Governance Challenges revealed by COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare a number of fundamental governance challenges with respect to intergovernmental collaboration, public communications, information sharing, emergency planning and response, and public trust. We learned a lot from the pandemic about our capacity for effective governance in trying times. But we need to understand more about what happened during that time to ensure that we are better prepared for a similar event in the future. Further, lessons learned from the pandemic can help us govern better in “ordinary times” – even when there is no emergency to respond to.

“So, what lessons have Canadian institutions learned from the pandemic? Will they be ready for the next crisis?” This is the question posed in an opinion piece recently penned by the Institute on Governance’s President and CEO, David MacLaughlin, and Jennifer Ditchburn and Charles Breton of the Institute for Research on Public Policy. Read the full op ed here.