With global supply chains looking fragile during the COVID-19 pandemic, Quebec is seeking ways to make its economy more self-sufficient.
This story is part of The COVID Economy, a CBC News series looking at how the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic is affecting jobs, manufacturing and business in regions across Canada.
When the Quebec government shut down non-essential business activity in the province last month to deal with the deadly coronavirus, it promised to help kick-start the economy again once the danger had passed.
Though Quebec hasn’t yet reached its peak number of new COVID-19 cases, it appears likely to avoid the worst-case scenarios feared by public health experts. The current plan is to gradually begin reopening the economy early next month.
But as the provincial government gets ready to make good on its promise to business owners, it is realizing they will be confronting a radically different global marketplace.
“It will be a new world,” Quebec’s economy minister, Pierre Fitzgibbon, said in a recent interview.
Fitzgibbon is expecting that not only will consumer behaviour change, so, too, will the behaviour of governments around the world.
Most governments will be heavily indebted from the expensive emergency relief measures needed to support millions of unemployed workers and backstop thousands of businesses.
Fitzgibbon said he believes that will impel them to defend their investments.
“There is going to be a geopolitical environment of increased protectionism,” he said.
In that context, Quebec needs to rethink how it secures stable access to the goods and services needed to keep its economy, and society, running smoothly, he said.
“Because depending on international markets will be less desirable, it will be very important for us to target what we want to protect in terms of supply chains.”
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The best way to do that, Fitzgibbon said, is making parts of the Quebec economy less reliant on imports.
Quebec has already announced a buy-local initiative, the Panier Bleu, an inventory of made-in-Quebec products.
But the government is also in the early stages of exploring how to ensure more pharmaceuticals, medical supplies and food is produced within the province.
“I think all countries will want to be self-sufficient when it comes to strategic goods,” Fitzgibbon said.
Many were already thinking that way early in the crisis, when China began shutting down its factories to deal with the outbreak. Recent events have only reinforced that mindset.