A crowd of around 60 people gathered outside of MP Michelle Ferreri’s office at 417 Bethune Street in Peterborough on Saturday (March 12) to demand the federal government accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
The Peterborough event was one of 50 “Day of Action for a Just Transition” events organized across Canada on Saturday by 350.org and The Council of Canadians to hold the Trudeau government to its 2021 re-election campaign promise to assist Canadian workers and communities reliant on fossil fuels by introducing “Just Transition” legislation and by launching a Clean Jobs Training Centre.
The organizers encouraged event participants to hold a mock press conference outside their local MPs’ offices to unveil a “Ministry of Just Transitions” clean jobs training centre.
For Our Grandchildren and the Peterborough Alliance for Climate Action held a mock press conference outside of MP Ferreri’s office on Saturday, with mock federal ministers announcing a clean jobs training centre in Peterborough.
“The ‘Ministers’ of Environment and Climate Change, Health, and the new Just Transition portfolio explained how fossil fuels are affecting our health and our environment,” states a media release from the event organizations. “They also explained how a Just Transition would ensure that existing fossil-fuel workers will obtain good, well-paying jobs retrofitting homes for better energy efficiency and expanding the electrical grid to provide the necessary renewable electrical energy.”
The event organizers also read a letter from MP Ferreri which, after apologizing for not being there in person, stated what a Conservative government would do to address climate change. Organizers compared the Conservative’s proposed actions to what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states is necessary to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees.
“The (Conservative’s) stated goals for reducing greenhouse gases and encouraging electric-vehicle purchases were both less than current Canadian targets,” the media release states.
