By definition, resilience is the ability to bounce back from a destructive crisis. As a political force, the resilience movement’s plan is to lift the economy out of the deep lockdown hole into which global politicians have deliberately thrown us by having the same politicians take control of the economic wreckage they have created so as to re-engineer the whole system.
New “resilience” efforts are emerging daily around the world. Last week the newly formed Canadian “ Task Force for a Resilient Recovery ” declared its objectives : “The Task Force will make actionable recommendations on how governments can use a range of tools — including direct public investment, leveraging private capital, targeted tax cuts and incentives, regulatory sandboxes (to enable innovation), and behavioural ‘nudges’ — to spur jobs and generate lasting economic activity while also helping to build a clean and resilient economy.”
Task force members include former Justin Trudeau aide and WWF radical Gerald Butts, the Ivey Foundation’s ubiquitous Bruce Lourie, and Stewart Elgie, head of the Smart Prosperity Institute, a sustainable-green advocacy organization that seems to get a lot of funding from governments.
Another new Canadian resilience group is behind the 2020 Declaration for Resilience in Canadian Cities, organized by former Toronto city planner Jennifer Keesmaat and signed by a collection of former Toronto mayors and dozens of academics and activists. “The COVID-19 pandemic provides a once-in-a lifetime responsibility to accelerate the change we require in Canadian cities.” Proposals including building more public housing, restrictions on urban sprawl, mass expansion of bike lanes, a moratorium on expressways including those now under construction, electric car mandates, a 40 per cent urban tree canopy, etc. etc.
The European Union’s official science hub recently produced a paper titled “ Time for transformative resilience: the COVID-19 emergency .” The objective of the paper is to seize the lockdown as a call to action. “The current COVID-19 emergency seems to be warning governments worldwide that new crises of unforeseeable nature are likely to emerge, as the combination of environmental degradation, societies with increasing inequalities and deep economic interconnections have made the world more vulnerable. In these circumstances, ensuring the resilience of our society is crucial.”
The climate hand-wringers at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday published a commentary titled “5 ways entrepreneurs and SMEs can build resilience in a coronavirus economy.” The authors warned that “the next shift is sure to come whether it is in the form of a pandemic, extreme weather, forest fires or rising seas.” ………...More