In 2020, Canada and the world was beset by the global Covid-19 pandemic, which brought economies to a halt. As the paralyzing health crisis began to get addressed, attention quickly turned to how to spark a long-term economic recovery. But not just any economic recovery. The US, the European Union, the UK, China, the World Bank, the IMF, and governments everywhere were looking at the lessons of the Great Recession in 2008-09, which ended with a historic spike in climate pollution, and determining how to stimulate a greener economic recovery and “build back better”. Yet there was nobody leading that charge in Canada.

To fill that gap, in May 2020, the Clean Economy Fund launched the Task Force for a Resilient Recovery. The Task Force brought together an independent group of 15 high-profile finance, policy and sustainability leaders, backed by a group of 8 research institutions, charged with providing urgent advice to governments on how to design a green recovery for Canada.

The challenge was not only how to ensure that government stimulus dollars would be targeted at green economic activity, but also how to ensure that Canada kept pace with the massive green investments being made by its peers and carved out a prosperous and resilient niche in the fast-evolving post-Covid global green transition.

The initiative culminated in a final report that sketched out “5 Bold Moves”, supported by 22 policy recommendations, and calling on $55 billion in specific government investments over five years.

The initiative had an instant impact, with its recommendations being adopted in the 2020 Fall Economic Statement and then more fully in the 2021 Budget.