Pipeline owner TC Energy Corp. almost immediately informed its employees it will eliminate more than 1,000 good-paying construction jobs across both Alberta and the midwestern states. But beyond the immediate job losses, the end of Keystone XL is emblematic for many Albertans who used to sport 鈥淚 am Alberta oil鈥� bumper stickers handed out by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said Alberta sociologist and environmentalist Randy Haluza-DeLay.
鈥淎n identity claim (based on oil) is being formulated here,鈥� said Haluza-DeLay, who edited the 2013 book How The World鱿鱼视频app Religions Are Responding to Climate Change.
Over years of running seminars on climate change for faith groups in Alberta, Haluza-DeLay has noticed a shift in attitudes. While there鱿鱼视频app a core that ideologically rejects Pope Francis鈥� 2015 encyclical Laudato Si鈥� and any suggestion that an inevitable shift away from oil will require sacrifice, most accept the climate is changing, he said.
A Pembina Institute poll released Jan. 15 found 68 per cent of Albertans support Ottawa鱿鱼视频app goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. However, that goal doesn鈥檛 change Alberta鱿鱼视频app immediate concern over losing the $8 billion Keystone project. Almost three quarters of Albertans (72 per cent) want Ottawa to push Biden to reverse his decision, compared to 26 per cent of Quebeckers and 38 per cent of Ontarians. Only in Alberta and Saskatchewan is there a majority in support of efforts to rescue the pipeline, according to a new poll from the Angus Reid Institute.
While most Canadians acknowledge cancelling Keystone will be bad for Alberta (65 per cent, according to Angus Reid), Canadians outside Alberta and Saskatchewan think it鱿鱼视频app time to move on.
But knowing the age of oil is over doesn鈥檛 translate into knowing what to do next, or knowing what Alberta or an Albertan is in a post-oil world, Western Canadian theologians and religious studies professors told The Catholic Register.
鈥淎 lot of people鱿鱼视频app jobs depend on the oil and gas and that鱿鱼视频app changing. People are scared about the change. I think fear is a bigger factor than anything else,鈥� said Haluza-DeLay.
The Church needs to respond to both the immediate needs of people and families who have lost their jobs and to communities that have to reimagine who and what they are, said philosophy and Catholic Studies professor Timothy Harvie of Calgary鱿鱼视频app St. Mary鱿鱼视频app University.
鈥淭his is a great time to reorient ourselves, to be creative again,鈥� he said.
Catholics should look to Pope Francis as they think through both the future and the immediate needs of unemployed neighbours, Harvie suggested.
鈥淭hese people are in very real need,鈥� he said. 鈥漈his is why we need, and Pope Francis again has called for, robust systems of aid and solidarity and practical social safety nets to be part of our society.鈥�
Whether the Church in Canada will in fact respond pastorally to the new reality is a question very much up in the air, said Regina archdiocesan theologian Brett Salkeld.
鈥淲hat is far more likely, it seems to me, is that the Church 鈥� I don鈥檛 just mean the clergy, but all of us 鈥� are almost certainly going to just divide along partisan lines on this,鈥� Salkeld said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e in a cultural context where it鱿鱼视频app so easy to be subsumed by ideology. We ignore the resources in our own Catholic tradition to address (issues). Whether it鱿鱼视频app an economic question, a pastoral question, a political question, we have resources.鈥�
Salkeld has no doubt that pastors will respond spiritually and practically to families that have lost jobs and income. But whether the Church will help communities to come together and discover a new hope, a new sense of the future, or leave them stewing in anger and resentment, is very much in doubt.
鈥淲hat is going to be the response of the Church?鈥� Salkeld asked. 鈥淕od I wish it was compassion for the unemployed and also a commitment to the environment. Could we do both of those together?鈥�
鈥淧eople are entitled to just employment and labour,鈥� said St. Joseph鱿鱼视频app College, University of Alberta philosophy professor Nathan Kowalsky.
The good news is that just employment is exactly what Pope Francis demands in Laudato Si鈥� and it鱿鱼视频app what proponents of a 鈥済reen new deal鈥� or 鈥渏ust transition鈥� are striving for, said Kowalsky. The tendency of Alberta media and politicians to dismiss serious talk about changing the economy keeps many Alberta Catholics from bringing their faith to bear on these questions, he said.
Moral questions about oil sands development were raised in Alberta long before Laudato Si鈥�, in a 2009 pastoral letter from St. Paul Bishop Luc Bouchard.
鈥淭he moral question has been left to market forces and self-regulation to resolve, when what is urgently required is moral vision and leadership,鈥� Bouchard wrote.
Not facing up to the moral question then, or even earlier, has led Alberta to its present dilemma, Haluza-DeLay said.
鈥淪o now they are struggling with questions about if this is what we鈥檙e so dependent on, what do we do now?鈥� he said. 鈥淭his is such a big question for Alberta.鈥�
The solution, at least for Catholic Albertans, should be to look again at the traditional Catholic approach to big questions, said Harvie. 鈥淎s Catholics, we are used to taking the long view. We are used to viewing things with an eye that isn鈥檛 simply determined by economic interests or the interests of those in power,鈥� he said.
In Saskatchewan, Salkeld fears that ideology will overwhelm any truly Catholic process of discernment about the future.
鈥淥ne group will use this to say, 鈥楾his is why this environmentalism stuff is bogus and look now, it鱿鱼视频app cost people their livelihoods and are you happy now you liberals?鈥� And the other group is going to say Alberta shouldn鈥檛 have had all its eggs in one basket,鈥� Salkeld said.
鈥淲e need voices in the Church 鈥� bishops, lay people, priests, everyone 鈥� who can articulate these issues from a Catholic point of view first.鈥�