Businesses: what more can we do during the pandemic?
Our community is paddling rough waters as we navigate the different phases of this Covid-19 pandemic. Has there ever been this kind of need for everyone in our community to work arm-in-arm to face the same menace? Sure, in World War II. And the 1919 flu epidemic. The business stories from those times give us hints for what we each have to do today.
First, where are we now with Covid-19 in Alberta? At the end of July, we know the trend in cases is going the wrong way.
A few data points to keep in mind:
• As of the time of writing the first version of this draft, there were eight (8) active cases of Covid-19 in Banff (July 24). This past week we have had the highest weekly average number of active cases.
• The number of active Covid-19 cases in Alberta was 859, on July 16, and 1,430 on July 29th. (This is a higher rate of active cases per population, than BC).
• On March 20 we implemented the State of Local Emergency (SOLE), and there were 200 active cases in Alberta.
• The number of active cases in Alberta has risen by 165% since July 1st. (July 1: 536 active cases; July 29: 1,430.) The active case count grew by 40% over the month of June.
• The good news in Banff and Canmore: with good work by people in the Bow Valley (health care workers, contact tracers, family members, ESS staff), we have kept the numbers of active cases from rising. Instead of 8 active cases at the end of last week, we're down to 4 active cases. Let's give credit to the good behaviour by infected persons and their close contacts and work by public health contact tracers.
Our challenge: how can we reduce the cases to zero while welcoming visitors? People have long come to soak in the healing waters of Banff; that's what this valley has been known for, for a long, long time. How can we keep health at the centre of our purpose, of who we are?
With the recent reopening of Alberta’s economy in June, COVID19 numbers have risen so swiftly that additional safety measures such as mandatory masks will be commonplace. Banff passed a mandatory mask bylaw. Unanimously. Canmore may well join, too. Personally, given the visitors we attract and having listened to many public health scientists, I agree. It's one tactic among many, to support the key pillars of hand hygiene and physical distancing.
Here’s why.
We weathered the first wave of Covid-19 by keeping away from each other, and that unfortunately required the government to mandate an economic shut-down. But now that we know more about how Covid-19 spreads, we can discuss multiple measures we need. These all work in tandem: hand hygiene; physical distancing; more intensive testing and contact tracing; isolating the ones infected and their close contacts; and further, reducing the spread of the virus in the air by wearing masks in closed, congested spaces.
Our business bargain is to help one another in order to gain our current level of economic activity. As long as we recognize our interdependence, we gain a measure of economic freedom. Our businesses rely on health and education. This crisis has shone a spotlight on the sectors of our community that need special protection, the ones without which we cannot have a functioning society.
Healthcare
The healthcare sector, obviously, is vital. From giving sufficient effective PPE gear to frontline healthcare workers, to “flattening the curve” enough that demand for ICU beds does not outstrip supply, the health system is where our battle against COVID is won or lost. Thanks to the doctors, nurses, assistants, administrators, public health specialists, custodians, cooks and paramedics who have given us security in our community.
Schools
The families in our community want great education for their children, for our children. Our public and separate schools provide so many benefits to every one of the students of the diverse families in our community. As centres of learning, the collective knowledge of our teachers and students is something we need to heed and respect. What ways can we support our schools during this crisis?
The fewer cases in our community, the safer it will be for our teachers and students. If infections spread in a business, say, and families need to isolate, the children in those families will miss out two weeks of school. Conversely, if a high-school student were to pass the disease from one to another, the parents would need to be isolated, interrupting work schedules making it tough to run a kitchen or keep a hotel open. We recognize that safety for one makes safety for all: interdependence.
The better we work together in the business community, the fewer the cases, and therefore the more our schools will be oases of learning and discovery.
The Caring and Religious Sector of our Communities
At this time when many are suffering, some from illnesses, others from isolation and worry, all the people who help in the caring sector have become essential workers. They help with grief & dislocations. With torment and tension. They are the members of our congregations and the Imams and Priests and Knowledgekeepers of the Sweat Lodge, the Prayers, the therapists, funeral attendants, victims services support teams and the good volunteers at Banff Food Rescue and Banff Food Bank who help so many in need.
However much some people claim this is a secular age, the more we realize that those who know the old stories and aim to live by the Golden Rule help each and every one of us.
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As elected officials, beyond grappling with our usual roles of ensuring trash hauling and pothole repairs, budgets and strategic plans, we now make bylaws to protect the very lives of our residents. We’re not used to making decisions about life and death. We try to use two ears: listening with one ear to specialists and with the other to friends and acquaintances in our neighbourhoods. What I hear: residents want safety, for themselves, for heathcare workers, for schools.
This pandemic has in many ways adjusted each of our roles. We each have work to do caring for one another. Grocery store cashiers have become essential workers. There is much less of a hierarchy. We value one another: interdependence.
Many of us who work in business like to think our economy works on self-interest and competition, a market guided by an invisible hand. Of course, this is partly correct, and we all know that the invisible hand is also guided by the stethoscope, by the epidemiologist's model, and by the smart and caring minds of each of our neighbours.
So, first, let's thank one another. The good efforts of so many staff and managers in our business community squashed Covid-19 in its tracks in March. We need to repeat that achievement. Businesses also are huge contributors to the tax base of our town. We're all interdependent.
Second, let's apply our skills, problem solving, and design ingenuity to help manage this crisis. Here in Banff during the Second World War, a group of residents, led by women including Mrs. Greenham and Mrs. Charlton formed a social enterprise called Banff Home Industries. They sold art, crafts and souvenirs and donated the profits each year to the Red Cross.
It is said in business that we can manage what we measure. I call out to those accountants and managers who are good at creating key performance indicators (KPIs) to help design the indicators and dashboard to help one another manage this. We are at the early phase in this innovation. By analogy, imagine a car before current dashboards were invented; what indicators would help us navigate safely? If there are helpful dashboards for managing Covid-19 in a community, let's use those; if not, let's come up with our own.
Some data in each of our businesses becomes more useful when we share it and scale up. Let's consider how we might share some internal data with one another – for example, on work absences for health reasons – while balancing health and privacy goals
What else might you suggest? Social finance to help vulnerable businesses? Quality control systems, promoted through a quality mark, across our community? I'd like to hear your ideas, so please post them below. The trust and networks we have available to us are great assets. Let's use the power of our interdependence.