Canadians weigh in on when most of our energy will come from renewables
April 8, 2021
By Ipsos
A scant 12 per cent of Canadians believe renewables can provide a majority of Canada’s energy in the next 10 years.
According to a new online Ipsos poll, conducted on behalf of Resource Works and the Task Force for Real Jobs, the largest proportion of Canadians – 28 per cent – believe the transition will take 20 years. Another 22 per cent believe 30 years is more likely. The transition will likely take 40 years or more, according to 19 per cent of those polled. Eighteen per cent of Canadians are undecided.
The median projection is 25 years.
Canadians do not accept the idea that the natural resource sector is becoming less important to the national economy. Only about one-third (32 per cent) of Canadians agree that “Canada’s natural resource sector is less important to the economy than it has been in the past” (56 per cent disagree). And a similar one-third agree that “Canada’s natural resource sector will become less important to the economy over the next 10 to 20 years” (51 per cent disagree).
Canadians support the natural resource sector. Eight in 10 (81 per cent) agree that “natural resource development is good for Canada (only 13 per cent disagree) and more than eight in 10 (83 per cent) agree that “Canada’s natural resource sector is an important contributor to the Canadian economy today” (only 10 per cent disagree).
Canadians also view the sector as being important to restarting the Canadian economy. Roughly three-quarters (73 per cent) of Canadians agree that “investment in Canada’s natural resource sector will help Canada’s post COVID-19 economic recovery” (only 15 per cent disagree).
These are the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted on behalf of Resource Works. The poll of 2,000 adult Canadians 18 years and older was conducted online via the Ipsos I-Say Panel from March 17 to 22. The data was statistically weighted by region, age, gender and education to ensure the sample composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population, according to Census data.
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