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Clean energy one of Canada’s fastest growing industries

May 23, 2019 | 2:16 AM

OTTAWA — Canada’s clean-energy sector says it’s growing faster than the economy as a whole and is rivalling some better-known industries for jobs.

Clean Energy Canada is releasing a study today it commissioned to try to paint the first real picture of an industry it feels nobody knows much about but that is critically important to the future both in terms of climate change and the economy.

Executive director Merran Smith says even she was surprised to find out just how big the industry is.

Nearly 300,000 people are directly employed across the industry, which encompasses everything from renewable-energy production and transfer to public transit and entrepreneurs developing products to help us live our lives producing fewer greenhouse-gas emissions.

Statistics Canada data says there were nearly 100,000 more Canadians working in clean energy than in mining, quarrying and oil-and-gas extraction in 2017.

The clean-energy industry accounted for three per cent of Canada’s GDP in 2017.

 

The Canadian Press