HALIFAX—Building a “green” economy in Nova Scotia could create hundreds of thousands of jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, legislators heard Tuesday.

“The transition to a low-carbon economy is very feasible, we can do it, it’s cost effective, it will save us money in the long-term and it will make us a better, safer province to live in,” Emma Norton told reporters Tuesday after speaking to MLAs on the natural resources and economic development committee.

Norton, the energy conservation co-ordinator at the Ecology Action Centre, shared preliminary findings of a report that her organization recently commissioned from Gardner Pinford Consulting.

She said the report — which is to be released in full later this summer — looks at the costs and benefits of reducing the province’s greenhouse gas emissions to 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030.

According to the latest draft of the report, Nova Scotia could create 44,000 jobs by transitioning to 90 per cent renewable electricity, 980 jobs by retrofitting all social housing to be net-zero ready, almost 22,000 jobs by increasing electricity efficiency from 1.1 to 3 per cent per year, and 103,000 jobs by investing in sustainable transportation, including hybrid and electric cars and buses.

Lyle Goldberg, who represents the Canadian Solar Industries Association in Nova Scotia, told the committee the design, sales and installation of solar panels on homes has the potential to create more than 1,100 jobs in the province by 2030.

He said residential solar has been gaining traction in Nova Scotia because of provincial government incentives, and in Halifax because of a municipal financing option, but there remains untapped potential in larger, non-residential buildings.

“To achieve much greater greenhouse gas reductions and a move to renewables, you need to look at utility scale solar projects and commercial scale solar, much bigger than just putting it on the roofs of homes,” Goldberg told reporters after the meeting.

But he said that’s currently a challenge in Nova Scotia because of legislation the sets a 100-kilowatt net-metering cap on solar energy for commercial buildings. According to Goldberg, that’s about ten times as much as an average Nova Scotian home would generate on solar, but it limits the cost-effectiveness for most commercial applications.

Deputy business minister Bernie Miller also spoke to the committee on Tuesday, telling them his department has a mandate to grow Nova Scotia’s economy, which includes “a crosscutting principle of sustainability, and sustainability is at the root of green jobs.”

He said that generally, the government tries to limit its involvement in job creation, letting entrepreneurs lead the economic development.

When asked if his department had a definition of a “green” job, Miller said their approach was “ generally to try to avoid labelling too much.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“Our approach would be looking at the economic evolution of Nova Scotia and are we making the decisions that would support sustainability.”

“At the end of the day, as long as it’s sustainable, what value is there in putting a specific label on the job?”

Read more about: