Opinion: Four years on, has Canada learned anything from COVID-19?

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Four years ago this month, the COVID-19 pandemic got very real for Canadians. As the coronavirus was cutting a path of devastation around the globe, Canada’s political leaders announced wide-scale shutdowns that impacted all facets of daily life, almost overnight. None of us could fathom then the pandemic’s impact on our families, our businesses, on public finances and on the health-care system. A critical health-care emergency had become a full-blown public institutions crisis.

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So, what lessons have Canadian institutions learned from the pandemic? Will they be ready for the next crisis?

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The answer is far from clear. Our governments have only a fragmented picture of what happened during the pandemic. Provinces, territories, federal departments and auditors general have each taken their own limited snapshots of the pandemic, but that’s not enough.

The federal government should appoint an independent expert panel to lead a pan-Canadian, comprehensive, collaborative examination of how public institutions performed during the pandemic. Such an examination would be distinct from an inquiry, in that it would be focused on learning for the future, rather than on laying blame for past decisions.

The examination should be collaborative, involving all governments (including Indigenous and municipal governments). It should focus on broader institutional performance, not just the health system. And it should be public, so that community leaders and people who were involved with on-the-ground operations during the pandemic can listen and offer their perspectives.

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This is a key recommendation contained in a new report published jointly by the Institute for Research on Public Policy’s Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation and the Institute on Governance. We brought together individuals who were at the centre of Canada’s pandemic response at a conference last year: elected officials, senior civil servants, public health specialists and civil society actors. The lessons we learned should be the starting point for the examination we recommend.

First, we learned that the institutional capacity of government cannot be taken for granted. People step up in crises. But this is no substitute for having the institutional capacity to respond actively and properly at the outset. Governments must retool and reinvest in the technological infrastructure of the public service, giving public servants the most modern tools to deliver services efficiently to Canadians. Every level of government should systematically examine the processes and structures that were activated during the pandemic to determine which of them should be kept in place or abandoned.

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Second, we learned that the institutions of federalism work — until they don’t. COVID-19 was a significant challenge to federalism itself. No single government had the jurisdiction or the capacity to respond on its own: collaboration and co-ordination were necessary but difficult to sustain over years. The federal government, provinces and territories should work together to identify what worked well and what didn’t during the pandemic.

Intergovernmental relations must become more inclusive. There should be intentional and regular consultations with municipalities, and relations with Indigenous governments should be formalized so that they are truly part of decision-making processes.

Third, we learned that navigating and communicating risk and uncertainty is a necessity of public service life today. People who were in decision-making positions during the pandemic had to act fast in an environment where complexity, risk and uncertainty were defining factors. These factors remain, whether we are talking about pandemics, climate change or the domestic impact of wars abroad.

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Learning to communicate to Canadians how science, data and evidence evolves — that situations are complex and that public policy choices involve trade-offs — is an essential skill that needs to be built within the public service. This type of transparent and authentic communication builds trust.

Finally, we learned that public institutions cannot work without public trust. Canadians’ trust during the early days of the pandemic eroded as it wore on. Before the next crisis hits, governments should build inclusive and meaningful relationships with civil society leaders so that they can build more effective policies and programs.

Trust matters to democracy itself. Before, during and after the pandemic, bad actors have actively tried to undermine trust within Canadian society. Governments in Canada need to come together to create a pan-Canadian task force on misinformation and disinformation, sharing data on what they’re seeing to combat these forces. They need to redouble efforts to nurture civic literacy as a bulwark against disinformation.

Ultimately, governments and civil society need to do more now, before we forget. An independent, national examination is the best way to gather experiences and learn lessons. It is crucial that Canada’s most important public institutions become more resilient so they are better prepared for today’s uncertain world.

Charles Breton is the executive director of the Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation at the Institute for Research on Public Policy. Jennifer Ditchburn is the president and CEO of the Institute for Research on Public Policy. David McLaughlin is the president and CEO of the Institute on Governance.

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