By Marcelo Lu and Toby Leaps, National Observer, May 15, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic gives us an unprecedented opportunity for a sustainable economic recovery based on smart investments that fully leverage the value of our natural resources. Stimulus provides a good bandage, but a well-thought-out recovery strategy ensures the right long-term deployment of our resources, technology focus and labour force.
(...)A sensible, targeted mix of streamlined regulations and infrastructure investment would allow Canadian manufacturers to take advantage of our unique raw material supplies. It would also help spark much-needed capital investment in the mining industry to pivot to the electrification segment, and would encourage development of related industries such as auto assembly plants, as well as further research on portable energy sources.
Such an investment would also foster the innovation and economies of scale needed to bring electric vehicles more assuredly into the mainstream. More sustainable mining practices would enable the manufacturing of more environmentally sustainable products, representing a double victory for the natural resources on which Canada ultimately depends and already has a leadership edge.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/05/15/opinion/post-pandemic-it-less-about-stimulus-and-more-about-strategic-sustainable