A professional association is sounding the alarm. Ottawa's intended Just Transition away from fossil fuels could be devastating to some communities. The Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada, an organization representing 210,000 members, released its findings in a press release December 5."Canada’s ambitious environmental goals to transition to a greener, more sustainable economy, will pose considerable challenges for communities that will be disproportionately affected by the shift. Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada) studied more than 5,000 communities in Canada to determine the distinguishing factors for communities that rely more heavily on high-emission industries," the organization explained.According to the study, Canada has 750 communities where 15% of wages come from high-emission industries. These communities, whose combined population is more than three million, have common characteristics:smaller population growth due to less immigrationhigher indigenous representationslightly lower levels of educationless remote workfurther away from urban centresfewer post-secondary establishments within driving distancemore affordableshorter commutes to worklower overall economic inequality within the community"These particularities should define the public policy response for the environmental transition," CPA Canada concluded.David-Alexandre Brassard, CPA Canada’s chief economist, suggested Ottawa should make sure these communities benefit from any transition measures and not simply suffer the loss.“The environmental transition offers an opportunity to champion bottom-up economic development, aligning resources with the needs of emission-dependent communities," Brassard said."The typical city-centric and immigration-led growth will do little for these communities. The discussion should be focused more on potential job loss risks and what can be done about it.”Mark Sevestre, founding member and senior advisor for the National Aboriginal Trust Officers Association was concerned Ottawa gave too little thought or consultation on how the transition would affect indigenous people.“Given the disproportionate effect of the transition on indigenous communities, indigenous voices need to figure more prominently in decision making. Past patterns shows than indigenous people have not been included enough in the positive economic impacts of natural resources industries," Sevestre said."Let’s make sure that if these industries are impacted or changed, the negative consequences are not borne more heavily by indigenous people. The transition policies must be based on indigenous self-determination.”
