The Impact of COVID-19 on the Government

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a massive government response to mitigate the effects of a widespread economic shutdown. Across Canada, business closures were imposed, international trade protracted, and the unemployment rate reached 13.7%.

So how did levels of government respond? The federal government implemented an ambitious economic response totalling almost $300 billion in direct and tax support; provincial governments managed the public health crises in their respective jurisdictions; Municipal governments, dealing with liquidity and cash flow declines from social distancing and quarantine measures eliminating large portions of transit, recreation and service revenues, had to borrow from capital reserves and slash infrastructure projects.

Global Advantage’s “Impact of COVID-19 on Governments” briefing deck contains insights into the measures that governments took to respond to the pandemic, impacts of the pandemic on the public sector across all levels of government, and contains scenarios and strategies for governments to recover post-pandemic.