Pandemic has produced some innovative change
Prepping my urban coronavirus hermitage involved packing my freezer with comforting made-ahead delights: pulled pork, chili, various pasta sauces including a life-altering Bolognese ragout recipe from Marie in Quebec City, who runs foodnouveau.com. Mostly, however, I’ve found myself wanting to eat … a bit more downscale. Supplies of Pogos and Bagel Bites are shamefully depleted, well ahead of schedule. And I do love that chicken from Popeye’s.
My superb local fried chicken joint has come up with a very simple and reassuring way to fill walk- up orders. It’s explained on the locked door: You phone in your order from outside, then retreat eight feet; an employee comes to the door with the credit/debit machine, makes eye contact, demonstratively puts on a fresh pair of gloves, opens the door and places the machine on a stool outside, along with the box of gloves. The customer dons a pair of the gloves, completes the transaction, discards the gloves in the waste basket provided, and retreats eight feet again. The employee, wearing fresh gloves, returns with the order and places it, with a smile, on the stool.
This is neither particularly ingenious nor unique. The food- delivery industry has taken to calling it “contactless delivery,” which is an amusingly jargon- y term for “pay in advance and we’ll leave it wherever you tell us and run.” I found myself weirdly impressed, though. Popeye’s system might not scale to Ronald’s place across the street, and I’m certainly not questioning Mcdo’s decision to shut down everything in Canada except delivery and drive- thru. But especially living in a city where most everyone seems to be treating COVID-19 with suitable respect, it’s nice to appreciate the ingenuity that will keep those of us lucky enough to be sentenced to house arrest as comfortable as possible.
And it has been striking to see governments getting out of the way. Ontario, where change is generally about as welcome as a dry cough and fever, is all of a sudden a jurisdiction where licensed foodservice establishments can sell alcoholic beverages with takeout or delivery meals. It’s a place where supermarkets licensed to sell booze can do so as of 7 a. m. British Columbia made the same call on booze delivery and takeout. Alberta has allowed restaurants to sell their booze, period.
It’s hard not to notice that these loosened restrictions come as government- run bottle shops in Ontario and Quebec shorten hours. In Ontario, The Beer Store, a foreign- owned quasi- monopoly, has reduced hours and refuses to refund empty bottles. ( There is no other place to refund empty bottles in Ontario.) They say you find out in a crisis who your friends are.
Ontario justified 7 a. m. sales as accommodating early- shopper seniors. B.C. justified booze delivery as employment for laid- off servers. Alberta justified offsales as a way for businesses to liquidate their supply. But what if, when coronavirus is beaten, we just never went back?
Innovation is busting out all over. This week on Twitter, my National Post colleague Brian Platt noted that the Ontario court hearing Jim Karahalios’s challenge to his expulsion from the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race has demanded “all evidence, motion records, and factums … be filed in searchable PDF format” — not on the usual papyrus scrolls. This is nothing short of epochal. It’s a shame it might take a pandemic to reform Ontario’s steam- punk court system, but it would be a shame to let the opportunity go to waste.
In the name of sanitized hands, Transport Canada has even relaxed its rules on taking liquids aboard airplanes. How about when we’re done with this bastard virus, we not re-stiffen those asinine rules?
I had a routine doctor’s appointment on Monday by phone. ( I see now it could also have been a video appointment. It never occurred to me to ask.) Both I and my GP were at home — she was waiting on a COVID-19 test, having previously exhibited mild symptoms — but she had access to my whole computerized file. She refilled my prescriptions with the push of a button. She works for the family health unit at one of Toronto’s biggest hospitals, and it seems to be somewhat ahead of the curve technologically. But COVID-19 has certainly redeemed the planning work that went into their system. Once the pandemic is over, maybe routine in- person doctor’s appointments won’t seem so necessary.
Not all facets of society were as prepared, notably public schools. They can’t very well roll out mandatory e- learning programs if even a small number of their students lack the technology or the bandwidth to participate. But surely there is enough technology stranded right now in those schools, and in public libraries, to ensure universal access to some kind of educational programs. Nothing can replace in- person learning, especially for younger students, but there are plenty of opportunities to keep them intellectually stimulated — and out of their parents’ hair.
All of Canadian society is scrambling to limit COVID-19 to an economic disaster and a humanitarian tragedy. Much direr nouns could soon be in play. But it’s not too soon to insist we make the best of the positive opportunities that present themselves, and be better prepared for next time.