The COVID-19 response has changed the boundaries
between the public and the private sectors. Post-pandemic Canada will have to
function differently than pre-pandemic Canada.
The report from May 2020, prepared for Resource Works by Karen Graham of KMG
Strategy, argues that Canadian decision-makers should take the opportunity of
this enforced pause to consider appropriate public policy to strengthen
Canada’s advantages while repairing the structural impediments that have held
back the country’s progress in recent years.
The rebuild phase offers the opportunity to strengthen Canada’s
advantages, including ways to unleash the potential of Canada’s critical
resource sectors – including energy, mining, forestry and agriculture – and the
infrastructure and mechanisms needed to get them to internal and external
markets.
Establishing this “Next Normal” requires a Team Canada approach
where many actors in policy development work together more intensely than in
the past.
Under two broad categories – People and Endeavour – Resource Works
brings forward a set of proposals predicated on a moderate, reasoned pathway
forward to unleash a critical group of sectors to support the national recovery
effort.
We recommend a national advisory panel be convened by the Prime Minister
(Justin Trudeau) that brings together a wide range of stakeholders (including
provincial and territorial government recovery initiatives) to share the herculean
work that lies ahead.
Resource Works’ prescription for advancing a constructive Canada in
founding the Next Normal calls for:
- Investments in people, as it will be Canadians’ initiative, skills and
hard work that unleash the recovery and lay the foundation for the Next Normal
- Bold thinking and exploration of previously unimagined linkages between
otherwise unrelated sectors
- Accelerated application of new technologies across industries and supply
chains, including Canada’s primary resource sectors
- Clearly established relationships and solid partnerships among Indigenous
groups, governments and resource firms
- Efficient legal and regulatory processes that aid, not hinder, a
turbo-charged recovery
- Environmental performance that meets or exceeds today’s stringent environmental standards and accompanies a transition across the energy product mix.
Karen Graham
... is the principal of KMG Strategy, which she founded in 2017 after more than
a decade in senior public policy roles in the private, public and business
association sectors in British Columbia. Areas of focus include natural
resource sector policy (including the energy/environment nexus), other
regulated sectors of the economy (wine/liquor), Canada-US relations, and
provincial/regional economic development initiatives.
Karen’s
previous roles have included Spectra Energy, the United States Consulate
General (Vancouver), the Business Council of B.C. and the Greater Vancouver
Board of Trade.
Karen
holds a Master of Arts in International Relations (York University) and a
Master of Public Policy (Simon Fraser University).
She
can be followed on Twitter.
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