Minister @SeamusORegan, in advance of your meeting with NOIA tomorrow I want to share some thoughts about decarbonization, diversification, and #ClimateChange

Let's start by remembering the core constituency here: The kids that will live w/our choices https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/friday-climate-change-rally-1.5299400

The industry-promoted hashtags have featured a handful of pics of children in oil and gas shirts. *Many, many more children* marched just a few months ago, and continue to do so around the world.

They're not wrong to do so.

I want to believe the oil sector can be a reasonable and constructive partner in transitioning from what we have now, to what we need to do in the near future.

It concerns me that they don't bother backing up their points when challenged. https://twitter.com/LetsFishSmarter/status/1254233360404185090?s=20

We know royalties from oil have crashed, even before this pandemic.

So that's why the hashtags focus on indirect benefits - like workers going to restaurants and such.

But other industries can provide spinoffs too, provided we start building them now.

This is the reality we face: Massive job losses. Not because of foreign-funded radicals, environmentalists, or Bill C-69.

Because of structural instability, pushed over the edge by COVID-19.

But it doesn't have to be this way.

The world is changing. South Korea is building from a Green New Deal. https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/04/16/south-korea-implement-green-new-deal-ruling-party-election-win/

The UN Development Program is calling for such thinking to be injected into stimulus https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/04/24/un-development-chief-calls-green-shift-away-irrational-oil-dependence/

And Canadians overwhelmingly support a "Green New Deal" including here

There *is* a way for the petroleum sector to be a partner in this but only if there is a clear decarbonization plan in place that shows exactly how our emissions will fall, on aggregate, by half by 2030 (the target called for in the IPCC's 1.5 C report).

Not slogans. Plans.

How could we get there? Certainly not by *expanding* the industry (unless it was paired with, say, binding agreements to draw down the oilsands elsewhere in Canada).

If the industry stays at its current size, perhaps we electrify all cars? Make all buildings efficient?

There are lots of options and you're backed by a massive public service that can help figure them out. And there are lots of us willing to help.

And done right, these plans can put workers first, so they're not facing the boom and bust cycle imposed by petroleum

As a constituent I understand you're balancing competing interests and facing the biggest crisis in generations.

But the climate crisis looms too, and the choices made in the next few weeks will determine just how big that crisis becomes.

So I conclude this thread by saying please: Resist the urge to throw money at this sector. Subsidizing an industry that must ultimately contract serves no one.

Your government is showing signs of very smart decision-making. This report fills me with hope: https://twitter.com/ricochet_en/status/1253423840866140170

A hard red line must be drawn against subsidizing further exploration. Assets are already stranded - finding more stranded assets on the public dime will not help.

As for the rest of it: I'll just keep continuing to advocate for a whole-of-government approach to decarbonization

We need to have a plan that gets us down half by 2030 and all by 2050. Your government has already pledged the 2050 part - let's get the 2030 part right too.

And in doing so, we'll create jobs that can achieve all the things people tweeting #MyOffshoreMyFuture really want

(Thank you for reading and I do hope your meeting is productive - and I hope that I'm wrong about NOIA's singular focus on oil at the expense of all else)