RCC joins other leading business groups in calling for a coherent national strategy to manage COVID-19 and asks retailers to sign a petition

RCC and Canada’s other leading business groups outlined their plan to turn the tide against the country’s floundering patchwork approach of simply reacting to rising daily COVID-19 numbers. The Pan-Canadian Strategy to Manage COVID-19 provides a framework for governments to get ahead of the pandemic.

The group urges for a national strategy, that must include all three levels of government working together as partners, to collaboratively address these six key components:

• data-driven, science-based policies to limit the spread of the virus
• significant, widespread rapid testing and contact tracing
• open, transparent communications and consistent messaging
• tailored support for the hardest hit economically
• a well-designed, well-organised and well-communicated plan for vaccine administration
• a holistic approach to evaluating the costs and benefits of actions to control the disease

In support of this strategy, RCC’s president and CEO Diane J. Brisebois made the following statement. “Making the shift to evidence-based policymaking is essential. Policy decisions, particularly at a provincial and municipal level, are often being issued without supporting data or a coherent rationale, the worst being the disparate “shot in the dark” approaches to lockdowns. Retailers will support measures that properly target the spread of infection and strive to contain economic damage to the extent possible. We cannot support policy experiments with tenuous connection to better health outcomes and devastating economic side-effects.”