Creating a green social contract for BC’s resource workers
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“Just transition” is an approach to environmental policy-making developed by the labour movement that aims to minimize the impact of environmental policies on workers in affected industries and communities and to involve workers in decisions about their livelihoods.
This report draws on extensive interviews with resource sector workers in several industries—in which researchers listened to their concerns, experiences and ideas—to inform a strategy that ensures climate action doesn’t worsen already-high levels of economic insecurity in resource-dependent communities.
About the authors
Karen Cooling recently retired from her position as a staff representative at the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. Cooling is a researcher, educator and communicator specializing in resource issues and relationship building between resource workers and environmentalists. She spent 17 years working directly in the pulp and paper industry. Follow Karen on Twitter
Shannon is the director of CCPA-BC and co-director of the Corporate Mapping Project. Her research interests include social movements, framing, environmental communication, corporate power and democratic capacity. Outside her day-to-day work life at CCPA, Shannon has taught in the School of Communication and Culture at Royal Roads University, and volunteered as a board member with organizations like the Wilderness Committee, CCEC Credit Union and the Vancouver Public Library.
Marc Lee is a Senior Economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Marc joined the CCPA’s British Columbia office in 1998, and is one of Canada’s leading progressive commentators on economic and environmental policy issues. From 2009 to 2015, Marc led the CCPA’s Climate Justice Project (CJP), which published a wide range of research on fair and effective approaches to climate action through integrating principles of social justice. Marc continues to write about climate and energy policy, strategies for affordable housing, federal and provincial budgets and macroeconomics. Marc has an MA in Economics from Simon Fraser University and a BA in Economics from the University of Western Ontario. Marc is a past chair of the Progressive Economics Forum, a national network of heterodox economists. He also served as a Visiting Professor at Simon Fraser University’s School of Public Policy in 2024 to 2025.
