Although COVID-19 is likely to be viewed as a global turning point, other economic shocks impacted the Canadian economy during 2019-2020. The United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union—while not immediately impactful—has the potential to cause disruptions in the future, as “Brexit” will require the United Kingdom (among the world’s largest economies) to exit the jurisdiction of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) trade agreement between Canada and the European Union (EU). The Wet’suwet’en protests temporarily caused construction to halt on TransCanada’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline in British Columbia, and then more importantly, halted rail traffic across the country for several weeks. This short-term supply chain disruption led the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) to estimate a reduction of 0.2% in Canada’s GDP during the first quarter. By end of March 2020, these disruptions—Brexit and the rail blockades—would seem minuscule in nature. COVID-19’s economic contractions have had
