MONTREAL — As we approach the fifth anniversary of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Institute for Research on Public Policy is revisiting the work and analyses carried out by its Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation, which closely followed the evolution of public policy in response to this unprecedented crisis.

Charles Breton, Executive Director of the Centre, is available for comment and analysis on subjects including:

• Crisis governance: How different jurisdictions managed the pandemic and the coordination challenges between Ottawa and the provinces.
• Public opinion and trust: The impact of the crisis on Canadians’ perception of governments.
• Post-pandemic institutions: How the provinces and the federal government adapted, what reforms have been implemented, and what remains to be done.

Since 2020, the Centre of Excellence and its Executive Director, Charles Breton, have published numerous analyses on federal-provincial coordination, the evolution of health measures and the lessons to be learned to strengthen the resilience of Canadian institutions in the face of future crises.

Among other outputs, the Centre developed the COVID-19 Stringency Index, which has since been used in numerous scientific studies, and published the report Resilient Institutions: Learning from Canada’s COVID-19 pandemic, one of the only publications to take a pan-Canadian look at the pandemic response.

To mark the anniversary, IRPP invites journalists and researchers to consult its analyses and explore their implications for tomorrow’s public policies.

For interviews with Charles Breton, please contact:
Cléa Desjardins
Director of communications, Institute for Research on Public Policy
514-25-2139 – cdesjardins@nullirpp.org

About the Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation
The Centre is a permanent research body within the Institute for Research on Public Policy. Its mission is to build a deeper understanding of Canada as a federal community.