Rising cost of living influencing women’s opinions on Canadian oil and gas
Posted Nov 23, 2023 11:39 am.
A new survey by Canada Powered by Women (CPW) reports the majority of engaged Canadian women support the production of Canadian oil and gas in a cleaner and more responsible way, as part of improving their standard of living, and its not just women in Alberta.
“The lead there is that women are really feeling financially pressed and they’re willing to make trade offs in terms of their top three priorities,” said Tracey Bodnarchuk the CEO of Canada Powered by Women. “And those priorities are consistent across the country and they are economic prosperity, energy security, and climate via emissions reduction.
“What’s really great is that there’s common ground in all the provinces on those priorities; women are very united.”
The CPW survey reports overall 78 per cent of Canadian women and 87 cent of Albertan women prioritize an affordable standard of living for all, by allowing the production and distribution of Canada’s oil and gas.
Surprisingly, Ontario’s average is at 83 per cent, which is not very different to Alberta, the oil and gas hub of the country.
“Nobody really knew or knows that women are having these conversations privately and they’re really connecting the dots between the industry and their prosperity,” the CPW CEO said.
This survey was conducted in September 2023 with 1,211 women from across the country.
Despite prioritizing their standard of living, these engaged Canadian women want to secure energy independence while reducing emissions at the same time.
“As part of energy transformation, engaged women want to see a mix of renewables and non renewables and that’s creating space for technology and innovation and lower emitting fossil fuels, like liquid natural gas,” Bodnarchuk explained.
She says measuring shifts in attitudes allows CPW to gain deeper understanding of the priorities of the Canadian women and this can further help advance the important conversations on energy transformation that are already happening in the country.
