Unifor National President Lana Payne urged the House of Commons Standing Committee on Natural Resources today to put energy workers at the centre of Canada’s plan to become an energy superpower, warning that aging infrastructure, “run-to-fail” maintenance strategies, and shrinking domestic capacity are putting the country’s energy security at risk.

Speaking on behalf of Canada’s 15,000 Unifor members in oil and gas extraction, natural gas distribution, electric utilities, refineries, chemical production, and nuclear energy, Payne told MPs that industry profits are not translating into jobs, investment, or safer infrastructure on the ground.

“I hear it across the political spectrum. Politicians say they support energy workers. But we don’t see that translating to the shop floor,” said Payne. “We see outsourcing, sub-contracting to non-union work, and automation, all while infrastructure is pushed to its limit. Canada cannot be an energy superpower if we keep running our energy infrastructure to the point of failure.”

Payne told the committee that Unifor supports reducing Canada’s export dependency on the United States and backs the safe, well-regulated movement of energy products through pipelines, rail, and marine transport. But she cautioned that diversifying exports cannot come at the expense of domestic refining, chemical production, and downstream capacity.

She pointed to a string of recent setbacks, including the closure of INEOS in Sarnia and Biox in Hamilton, and delayed investment from Shell and Dow Chemical, including a $9-billion petrochemical project in Fort Saskatchewan pushed back by two years.

“Without domestic capacity for refining, chemical, and plastic production, Canada is simply subsidizing the energy superpower to the south,” Payne said. “We’re off-shoring production while our own pipelines and downstream infrastructure are left to deteriorate. That’s not energy resilience. That’s the opposite.”

Payne described the production and export side of the industry as a “money printing machine” for shareholders, while as little as possible is spent on workers and maintenance or building new capacity.

She used her testimony to highlight Unifor’s Keep it in the Pipe campaign, which calls out run-to-fail strategies and pushes for investment in the energy workers who maintain midstream and distribution infrastructure and reduce methane and chemical leaks.

Payne also stressed that CANDU nuclear technology must be part of Canada’s plan for a resilient and secure energy system.

“Building a stronger, more resilient Canadian economy starts with building more energy and, above all, investing in energy infrastructure and the workers who maintain it and keep it safe,” Payne said.

Watch the prepared remarks or the entire testimony to the committee.

On May 1 each year, Unifor marks International Workers’ Day, May Day, to celebrate worker solidarity and the labour movement. International solidarity has achieved so much for workers’ rights, and must continue to form the foundation of the ongoing struggle against obscene greed and capital worldwide.

Across Canada and around the world, including Brazil, Taiwan, and India, workers have been mobilizing against U.S. President Donald Trump’s unjust tariffs that have threatened jobs and entire sectors of the economy, from auto, forestry, steel, aluminum and more.

In Canada, Unifor members have been organizing under the banner of the Protect Canadian Jobs campaign, with rallies in Vancouver, Windsor and Brampton, lobbying meetings with MPs in Ottawa, and actions on the ground, such as supporting locked out members at Titan Tool & Die in Windsor, who have fought for over 250 days to resist the movement of their jobs to the U.S.

Trump’s foreign policy is based on military aggression and violations of international law. Actions against Venezuela, Cuba and Iran have increased global political and economic instability, humanitarian emergencies, and threats to the lives and livelihoods of workers and communities. These attacks have also exacerbated the affordability crisis with higher prices on fuel, food and other basic necessities.

This approach has little to do with supporting democracy and human rights, but rather it is a deliberate strategy to assert U.S. dominance in the Western Hemisphere and threaten the sovereignty of nations—including Canada’s. Unifor joins the international labour movement to call for an end to hostilities, the protection of civilian lives, and the safeguarding of human rights.

Despite these challenges, workers and unions continue to organize in solidarity against regressive government policies and powerful corporate giants. In B.C., Unifor won a significant victory for Amazon warehouse workers, recovering over one million dollars in back wages owed to unionized workers.

In Quebec, workers’ economic and social rights have been under sustained attack, with the CAQ government pushing anti-union policies while the social safety net is deliberately eroded. Unions, community groups and civil society are the bulwark against this erosion—which is precisely why the CAQ is working to weaken them. On May 2, Unifor members will join workers, retirees, students, and community organizations in Montreal for an International Workers’ Day march under the theme Droits piétinés, faut resister—”trampled rights, we must resist”.

Nationally, the union has been mobilizing to strengthen Canada’s public health care system and provide greater support for health care workers. Unifor has also stood in solidarity with Air Canada flight attendants, who were fighting to put an end to unpaid work time as well as the federal government’s attack on collective bargaining rights.

South of the border, U.S. labour unions and workers are mobilizing against immigration raids and state-sponsored attacks on migrant workers and migrant worker communities.

Unifor continues to build worker solidarity internationally through the Social Justice Fund, supporting global workers’ movements, including domestic workers through the International Domestic Workers Federation, garment workers across south and southeast Asia through the Asia Floor Wage Alliance, or public transit workers in Chile, with the Santiago Metro Trade Union Federation. Creating and strengthening relationships with international labour unions and workers is needed now more than ever, in this increasingly divided and fractured world.

On May 5, Unifor members across the country mark Red Dress Day to honour the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2-Spirit people (MMIWG2S) whose lives have been taken or disrupted by violence, and to stand with the families still searching for answers.

This year, Unifor is putting its support behind a clear policy priority: a dedicated alert system for missing Indigenous women, girls, and 2-Spirit people.

The “Amber Alert” system is well-known to Canadians. When a child goes missing, the alerts cuts through the noise of daily life with phones notifications, highway signs notices, and broadcast announcements on TV and radio.

Indigenous women and girls deserve that same urgency. Historically, police in many regions have been slow to respond and communities left to organize their own searches. The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls called out this pattern as an example of systemic racism that perpetuates the disproportionate victimization of MMIWG2S in Canada.

A dedicated alert system won’t fix that on its own, but it would mark a public commitment to rapid action when an Indigenous woman, girl, or 2-Spirit person goes missing.

Unifor supports the call for a fully funded, nationally coordinated alert system, built in partnership with Indigenous families, communities, and leadership. The people closest to this crisis must shape the tool meant to address it.

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May 5, 2026 Red Dress Events