COVID-19 Policy Brief Series

With the rapid onset of COVID-19, which included the mandatory closure of non-essential workplaces in Ontario and travel restrictions, the OCC has mobilized quickly to support the business community in different ways.

To help inform relief and recovery efforts, the OCC will be releasing a series of policy briefs touching on various aspects of the COVID-19 crisis.

Read Uncharted Territory: Assessing the Landscape of Ontario’s Economic Recovery Post COVID-19 | April 2020

COVID-19 containment measures, while essential to seeing resolution of the epidemic, have come at tremendous economic cost. Businesses are struggling to retain cashflows needed to meet immediate short-term obligations such as wages and rent. The inability of businesses to cope with the pressure, and make ends meet during the crisis, marks the beginning of what could be a swift deterioration of invaluable economic structures, irreparably harming Ontario’s economic future. Immense relief measures are needed if such structures, including supply chains, markets, private investment, and credit facilities are to be preserved through the pandemic.

This report examines the policy tools capable of providing critical economic relief, and the economic risks of failing to act appropriately. Confidence in the government’s ability to see the economy through the pandemic must be palpable if markets are to remain liquid, and our economy is to be preserved.

Read our report.

Read Collaboration in Crisis: A memo from COVID-19 | May 2020

Collaboration has been a dominant theme throughout the COVID-19 crisis, both within and across countries. In Ontario, unprecedented alignment between businesses and all levels of government has been instrumental to crafting policy responses and supplying critical products and services.
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However, this cooperation will be put to the test as communities around the world take steps to reopen their economies and turn towards recovery. While globalization had been in retreat for years prior to the crisis, the brief warns against pulling integration back further and underscores the importance of global ties, particularly for Ontario, where economic growth depends on harmonious global trading relationships and well-functioning international supply chains. Continued collaboration will also be required as provinces begin to ease public health measures at different rates. Managing the interprovincial movement of goods and people will require a renewed commitment to collaboration to avoid jeopardizing the progress already made.
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Read our report.