COVID-19 IN MANITOBA PUBLIC POLICY RESPONSES TO THE FIRST WAVE Edited by Andrea Rounce and Karine Levasseur COVID - 19 IN MANITOBA COVID - 19 IN MANITOBA PUBLIC POLICY RESPONSES TO THE FIRST WAVE Edited by Andrea Rounce and Karine Levasseur COVID-19 in Manitoba: Public Policy Responses to the First Wave © The Authors 2020 This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution–Non- commercial–No Derivative Works 4.0 International Licence: http://www. creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. CC BY-NC-ND. The text may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that credit is given to the original author. To obtain permission for uses beyond those outlined in the Creative Commons license, please contact University of Manitoba Press ([email protected]). University of Manitoba Press Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Treaty 1 Territory uofmpress.ca Cataloguing data available from Library and Archives Canada isbn 978-0-88755-950-1 (pdf) Cover design by Jess Koroscil Interior design by Karen Armstrong Graphic Design The University of Manitoba Press acknowledges the financial support for its publication program provided by the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Department of Sport, Culture, and Heritage, the Manitoba Arts Council, and the Manitoba Book Publishing Tax Credit. CONTENTS COVID-19 in Manitoba: Public Policy Responses to the First Wave © The Authors 2020 This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution–Non- INTRODUCTION commercial–No Derivative Works 4.0 International Licence: http://www. Manitoba’s Mixed Bag of Policy Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. CC BY-NC-ND. The text Andrea Rounce, Karine Levasseur, and Shannon Furness ...................1 may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that credit is given to the original author. To obtain permission for uses beyond those outlined in the Creative Commons license, please contact University of PART 1: SHIFTING GROUNDS: GOVERNANCE AND Manitoba Press ([email protected]). EPIDEMIOLOGICAL RESPONSE 1 Mapping Manitoba’s Health Policy Response to the Outbreak Josée G. Lavoie, Wayne Clark, Razvan G. Romanescu, Wanda Phillips-Beck, Leona Star, and Rachel Dutton .........................9 University of Manitoba Press 2 Governing Manitoba in a Pandemic: Crises, Leadership, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and Institutions Treaty 1 Territory Paul G. Thomas .............................................................................26 uofmpress.ca 3 “What the MSM Won’t Tell You!” Social Media and Cataloguing data available from Library and Archives Canada isbn 978-0-88755-950-1 (pdf) Coronavirus Conspiracy Theories Jason Hannan ...............................................................................39 Cover design by Jess Koroscil Interior design by Karen Armstrong Graphic Design PART 2: POLICY, PANDEMICS, AND PLACES The University of Manitoba Press acknowledges the financial support for 4 The Pandemic and Manitoba’s Non-Profit Sector: its publication program provided by the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba A Case of Insufficient and Misdirected Provincial Public Policy Department of Sport, Culture, and Heritage, the Manitoba Arts Council, Sid Frankel ....................................................................................47 and the Manitoba Book Publishing Tax Credit. 5 The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Manitoba’s Public Universities Scott Forbes and Jim Clark ............................................................54 6 Austerity Politics and Anti-union Animus: Organized Labour in the Pandemic Julie Guard ...................................................................................62 7 Manitoba and the Pandemic: Economic Impact and the Policy Response Fletcher Baragar ............................................................................72 8 Challenges and Opportunities for Agriculture in Manitoba: Recovering from COVID-19 Emily C. Sousa, Sara Epp, Wayne Caldwell, William (Bill) Ashton, and Kathleen Kevany ...............................................................85 9 COVID-19 and the City of Winnipeg Aaron A. Moore .......................................................................94 10 COVID-19 Policies Increase the Inequity in Northern Manitoba’s Indigenous Communities Stewart Hill, Marleny Bonnycastle, and Shirley Thompson ..........98 PART 3: POLICY, PANDEMICS, AND PEOPLE 11 Protecting Our People: Indigenous Sovereignty and Resilience in Manitoba during the Era of COVID-19 Avery Hallberg and Kiera Ladner .............................................119 12 Leading in a Time of Crisis: The Manitoba Metis Federation’s COVID-19 Response Plan Will Goodon and Kelly Saunders .............................................129 13 Manitoba Child Care during COVID-19 Susan Prentice .......................................................................135 14 Manitoba in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Women’s Experiences Joan Grace .............................................................................141 15 Lip Service to the “Vulnerable”: Government Public Policy on Disability and the COVID-19 Pandemic Diane Driedger .......................................................................146 16 Policy Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Effect on Persons with Disabilities: Some Thoughts from Manitoba Darcy L. MacPherson ..............................................................150 17 “Friendly Manitoba”? An Examination of Racism and Xenophobia during the COVID-19 Pandemic Lori Wilkinson and Sally Ogoe ................................................156 18 Income Security in a Time of Pandemic: Neo-Liberalism Meets the Coronavirus in Manitoba James P. Mulvale ....................................................................163 19 The COVID-19 Policy Response for Renters and Persons Experiencing Homelessness in Manitoba Sarah Cooper and Jesse Hajer .................................................173 20 COVID-19 Policy Responses: Older Adults Laura Funk .............................................................................181 21 The Military and Manitoba Andrea Charron .....................................................................187 22 Parental Mental Health during COVID-19 Emily E. Cameron and Leslie E. Roos .......................................193 23 The Mental Health Impact of COVID-19 on Manitoba’s Essential Workers Natalie Mota and Kristin Reynolds ..........................................201 24 Very Necessary: Pandemic Protests and Pedagogies of Possibility Delia D. Douglas ....................................................................206 25 Recreation, Leisure, and Public Space: Manitoba’s COVID-19 Response Bruce Erickson .......................................................................213 26 Food Distribution during a Pandemic: A Tale of Two Supply Chains Paul D. Larson ........................................................................219 27 Architecture as Long-Term Care Lisa Landrum .........................................................................226 EPILOGUE .......................................................................... 233 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................235 CONTRIBUTORS .............................................................................237 INTRODUCTION Manitoba’s Mixed Bag of Policy Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic Andrea Rounce, Karine Levasseur, and Shannon Furness On 12 March 2020, a sudden, yet unpretentious news conference led by Health Minister Cameron Friesen, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Brent Roussin, and Chief Nursing Officer Lanette Siragusa confirmed Manitoba’s first case of COVID-19. The announcement heralded the end of “normalcy” for Manitobans. Soon to follow were closures of public institutions, private businesses, and, when possible, efforts to shift essential services online. One week later, another news conference, led by Premier Brian Pallister and Deputy Premier Heather Stefanson, declared a province-wide state of emergency, ushering in a new sense of urgency and rarely used government powers to protect Manitobans from the novel coronavirus and its devastating global reach. As public administration researchers, we began to watch, document, and analyze how governments responded to the COVID-19 outbreak in order to protect Manitobans. This book seeks to understand how Manitoba fared during the first wave of the pandemic in the hopes of providing insight for the next waves of the pandemic. In terms of tim- ing, this book focuses on the initial outset of COVID-19 in Manitoba from approximately March 2020 to August 2020. This is an important point: the timeline for this book is specific to the first wave of the pandemic, although there will also be references to developments that took place up to the publication date in November 2020. Of course, a complete post-mortem will be necessary to allow for a more holistic analysis of the pandemic rather than by waves. 2 COVID-19 IN MANITOBA Manitoba is not alone in confronting and articulating a response to COVID-19. While this volume primarily focuses on Manitoban pub- lic policy responses to COVID-19 during the first wave, it also seeks to address (where possible) the intersecting arrangement of Canada’s federal system of government and the pandemic’s implications for in- terprovincial, Indigenous, and community collaboration