Ontario Recovery Series: Wrap-Up & Key Takeaways

The Ontario Recovery Series was conceptualized to answer the question: what comes next?

Since beginning the series in July 2021, Canada’s vaccination rate has overtaken the US and is a world leader. Ontario alone has 81.5% of the 12+ population vaccinated and nearly 73.5% fully vaccinated. Even with the increased threat of the Delta variant and upcoming back to school challenges, Ontario is poised to move forwards towards a safe reopening and focus will shift to supporting our collective economic recovery.

In correlation with the uptrend in vaccination, the province is seeing positive economic signs as well. The Province recently released their 2021-22 First Quarter Finances Report, which illustrated that since the 2021 Budget real gross domestic product forecasts for 2021 have been revised upwards thanks in part to stronger than expected US and global growth, but those growth projections still lag behind pre-pandemic Ontario. The government is projecting a deficit of $32.4 billion in 2021-22, $700 million less from the outlook presented in the 2021 Budget.

Policy makers have been grappling with the big questions about Ontario’s recovery and we hope the ideas put forward in our Ontario Recovery Series help with answering them. From health care priorities such as clearing the surgical backlog to embracing digital health, to economic issues such as small business recovery – the series covered a lot of ground. Take a look here:

• Kailey Vokes: We Need to Get Creative to Clear the Post-Covid Surgical Backlog

• Mitchell Davidson: Why Small Business Should Be the Backbone of Ontario’s Recovery

• Sara Bourdeau and Srusti Pandya: Pandemic Lessons Key to Bringing Ontario’s Healthcare System Into the 21^st Century

• Matt Conley and Matt Sparling: Build Back Better? Let’s Start with Our Agricultural Workers

• Mitchell Davidson: Creativity and Action Are Key to Ontario’s Tourism Recovery

• Brian Teefy: Ontario Can Achieve Net-Zero and The Path to Get There Is a Political Winner

The Ontario Recovery Series featured our talented StrategyCorp team of government and industry experts discussing real time policy challenges in Ontario and practical solutions for government to consider.

Thank you for following our Ontario Recovery Series this summer and be sure to join our mailing list if you haven’t already at www.strategycorp.com.