Getting back to business in Hamilton
How many COVID-19 recovery task forces does the city need? One will probably pass muster for now
Mayor Fred Eisenberger’s proposed COVID economic recovery task force has sailed through council with flying colours.
No surprise there. And there probably won’t be anything astonishing in the makeup of the task force either.
The idea is to enlist reps from local business, industry, labour and academia to provide advice on how to re-anchor an economy unmoored by the pandemic’s devastating impact on regular commerce.
So we can probably look for the usual prominent community suspects to sign on.
Eisenberger sees the task force providing streamlined guidance to help shuttered businesses reopen under the province’s cautiously staged easing of emergency restrictions.
The mayor wants the group to help all suffering sectors — retail, agricultural, film, music, you name it — tap into provincial, federal and municipal resources to help navigate a gradual return to normal.
“Coming out of this is going to be complex, tricky, and we’ll still have a virus to deal with while we’re out there so it’s going to be very, very challenging … at any level,” Eisenberger said during Wednesday’s virtual council meeting.
Dealing with expectations around the virtual council table may also be a bit challenging.
Staff were directed to come back with terms of reference for the task force for council’s approval. Clearly some councillors already have their own ideas.
Nrinder Nann, for instance, wants a more “robust” conversation about what recovery should look like. Nann argues COVID’s impact has unveiled historic and systemic inequities that has some people talking about a recovery that “ends up becoming more just.”
Nann says health and safety must be at the forefront, but she looks forward to drilling down into “how we might be able to integrate that kind of equity and climate lens into our business development and recovery stage.”
Along the same lines, Maureen Wilson wondered if the task force will look beyond immediate business recovery and tackle longer-term issues like the importance of building quality affordable housing for front-line workers.
She also hoped the task force could look at the way women are systemically shut out from accessing capital for starting small businesses.
Eisenberger acknowledged the pandemic has highlighted some “glaring inequalities.” But he sees those as longer-term issues. He wants the task force to focus on getting local businesses back in operation.
For his part, Sam Merulla said Nann and Wilson have legitimate concerns, but the terms of reference should concentrate on matters council can control. Still, he served notice he wants to see another task force established to look at the social impacts of COVID-19.
That’s an interesting idea, but where would it start and where would it end? The social impacts of the pandemic are incalculable.
For instance, some analysts believe the virus has sounded the death knell of the already hamstrung retail sector since so many more people have embraced online shopping.
Others suggest that fear of a second wave or the arrival of another dangerous virus could seriously erode consumer confidence, airline travel, and even the push for greater urban density for years to come.
Meanwhile, preliminary research suggests that physicaldistancing measures may need to be intermittently enforced until 2022.
What are the social impacts of all those things?
British research suggests that obese people hospitalized with COVID-19 are 37 per cent more likely to die than other patients. What are the social impacts of that?
Early research from France suggests smokers may be less at risk of getting COVID than non-smokers. What are the social impacts of that?
There’s emerging evidence that more men than women are dying from COVID and that race, income and other social determinants of health are also factors in contracting the disease.
What are the social impacts of all that?
The reality is, at this stage, we don’t know if the coronavirus represents a short-term disruption or a long-term dislocation of what previously passed for normal in our society.
Professional researchers will be poring over the social impacts for years. Does city council really need another task force to help them figure it out?