Vancouver’s Green Technology Education Centre (GTEC) is releasing its Rebuilding BC report to the BC government. Rebuilding BC is the work of a group of prominent environmentalists and economists in consultation with community leaders such as Ted Sheldon and Coro Strandberg.
The report makes 24 recommendations to guide recovery in areas of the economy ranging from affordable housing to forestry. The report’s primary recommendation is the formation of a Resilient Recovery Action Team charged with developing stimulus measures that move BC in the direction of a more sustainable, just, and resilient economy.
Rebuilding BC’s key recommendations also include:
- Employ up to 30,000 young people as Recovery Rangers to help BC’s recovery
- Secure BC’s food supply by supporting farm employment and increasing land use
- Create jobs and reduce carbon emissions by large scale retrofitting of buildings
- Generate employment through construction of affordable housing
“When we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, we can’t afford to go back to business-as-usual,” notes the report lead author Guy Dauncey, BC author and founder of the BC Sustainable Energy Association.
GTEC Board Chair and lead author, Arden Henley emphasizes, “COVID-19 is a foretaste of the devastation we and future generations will experience should our response to creating a socially and economically sustainable way of life be anything less than robust.”
Rebuilding BC’s findings are supported by extensive data showing that, compared to traditional stimulus measures, projects such as improving energy efficiency create more jobs, deliver higher short-term returns, and lead to increased long-term cost savings.
Rebuilding BC incorporates key factors that combine economic benefits and carbon emission reductions based on a survey of banks, finance ministry officials, and economic experts from G20 countries. The survey was conducted at the University of Oxford by scholars including Sir Nicholas Stern and Joseph Stiglitz in 2020.
“British Columbia has emerged as a leader in managing the COVID-19 public health crisis. The current BC government now has the opportunity to become an international leader by putting in place a recovery that results in a sustainable future,” says Arden Henley, co-author.
Rebuilding BC is available on GTEC’s website at https://www.gteccanada.ca/rebuilding-bc-a-portfolio-of-possibilities/ -GG
The Green Technology Education Centre (GTEC) https://www.gteccanada.ca/ is a Vancouver based non-profit whose mission is to inform, support, and activate communities in responding to the climate crisis.
