Millions in promised federal funding to retrain oil and gas workers has gone unspent, records show..The figures follow complaints cabinet was “very slow off the mark” in fulfilling its pledge to find jobs for energy workers through a Just Transition program, according to Blacklock's Reporter..Cabinet in an Inquiry Of Ministry said of $1.2 billion budgeted over five years by the Department of Employment, none has been spent. Of $267.1 million budgeted over three years at the Department of Industry “no funding has been disbursed to date,” wrote staff..The Department of Natural Resources budgeted $1.67 billion over eight years. The Inquiry said $969 million worth of projects were approved without actual spending to date. The figures were requested by New Democrat MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, ON) who asked, “What funding has been allocated? Of the funding allocated, how much funding has been spent?”.Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson on Wednesday in Senate Question Period said unemployment did not appear to be an issue for oil and gas workers..“Right now we are actually seeing historic volumes of both gas and oil production in this country,” said Wilkinson. “There has been some attrition in terms of jobs in the energy sector but that has largely been the result of automation.”.“Can you assure our colleagues here in the Senate that sometime in the near future, which means spring of next year, we could see your government acting on the Just Transition program?” asked Senator Hassan Yussuff (ON)..“That is something we intend to deliver early in the new year with respect to introduction of legislation,” replied Wilkinson..The resources minister made a similar pledge on Nov. 5, 2021. “It will be coming forward in the next couple of months,” he said 13 months ago..Environment Commissioner Jerry DeMarco in an April 26 report Just Transition To A Low Carbon Economy said federal climate change programs threatened at least 170,000 jobs. “We are moving ever closer to some critical deadlines the government has set for itself,” DeMarco told reporters..“Are you saying they really haven’t done anything?” asked a reporter..“The ‘just transition’ commitment came out of the Paris Agreement in 2015,” replied DeMarco. “It’s now 2022 and we still don’t have the ‘just transition’ legislation or the regime or the governance structure to implement it.”.“They’re very slow off the mark,” said DeMarco. “It’s seven years since they’ve had notice they had to work on this and it’s disappointing to see how slowly they’ve been working.”.Cabinet could not blame the pandemic as an excuse for delays, added DeMarco. “I don’t buy that,” he said.
