From wacky to wise, business innovations for relaunching the economy without generating a U.S.-style second tsunami of COVID-19.
As the Bank of Canada’s new governor, Tiff Macklem, reminded us last week, the lockdown to stop the coronavirus epidemic has been costly. And the battle is not over yet.
Those who once thought shuttering the economy to corral COVID-19 was too expensive now merely have to look south, where a strategy of whistling past the graveyard has led to an economically devastating second round of the disease.
Even while some COVID-deniers continue a bizarre refusal to follow simple steps to defeat the pandemic, Canadian businesses may be able to profit from lessons learned abroad.
Using the innovation for which capitalism is famed and the power of good science, it may be possible to have the best of both worlds. Instead of waiting for a vaccine — which some scientists doubt will be as effective as hoped — businesses and policy-makers are seeking strategies to reopen the economy without launching an even more costly renewed outbreak.
From the slightly wacky to the eminently practical, here are some ways Canada might be able to have its cake and eat it too.
1. Drinking helmets
From Japanese whisky-producer Suntory comes one of the most interesting COVID-19 business proposals: a specialized drinking helmet that allows the up-close socializing typical in pubs without sharing the virus. The company has not yet revealed prototypes.
Along with Plexiglas barriers, vastly improved ventilation and increased table spacing, the drinking helmet would just be a slightly more eccentric innovation to keep patrons feel safe while showing authorities that bars and restaurants need not be sources of contagion.
2. Automation
As agricultural economist and farmer Philip Shaw told me recently, automation was already sweeping the industry — even in such difficult tasks as tomato picking — before COVID-19 precautions began adding to the costs of temporary foreign workers. Shaw, who worries farmers have not had enough government support during the crisis, says profits depend on imported labour.
But every time costs rise, new technology becomes more feasible. Now, after repeated outbreaks of the disease in meat-packing plants, companies including Tyson Foods are struggling to get machines to do processing jobs that have traditional