Across Canada, governments have suspended, delayed and cancelled environmental protection measures as the country grapples with COVID-19.
The changes started in Alberta, with Ontario following soon afterwards. Now, the federal government and most provinces have made changes related to environmental protection that they say are temporary.
The pandemic has shown the need to decommodify key sectors like housing
An “acronym soup of emergency benefits” — as economist David Macdonald puts it — has rolled out in Canada over the past two months. For many, it’s been tough to keep track of all the economic measures implemented since Canada’s response to the COVID-19 crisis began in mid-March.
Strengthening the care economy, expanding the public sector, and a Green New Deal are vital in the wake of COVID-19
A good reflex to have, if we’re critical of reopening the economy in the same way as it was before, is to use the term ‘reconstruction’ rather than ‘recovery,’” says Guillaume Hébert.
“That choice of terms is, itself, a political choice.”
The Canadian fossil-fuel sector and its political allies, including Alberta premier Jason Kenney, repeatedly drive home the point that Canadian environmental groups receive foreign funding.
But some of these same groups have turned the tables on the industry with a new report showing that foreign-controlled operational profit from the Canadian oilsands nearly doubled from 2012 to 2016 to 58.4 percent.
[Not only are existing pensions too few, too poor, and/or facing increased downward pressure with repeated stock market crashes, but some of our pension funds actually invest in high objectionable businesses. Another needed element of a "green recovery"....Gene McGuckin]
This crisis has reinforced what we already know — our current economic system is leading us down a path of destruction
Economists are cautioning that the Canadian economy has entered one of the deepest recessions in our history. Our country is not alone in this. The impact of COVID-19 has put the global economy on track for a “new Great Depression.”
