developing training and work opportunities targeted to those in industry. Many of these projects will employ those in the trade and STEM sectors. By designing transition programs that fail to account for the barriers to equitable employment faced by women, these measures could reinforce existing gaps in workforce demographics, gender pay gaps, and discriminatory practices.

From a feminist perspective, a just transition legislative framework must consider how socially constructed gender roles influence which energy sectors attract women. Furthermore, it must use an intersectional approach to evaluate how the transition will impact different people along lines of gender, race and class. Lastly, a gender just transition should look beyond traditional “green jobs” in the renewable energy sector by creating new jobs that are not energy-intensive and that tend to be highly feminized. This would include creating jobs in healthcare, education, and caregiving sectors. Legal frameworks should also seek to incentivize employers to create inclusive, diverse work environments and close gender pay gaps.

As feminist climate activists declared at COP26 there can be no gender just transition “without us!” To ensure that just transition legislation truly promotes justice, it should respond to the existing inequalities that characterize the energy sector, including gender inequality. In doing so, this legislation could create a framework to advance economic equality in Canadian society while advancing our climate change commitments.

“Catherine is a second-year student at McGill Law. She is an optimist that political change that addresses climate change, gender inequalities, and Indigenous rights is possible. She aspires to use her legal education to help to drive that necessary change. The author would like to thank Mariana Furneri, and the rest of the McGill Journal of Sustainable Development and the Law team, for their comments, suggestions, and edits that made the publication of this blog possible.”