The Conservation Council of New Brunswick’s president has told the Legislative Assembly’s select committee on climate change that New Brunswick has missed the boat more than once when it comes to clean energy opportunities because of our preoccupation with the oil and gas industry.
The CCNB’s Liane Thibodeau gave a presentation in Saint John on transitioning to a low carbon economy as part of public hearings taking place around the province.
In the presentation it was noted that a sustained 15-year energy efficiency program in New Brunswick would create 2000 to 3000 full-time equivalent jobs and boost the total value of goods and services produced in New Brunswick by $300-400-million per year. She says for every dollar spent on energy efficiency programs, the result is a GDP increase of $5 to $8.
“There’s going to be $7.8-trillion invested globally in renewables between 2016 and 2040. In Canada, currently about 27,000 people work in clean energy,” says Thibodeau.
She believes oil and gas is going the way of the photography company Kodak, which filed for bankruptcy a few years back.
“And why did that happen? The digital camera,” says Thibodeau. “And they even developed some of the technology that would take the digital camera forward, but at the time they were saying digital cameras are expensive, they don’t have enough storage.”
“So if we look at today with the oil and gas sector, and we look at renewable energy, we hear the same kinds of things,” says Thibodeau.
“I think big oil and gas is today’s Kodak. The prices are coming down, we’ve seen the consequences in Alberta, the changes are happening and I think it’s important for New Brunswick to take that into consideration when we’re making our decisions for the future.”
The public hearings are spending two days in Saint John before heading back to Fredericton for September 8 and 9, which is when they will wrap up.
