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The Niagara Independent, May 29, 2020 \u2013 <\/em>Gerald Butts has resurfaced in Ottawa as a member of the Task Force for a Resilient Recovery. This is a group that has tasked itself to review the\u00a0Resilient Recovery Framework<\/em>\u00a0document, and then report into the federal government a recovery plan to support Canada\u2019s 2030 and 2050 climate goals. The Task Force\u2019s primary goal is to develop \u201cactionable recommendations on how governments can help get Canadians back to work while also building a low-carbon and resilient economy.\u201d<\/p>\n The\u00a0Resilient Recovery Framework<\/em>\u00a0that the Task Force is reviewing is a document that was submitted to the group the very day it came into being, authored by the Smart Prosperity Institute of the University of Ottawa \u2013 the same institute that is listed as a research arm of the Task Force.\u00a0(Does this not beg the question how the Task Force will maintain its objectivity assessing the Institute\u2019s work while employing Institute researchers?)<\/em><\/p>\n On the Task Force\u2019s website\u00a0www.recoverytaskforce.ca<\/a>\u00a0it encourages Canadians to get to know \u201cour insights and recommendations for government\u201d by highlighting (who else!<\/em>) leading experts from the Smart Prosperity Institute, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (the second research arm of the Task Force) and a news magazine\u00a0Corporate Knights<\/em>\u00a0which is \u201cThe Voice for Clean Capitalism\u201d with a mission to advocate for a \u201cgreen recovery\u201d by promoting \u201ca green renovation phase.\u201d It appears the Task Force has a limited scope, drawing from its own research bodies and a sustainable industry publication dedicated to advancing social and environmental sustainability worldwide.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Resilient Recovery Framework<\/em>\u00a0sets out the criteria for Canada\u2019s best recovery investments. It states: \u201cWhen Canada turns the corner on the COVID-19 health crisis, the nation will make a once-in-a-generation investment in economic recovery. That investment needs to kick start growth and jobs right away, while also continuing Canada\u2019s progress toward building a stronger, cleaner economy.\u201d In the document\u2019s executive summary it indicates its focus on \u201ca decarbonized and digitized world\u201d steering the government towards \u201cCanada\u2019s natural capital and low-carbon future.\u201d<\/p>\n The document poses three key questions to assess investments: 1) Does the measure stimulate timely, lasting economic benefits and jobs? 2) Does the measure help the environment and support clean competitiveness? 3) Is the measure equitable, implementable, and feasible? Drilling down to the next level, it is noted that investments are to show economic benefits in a timeframe of 6-18 months, meet Canada\u2019s climate change targets, and have a positive or at least neutral impact on vulnerable, marginalized or underrepresented groups, such as Indigenous peoples and women.\u00a0(PMO staff might not have been able to write a better criteria for this Liberal Government to use.)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n This is all part of what veteran financial columnist Terence Corcoran calls \u201cThe \u201c\u2019resilience\u201d ploy to seize the economy.\u201d The hidden agenda has been \u201cto lift economy out of deep lockdown hole politicians threw us into by having the same politicians take control and re-engineer the whole system.\u201d In a May 27\u00a0Financial Post<\/em>\u00a0article, Corcoran explains the global environmentalist branding exercise:<\/p>\n \u201cResilience is the post-COVID-19 replacement for sustainable (117,000,000 Google results). In pre-pandemic economic policy terms, sustainable development called for a rethink of global, national and local economic objectives. The United Nations\u2019 2030 Sustainable Development policy goals describes the agenda as \u201cending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth \u2014 all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.\u201d These sustainable development objectives are identical to those of the global resilience movement. The only difference is the label.\u201d<\/p>\n The resilience movement and its warriors also have a new rally cry \u2014 as Canadians will come to recognize from multiple Corporate Knights articles, Task Force interviews, and CBC headlines: this orchestrated green recovery from COVID-19 is going to help Canada \u201cbuild back better.\u201d Euphemistically, to build back better is to \u201cgreen the energy supply\u201d, \u201ctap into Canada\u2019s renewable cornucopia\u201d, and \u201cto establish a reference level for a carbon-free generation in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n There have been clarion warnings about the political maneuvering of Gerald Butts, the Task Force for a Resilient Recovery, and its cadre of environmental lobbyists and green business interests. Former Liberal MP Dan McTeague warns \u201cGerald Butts and Bruce Lourie are two folks well on their way to bankrupting Canada.\u201d Jocelyn Bamford, president of the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses of Canada, warns that the PM\u2019s green energy plan will bankrupt us as \u201cit is built upon the same priority as the one pushed by former Ontario premiers Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne.\u201d<\/p>\n Trying to get ahead of the resilience movement\u2019s likely investment recommendations,\u00a0Calgary Sun<\/em>\u00a0columnist Lorrie Goldstein flatly stated: \u201cAs the global economy struggles to recover from the recession caused by COVID-19, what we don\u2019t need are more wind turbines and solar panels.\u201d In the\u00a0Financial Post<\/em>, Canada\u2019s former finance minister Joe Oliver assessed that the Trudeau Liberals are worsening the countries fiscal problem: \u201cCanada has the dubious distinction of being the only country rich in energy resources whose government\u2019s policy is to keep most of its wealth buried forever.\u201d<\/p>\n Then there is Gwyn Morgan, the retired founding CEO of Encana Corp, who in a recent\u00a0C2C Journal<\/em>\u00a0article stated: \u201cNo other country has so deliberately turned itself into a climate-change martyr. And yet for all the economic, social and national unity pain inflicted, our sacrifices will have no perceptible impact on global climate change. Entering the third decade of this troubled millennium, we can only hope our federal government somehow realizes the future of our Confederation requires leaving behind blind ideology and finding some basic common sense.\u201d<\/p>\n Still Gerald Butts and the Task Force are on track in July to bring forward recommendations for recovery investments so that the Liberal Government can champion a resilient recovery that will ensure Canada will \u201cbuild back better.\u201d And with Parliament suspended, who is there to speak up and hold Butts, PM Trudeau, and their resilience warriors to account?<\/p>\n Chris George<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is an Ottawa-based government affairs advisor and wordsmith, president of\u00a0CG&A COMMUNICATIONS<\/a>. Contact:\u00a0ChrisG.George@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n