PUBLIC POLICY
PUBLIC POLICY Pandemic response and recovery
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The COVID pandemic dominated the public policy agenda for 2020 as BAC members struggled to adapt to an ever-changing environment. Since March, BAC’s advocacy efforts focused on communications—from communicating to governments about the challenges facing our members, to communicating what governments were undertaking by way of support measures.
Driving daily meetings, webinars and conference calls was our overriding goal to ensure our industry’s concerns were being heard. Initially, efforts were focused on keeping the supply chain open and workers protected. Governments, meanwhile, were focused on stopping the spread of COVID-19 and began implementing measures to shut down borders and businesses. Unfortunately, these measures also meant shutting down food processors and stopping the flow of food and ingredients coming into the country to ensure that bakers and supply chain could remain open in order to continue to provide a dietary staple to Canadians. BAC also undertook a member survey which highlighted the industry’s challenges in dealing with the pandemic. The survey revealed members were facing: increased absenteeism/labour shortages; hourly wage premiums; substantial costs to purchase personal protective equipment (PPE) and health screening tools; scheduling changes (including staggered shifts and decreased line speeds) to achieve more physical distancing; increased spacing of workers reducing production capacity (and increasing per unit costs); temporary non-structural modifications within plants to protect workers where physical distancing was not possible. BAC shared this information with all levels of government throughout 2020.
2020 BAC ANNUAL REPORT | www.baking.ca
