Communicating Policy in a Crisis: Lessons for Ontario Policymakers

Noah Zon explores the communications-related uncertainty around the programs and policies the Canadian and provincial governments have implemented since the beginning of COVID-19.

The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has required Canadian governments, including Ontario’s, to react quickly with new programs and policies.

Both the federal and provincial governments have designed a wide array of economic emergency programs to help people, businesses, and non-profit organizations weather the financial impacts of the COVID-19 crisis. But while the speed and creativity of these responses have generally been impressive, these efforts are being undermined by the way they have been communicated. The communications-related uncertainty around these programs harms their effectiveness and contributes to business closures and the exit of parents (especially women) from the workforce. This reflects a key point: communications is not tangential to public policy; it is crucial to public policy implementation, especially in a crisis.