Cartwright thinks Ontario should follow the lead of California and other U.S. states in aggressively promoting the creation of green jobs. The same economic factors that hinder parts of Canada leveled traditional manufacturing centers in the United States, but that country is developing new industries to replace lost wages.

A recent report co-produced by Cartwright's group, the Toronto and York Region Labour
Council, advocated a similar push to reinvigorate the lagging Ontario economy with "green-collar jobs". Entitled "Work Isn't Working for Ontario Families", the 27-page report was presented to Ontario politicians by Campaign 2000, a national non-poverty group, the Canadian Labour Congress and Cartwright's organization on Monday.

The three promoters of the paper think the economic downturn caused by the loss of 205,000 Ontario manufacturing jobs between 2002-07 can be alleviated with government incentives for industries. The develop of environmentally conscious projects that require skilled workers to perform such tasks as installing solar panels and building more sustainable housing complexes can get people back onto payrolls fast.

"Green-collar jobs - manufacturing for the developing global green economy - can replace disappearing blue-collar work," Anne Decter of Campaign 2000 told reporters. "American Great Lakes states are fostering alliances between environmentalists, labor and green innovators to rejuvenate abandoned manufacturing capacity. This is a direction Ontario can take as well."

The international growth of green jobs continues to be a hot trend in the construction industry. At this week's meeting of leading industrialized nations in Japan, labor and environmental policies were linked for the first time by the Group of Eight. In a joint statement, the G8 said the need for green-job stimulation is so great that not to pursue it "would entail catastrophic consequences for human society, the global economy, and prospects for sustainable jobs."

The G8's stance backs up the case for more green ventures in Ontario.

Historically, when representatives from the countries on either side of the English Channel met to discuss land it was about how to carve it up. On Thursday, we received a glimpse of the future as the United Kingdom and France focused on ways to care for the environment.

Calling for a mandate to create a vast number of green-collar jobs, UK Minister of Europe Jim Murphy and his French counterpart, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, told attendees of a roundtable discussion in London that Europe's health depends on widescale change.

"The economic case for an urgent shift to low carbon is compelling," Member of Parliament Murphy said during the "Towards a Green Europe" meeting. "The Stern Review found that climate change will be more devastating than both of the World Wars and the Great Depression. Ignoring it could reduce global GDP by as much as 20%."

Tags: anne decter, automotive jobs, blue-collar jobs, green jobs, green-collar jobs, group of eight, john cartwright, manufacturing jobs, ontario, skilled workers, solar panels