Big action on climate can help young people find meaningful work

It’s not the call back we expected. Month after month, Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey returns with the same bad news: youth unemployment has remained virtually unchanged, stuck at a decade-high rate all year. It’s a paradoxical time to be young and unemployed. On housing, health, food and a liveable climate, millions of Canadians live with unmet needs. There is so much work to be done, yet somehow not enough jobs. 

The most recent Labour Force Survey debunked any notion that the high rate of youth unemployment is temporary or cyclical. This moment is more systemic than a simple dip in summer work. Instead of scattergun efforts at reducing youth unemployment with short-term job programs, why not employ people in jobs directly addressing the larger crises we confront? What we need is a green jobs guarantee  – we need a Youth Climate Corps. 

The concept is simple. Just like we did in previous times of crisis and unemployment, put people to work on said crises. Create a public option for work that turns no prospect away, regardless of ability, gender, race or citizenship status. Train young people to complete work that meaningfully reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Pay thriving, union wages while offering benefits, a pension, education and apprenticeship credits. Support municipalities and Indigenous nations in executing their climate plans. And in communities where they don’t have plans? Write them with local youth. 

A Youth Climate Corps is not the be-all-end-all of a just transition, but it might just be the transformative policy this moment needs to show how acting big on climate lifts the tide on related issues. Rural and Indigenous communities hemorrhaging young talent could keep people at home for longer. We could, in the span of a few years, remedy the shortage of skilled tradespeople. 

Hell, we might actually begin to address the “male loneliness epidemic” through a new wave of relationship-building and civic service. If we want to get it right and make a genuine difference in both employment and emissions, then we must commit significant resources and time to developing something serious. At this point, the spending requirements of a program this large feel minuscule compared to the economic power of full employment, climate resiliency and meeting social needs.

Doug Ford almost got it.

Last month, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced the creation of an Ontario Corps, a new group of volunteers on stand-by to support emergency responses. There is a certain romance in his vision of the Ontario Corps. After all, the history of extreme weather in Canada and U.S. states like Los Angeles is peppered with people who are mobilized to help strangers expecting nothing in return. But with climate change, what lies ahead is not the same type of emergency. We face more intense occurrences with higher frequency, and higher impacts on existing inequalities. And there should be no surprises. We know they are coming.

It is contemptuous to recognize the value of young people enlisted to protect their communities, while not valuing youth enough to compensate them in return. In the current Canadian context, where the wealth gap continues to widen, the Ontario Corps is nothing more than an antiquated unpaid internship. Here’s what was missed: a voluntary call to service only works if it is attractive. What is attractive in this time of despair is a living wage, meaningful work, high levels of on-the-job training with a path to long-term employment, and the knowledge that we can transform our homes and communities for the better. Not a call for free labour.

In a 2023 poll conducted by Abacus Data, the idea of a two-year, paid Youth Climate Corps garnered strong support from 55 per cent of respondents, with an additional 23 per cent accepting the program. 

For youth, approval surged to a rate of 65 per cent. Even more heartening: when the poll asked those 35 and under, “If a program like this existed, how likely are you to consider enrolling in a Youth Climate Corps for two years?,” 65 per cent replied they would consider it. Notably, this was a rare climate poll in which the enthusiasm among young men outstripped young women. 

Hardly ever do climate solutions that require this much spending garner this type of positive reaction across all demographics. It’s a policy that the federal Liberals would be smart to implement. In fact, if they want young voters back after spending 10 years shooing them to the Conservatives, establishing a Youth Climate Corps might well win back much-needed goodwill. And if they want voters of all ages to move on from the tired carbon tax debate, then they need to offer a more exciting climate action idea. 

Neither climate nor employment woes will go away during an election year, and time is of the essence. Time to get to work.

Juan Vargas Alba is a 27-year old-based in Edmonton and a Youth Climate Corps organizer with the Climate Emergency Unit.