Table of Contents About the Authors ....................................................................................................................3 Preface ..........................................................................................................................................5 Introduction: A Results-Based Synopsis .............................................................................6 The Impact and Implications of COVID-19 on Selected Areas of Governance in Canada The Executive and Parliament The Perils of Reduced Parliamentary Scrutiny ........................................................................9 Multiparty Agreements and A Better Model for Parliament during Crisis .......................... 17 Parliament: Managing Change during the Pandemic .......................................................... 23 COVID-19, Cabinet, and Central Agencies............................................................................ 35 Public Sector/Service Public Policy and Delivery: Temporary Response or Creating New Pathways? .................. 42 Intergovernmental Relations Fiscal Transfers, Discipline and the Sustainability of Provincial Debt .................................. 54 A Local Government Response to the Pandemic: The Kingston Case ................................. 62 At the Intersection of Law and Politics Accountability to Law through Litigation ............................................................................. 75 Recommendations ................................................................................................................. 92 Appendices Appendix A: COVID-19 Political and Policy Chronology in Canada ...................................... 96 Appendix B: PROC and Virtual Voting in the House of Commons ....................................... 98 2 About the Authors Dr. Kathy L. Brock, professor and senior fellow, School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University, chair of the National Accreditation Board for Programs in Public Administration, and former president of the Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration. She has advised FPT and Indigenous governments and leaders on governance issues. She is co-author of Canadian Politics Today: Democracy, Diversity and Good Government (Pearson, 2020). Helen Cooper, distinguished fellow, School of Policy Studies, former mayor, City of Kingston. She is a former president of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario and a former chair of the Ontario Municipal Board. Toby Fyfe, President, President of the Canada-based not-for-profit Institute on Governance, and SPS Advisory Council member. He has over 20 years’ experience as an executive with the Government of Canada, including central agencies and government departments. He provides support to government institutions and leaders across Canada and internationally as they respond to the challenges of public-sector governance in the 21st century. Andrew Graham, adjunct professor, School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University, and former ADM with over 30 years in the Canadian public service. He was formerly the national editor of the Case Study Program of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada and is author of Canadian Public Sector Financial Management. His academic focus is on the public service, leadership, management, and financial management. He also works extensively on police governance issues nationally and with First Nations. Kyle Hanniman, assistant professor of political studies and research fellow at the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, Queen's University. His research interests include comparative federalism, political economy, public debt, and Canadian politics. His commentary has appeared in the Globe and Mail, National Post, and Financial Post. Samantha Kieffer, MPA candidate, School of Policy Studies, Queen's University. She has begun her career as a program officer with the federal public service and her continued research interests include taxation mechanisms and trade policy. Eugene Lang, adjunct professor, School of Policy Studies, and fellow, Canadian Global Affairs Institute. He has worked in five federal government departments, in both the public service and in ministers’ offices. Lang is co-author (with Janice Stein) of The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar. Graeme Murray, MPA candidate and research assistant to the Governance Working Group, School of Policy Studies. He is a former writer for the McGill International Review and has published in the McGill Journal of Political Studies. 3 Gregory Tardi, executive director of the Institute of Parliamentary and Political Law and executive editor of the Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law; former legal counsel at Elections Canada and senior parliamentary counsel in the Office of the Law Clerk of the House of Commons. He is author of The Theory and Practice of Political Law (2016) and Anatomy of an Election (2020). Dr. Lori Turnbull, adjunct professor, School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University, and director, School of Policy Studies, Dalhousie University. She was former policy advisor in the Privy Council Office of Canada, liaison to the minister of democratic institutions, and at the Priorities and Planning Secretariat. Co-author of Democratizing the Constitution: Reforming Responsible Government (2011). Table of Contents 4 Preface Governments around the world have been under extreme pressure to develop responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. After achieving some success in the early months of the disruption, Canada once again sees rising COVID cases in many provinces. Governance decisions have never been more critical. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will be felt by every Canadian and affect every aspect of our economy and society. The responses that are implemented will have long-term implications for the citizens of this country. A rapidly-evolving mindset has shifted from ‘how can we recover’ to ‘how can we recover better than we were before’. The challenge for policymakers thus has morphed from simply responding to the outbreak, to designing policy that supports the specialized goals of various groups across our population. This is an extremely significant challenge; while health policy remains ascendant, there is a growing need to coordinate policy across a number of related areas in designing countermeasures, including (but not limited to) policies grouped in the following eight categories: arts & culture, economics & employment, education, energy & environment, governance, health & healthcare mental health, and security. To accelerate the development of strong policies that can facilitate Canada’s recovery from COVID-19, the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University launched a research programme in the summer of 2020 that brought together researchers from across Queen’s University and beyond to consider options in each of the eight policy categories identified above. In this report, the impact of COVID-19 on the future of governance in Canada is explored. In this paper, the authors explore the implications of COVID-19 on different aspects of governance across Canada, with a particular focus on the federal government, the operations of parliament, and the cabinet. The ability of the public service to create new pathways to governance is investigated. The important role of provinces and cities are also covered through case studies, and the implications for future laws are described. This paper brings together an array of extremely informed authors, organized by Professor Kathy Brock of the School of Policy Studies. They make an important contribution to one of the most important public policy discussions of our time. As Director of the School of Policy Studies, I would like to thank each of our contributors for their work. Warren Mabee, Director, School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University Table of Contents 5 The Impact of COVID-19 on the Future of Governance in Canada: A White Paper Just like in wartime, people are frightened, public attitudes are changing, and the circumstances are necessitating a big expansion of the government’s role. John Cassidy, The New Yorker, April 3, 2020 Question: What is white and black but seldom red (read)? Answer: A white paper. – Anonymous Introduction: A Results-Based Synopsis Kathy Brock with Graeme Murray Canada shut down in March 2020. The spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) worldwide had reached the Canadian shores, inspiring fears that the public healthcare system would be overwhelmed as Canadians fought for their health and lives. To prevent these fears from becoming reality, the Canadian governments ordered a shutdown of social and economic activity nationwide and closure of the entire border for the first time in Canadian history. Only essential services were permitted to operate. Canadian governments shifted into overdrive in an effort to keep Canadians well informed, healthy, and economically viable. The extent of government activity at the federal level is traced in the chronology presented in Appendix A. While the health, economic and social effects of this WHO-designated pandemic have received much attention, the impact of the pandemic on government operations in the immediate and long term have remained underexplored. And yet, government is being transformed. Not only has its role in society and the economy expanded enormously, its ways of working from the practical to the theoretical assumptions of good governance have been fundamentally changed. Is this change temporary or a paradigmatic