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Is it time to build the Canadian Shield?

Understanding The Canadian Shield

This strategy is designed to shield Canadians and our economy from both COVID and the unintended consequences of the fight against COVID.

Determined action over the next few weeks could save 5,000 lives, create 320,000 jobs, and generate $37 B of economic growth in 2021 compared to Canada’s present, failing COVID mitigation strategy.

For decision-makers, there are 3 key actions:

Sustain an effective lockdown until COVID cases are low enough that testing, tracing and isolation can work effectively.
Relax restrictions only to the extent that new COVID cases continue a steady decline of 17% - 25% per week. In the fight against COVID, if you are not winning (i.e., new cases are not going steadily down) you are losing. Any new increases will likely lead to a 3rd set of lockdowns in the spring.
Proactively assist the individuals, businesses and communities most affected by these policies.

Read the full report

CovidStrategicChoices is an initiative to further analyze, deliberate and define the ideal strategy to manage the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. The members of this initiative are listed below.

Considering the key choices available to Canada, we seem to have three distinct paths forward; i) the current path (which is faltering), ii) much stricter measures (much like the Melbourne Model) and lastly, iii) the Canadian Shield model (a strategic choice tabled by our group of experts).

Browse our thought process behind the Canadian Shield below:

[3 pages] Should we consider the Canadian Shield?

[13 pages] Will the Canadian Shield lockdown policy save jobs in Ontario?

[7 pages] Economic analysis of the different strategies

[12 pages] International best practices for managing COVID

Should we consider the Canadian Shield?

[Key summary in first 3 pages]
A summary for decision makers, journalists and others. Overview of the current path, recommended path and key differences in outcomes (deaths, economic impact, etc.)

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Will the Canadian Shield lockdown policy save jobs in Ontario?

[13 pages]
Comparing the costs to the Ontario economy of continuing to follow a mitigation policy modeled after the policies from early 2020, or alternatively adopting the “Canadian Shield” strategy with stricter restrictions in the early months of 2021 in order to avoid additional waves of lockdown later in the spring.

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Economic analysis of the different strategies

[7 pages]
Limestone Analytics, together with economists from Queen’s University, developed the Short-Term Under-capacity Dynamic Input-Output (STUDIO) model to measure the economic impact of COVID-19.

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International best practices for managing COVID

[33 pages]
Should Canada Go For Zero? Global Best Practices, TANZANC Democracies & Lessons For Canada

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Who’s involved in this conversation

Please note that these members are serving in their individual capacities and though this group endorses this initiative and the Canadian Shield strategy, not every member will be in agreement with every observation and recommendation.