Opinion
Federal policy will need to pivot from support to recovery
By Ian Russell May 6, 2020
As the federal government’s capacity to provide direct relief measures diminishes with the ballooning deficit weighing on the treasury, federal policy needs to quickly shift to indirect policies to promote confidence and investment to help speed economic recovery.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought economic shock faster and more severely than the 2008 global financial crisis. In contrast to the financial sector factors that led to the events of 2008, the shock of COVID-19 has stemmed from the government’s necessary and humanitarian response to impose stay-in-place orders and business shutdowns to fight COVID-19. The result is a steep decline in demand, spilling into reduced employment and incomes of individual Canadians and businesses. The bulk of economic activity has shut down, something not seen even during the Great Depression or the Second World War.
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