Resilient Institutions: Learning from Canada’s COVID-19 Pandemic
Those surreal weeks of March 2020. The coronavirus was cutting a path of devastation around the globe and across our communities. Canada’s political leaders announced wide-scale shutdowns that affected all facets of our daily lives. We couldn’t fathom then the long-term impact the pandemic would have on our families, our businesses, on public finances and on the health care system.
Four years later, it’s worth asking: Have Canadian institutions learned anything from that traumatic roller-coaster of a crisis? Will they be ready for the next one?
The short answer is an unsatisfactory “sort of.” Our governments have only a fragmented picture of what happened during the pandemic. Provinces, territories, federal departments and officials have taken their own limited snapshots of the pandemic, but that’s not enough.
Resilient Institutions: Learning from Canada’s COVID-19 Pandemic, a new report from the Institute for Research on Public Policy’s Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation and the Institute on Governance, is the first publication to look at how COVID-19 impacted public institutions across the country, with a focus on public health, the public service, federalism and democracy.
On Wednesday, April 3 in Toronto we had a conversation about how to make Canada’s institutions more resilient so that they’re better able to respond to future crises. Panellists David Lametti (Counsel at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin and former Minister of Justice and Attorney General), Fahad Razak (Canada Research Chair in Healthcare Data and Analytics), and Lori Turnbull (professor of political science in the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University) discussed the findings of the report, and what the government can do better the next time it is confronted by a crisis.
The discussion was moderated by Charles Breton, executive director of the Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation. It was a hybrid event that took place in person at the Toronto Reference Library and online via Zoom.
David Lametti currently serves as Counsel to Fasken Martineau DuMoulin’s Montreal office. He has over 25 years of experience in law and politics as a professor, Parliamentary Secretary, Member of Parliament for LaSalle—Émard—Verdun and Minister of Justice. He is a frequent speaker at a number of prestigious universities on issues related to his research, particularly with respect to property theory and social norms. David is a former Full Professor of Law and Associate Dean (Academic) at McGill University, with extensive experience in management and distilling complex information, as well as in-depth knowledge of the legal field.
Canada Research Chair in Healthcare Data and Analytics at the University of Toronto
Fahad is an internist at St Michael’s Hospital (Unity Health Toronto), and Canada Research Chair in Healthcare Data and Analytics at the University of Toronto. He co-founded GEMINI, the largest hospital research network in Canada, and one of few such examples globally. He was the Scientific Director of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table and co-authored more than 50 science and policy briefs that shaped the policy, public health and clinical response to the COVID-19 crisis. He is active in science communication and is the co-founder of the Rounds Table, a podcast about new research in medicine.
Professor of political science in the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University
Lori’s research and teaching focus on parliamentary democracy and governance, public sector ethics, and the future of work. She has taught political science and public administration at Dalhousie, Queen’s, Carleton, and Acadia universities. From July 2015 until July 2017, she was on secondment to the Privy Council Office (PCO), first as a Policy Advisor in the Machinery of Government Secretariat, then as Departmental Liaison to the Office of the Minister of Democratic Institutions, and finally as a Policy Advisor at the Priorities and Planning Secretariat. Her book Democratizing the Constitution: Reforming Responsible Government, co-authored with Mark Jarvis and the late Peter Aucoin, won the Donner Prize in 2011 and the Donald Smiley Prize in 2012.
Executive Director of the IRPP's Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation
Charles Breton has been the Executive Director of the IRPP’s Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation since 2019. He was the research director at Vox Pop Labs, where he led the design of innovative public opinion research tools such as Vote Compass. His research interests include Canadian politics, comparative public policy and public opinion research. Before pursuing an academic career, he was a researcher and journalist for current affairs programs on Radio-Canada, and he is a frequent analyst and expert commentator on Canadian politics and public policy. He holds a PhD in political science from the University of British Columbia, did post-doctoral studies at Vanderbilt University, and has an MA in political science from the Université de Montréal.
Date and time
April 3, 2024
5:00 p.m. (4:30 p.m. for in-person registration)
Location
Toronto Reference Library, Appel Salon, 789 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON M4W 2G8
Event Type
Panel Discussion
Registration
Free (please note that the below link is for in-person registration; see event description for webinar registration link)
Registration is closed
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About the Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation
The Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation is a permanent research body within the Institute for Research on Public Policy. Its mission is to build a deeper understanding of Canada as a federal community.
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