PUBLIC POLICY

Pandemic response and recovery

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.

IMMEDIATE AND LONG-TERM NEEDS

BAC worked with partners to bring industry concerns to the attention of the federal government. BAC was a signatory to a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau and key cabinet members promoting a two-pronged approach, which included:

Phase 1: Coping - The period concurrent with the outbreak of the pandemic and related socialdistancing and emergency measures.

Phase 2: Recovery - During this period, food and beverage manufacturers experienced a relative calm as the first phase of the health crisis subsided and the impact of the economic crisis became clearer. This phase provided an opportunity to evaluate the impact of the pandemic and the longer-term sustainability of food manufacturers and the food system.

Food and beverage manufacturers faced incredible immediate challenges as they managed the health of their workers and met the imperatives needed to maintain Canada’s food supply in a continuously changing environment. The immediate objective for spring and summer was to ensure as many food manufacturers as possible qualified for the COVID-19 financial support programs. In order to do so, BAC and others, called for the federal government to:

1 / Modify the Criteria for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) for Food Manufacturers. The CEWS covers 75 percent of an employee’s wages (up to $847 per week) for employers of any size that have suffered a drop in gross revenues of at least 15 percent in March, and 30 percent in April and May. The initial CEWS left some food manufacturers without support. BAC called for amendments that would:

Provide a sliding scale of support for food manufacturers experiencing revenue reduction of between 15 and 30 percent; and

Provide an option for food manufacturers to apply for the CEWS based on reductions in net income, thereby capturing those companies impacted by the COVID 19-related costs noted above.

PHASE 1: COPING

2 / Expand Business Risk Management Programs to Include Food and Beverage Manufacturers Agriculture and Agri-food Canada (AAFC) offers a suite of Business Risk Management (BRM) programs for Canada’s agriculture sector to help it weather economic hardship. These programs are exclusively available to primary producers and do not recognize need across the food system.

For those processors that did not qualify under an Agri-Stability type program, BAC advocated for the Agri-Recovery framework to be available to respond to the extraordinary costs incurred due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

While initial efforts focused on managing the immediate crisis, planning for the recovery phase and ensuring the long-term sustainability of Canada’s food system, is now BAC’s primary focus. Moving forward, we will:

1 / Begin building a plan for industry recovery through a new federal-provincial-industry working group that will:

Evaluate the state of the food system in the aftermath of the first wave of the pandemic;

Identify key issues and considerations facing the food system during the recovery phase – including health considerations, the overlay of regulatory obligations, supply chain issues, etc.;

Determine what measures (e.g. social distancing, barriers, PPE) the industry will need to manage, and how, in the new world of COVID-19;

Create recommendations on how to manage on-going potential disruptions to the food supply;

Develop a consistent framework for evaluating the impact of COVID 19. This would ensure a consistent program of data collection and analysis across industry and governments and allow for a coordinated and shared approach to evaluating the impact; of COVID-19 on the food supply chain.

PHASE 2: RECOVERY AND LONG-TERM SUSTAINABILITY

2 / Undertake an arms-length review of how the food system managed in COVID-19 We all must learn from the recent experiences to strengthen the food system in the long-term.

Prioritization of Essential Food Workers for Vaccinations: As COVID-19 vaccines began to roll-out in late 2020, BAC contacted federal and provincial officials, Ministers of Health, and heads of Public Health Agencies requesting vaccine prioritization of essential food workers after vulnerable populations, health care workers and first responders.