A just transition:

Moving fossil fuel industry workers into the renewable energy economy

Photo: Joelle Seal

Originally published March 7, 2017

When Steve Lamb got started in the oil and gas sector, it was just a job with a solid paycheque. But after two boom and bust cycles, he began to consider sustainable alternatives.

Lamb lives in Saskatchewan, and had worked in the oil and gas sector for 12 years. When he started in his entry level position, he made double the amount of money on his first paycheque than what he previously made as a truck driver. He worked up in the ranks until he became an oil rig driller.

“I was like, ‘Well, I’m pretty much sold,'” said Lamb.

“As long as you had a strong back, and a good work ethic, you could get your good wage,” said Lamb. “I wasn’t going to complain too much.”

It was around 2008 when Lamb experienced his first bust cycle.

Lamb said, typically, his work was dependent on weather. Most years he’d get to the work site around June.

“What happened was, it ended up being later and later,” said Lamb.

“In the bust years all of a sudden, June would come and there’s no work. Then July, no work. It got to later and later. If you did get to go to work, it’s just more people trying to chew off the same piece.”

“It was a huge hit in income and work,” added Lamb.

Lamb said that in bust years, the pressure mounted because companies are trying to cut costs and increase efficiency.

Remembering back to family discussions about the industry over the years, Lamb felt like this cyclical nature of the industry was inevitable.

“It’s always going to happen, so that made me feel like … You can’t bank on it, you can’t rely on it,” said Lamb. “It just made me feel like I wanted something more secure and more level, I wanted more security in my job and in my income.”

“I would rather have a lower income that I could rely on, than a high income that was incredibly variable.”

He stopped working in the oil fields over a year ago.

“I just got to a point where it didn’t really align with my values anymore,” said Lamb.

That’s when Lamb became interested in the renewable energy sector. He became a member of an Alberta-based organization called Iron and Earth.

According to the groups website, Iron and Earth is led by oil and gas sector workers who are committed to incorporating more renewable energy to the grid, diversifying Canada’s approach to energy development and for Canada to manage its carbon-based energy sources more sustainably.

“It (was) started by a few trades people with the idea of trying to transition their skillset into renewable energy projects,” said Robbie Jarvis, executive assistant at Iron & Earth.

Jarvis said a few of the workers who started the organization had worked in both the oil and gas sector and the renewable energy sector. They recognized that many of the skills and trades utilized in the oil and gas sector could be transferrable.

“Then the oil price crash happened in 2015, and there was a lot of people in Alberta who lost their jobs, and in Saskatchewan,” said Jarvis.

That was when the group decided to form Iron & Earth. Iron & Earth wanted to help Canadian tradespeople go through a transition into the renewable energy industry. In the process, these tradespeople would develop more skills, and start to produce the infrastructure needed for Canada to adopt renewable energy more significantly.

Jarvis added this transition is crucial for Canada meeting its obligations of the international Paris Agreement of reducing carbon emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

“If Canada is serious about achieving those goals, it's going to need to start relying less on fossil fuels, and incorporating more renewables,” said Jarvis.

“We see that the current workforce that we have in Canada has the skillset required to help make that transition possible,” said Jarvis.

Iron and Earth started its first campaign a year ago to train oil and gas sector electricians in the solar sector. They’ve also developed a network, connecting their members to training programs for other renewable technology.

Jarvis said the solar skills campaign is currently being reviewed by the Alberta government for funding, and he hopes to have the first project complete by the end of June. Then, the group hopes to have another 10 projects rolled out by summer 2018.

Iron & Earth doesn’t currently have a chapter in Saskatchewan, but there is membership and support in the province, according to Jarvis. Jarvis said the organization hopes to expand the chapter model so workers can come together in their own communities.

“A lot of the problems (Saskatchewan) is facing out there are very similar to Alberta,” said Jarvis.

Lamb wants to see the types of programs Iron and Earth is proposing come to Saskatchewan, but he is concerned that there is not much drive or opportunity to truly expand the renewable sector in the province.

“With our current government, there just doesn’t seem to be any push towards it. They’re very much still supportive of the oil and gas industry,” said Lamb. Lamb cited the investment in carbon capture and storage rather than renewable energy as an example.

Lamb’s initial hopes of moving into the renewable sector in Saskatchewan were dashed because he perceived this lack of opportunity. Instead, he is channeling his environmental stewardship elsewhere. He decided to enroll in a forestry technician program in Prince Albert for the fall.

Lamb wants to see a "just transition" towards renewable energy. He wants oil and gas workers to be an integral part of it, and for them not to be left behind.

“We should look into an investment in our own local workers, that are either underemployed or unemployed,” said Lamb. “You should invest in them, retrain them, because they are proven assets.