The federal workplace health and safety regulator wants Canadian businesses to prepare a pandemic plan for the possibility of a “new virus” that could lead to food or fuel disruptions in the most extreme scenarios.
In June, the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety quietly released the second edition of its Flu and Infectious Disease Outbreaks Business Continuity Plan Handbook.
CCOHS said that the updated handbook serves as a comprehensive guide for employers, advising them on what to prepare for in the face of another pandemic.
However, what sets this edition apart is its explicit focus on a hypothetical “new virus” that could trigger widespread disruption with CCOHS using the recent Covid-19 crisis and the devastating 1918 influenza pandemic as case examples.
In this new edition, the CCOHS writes that businesses must prepare for scenarios far more severe than a temporary closure or a drop in customer demand – although the guide frequently mentions travel restrictions, public gathering bans and quarantines.
Citing the Public Health Agency of Canada, the CCOHS states that “based on trends from past pandemic flus, there may be a higher average number of illness and deaths in age groups different than what we typically see during annual flu seasons.”
The guide warns that employers must be ready for a situation where a serious infectious disease outbreak or pandemic forces significant portions of the workforce to stay home, even leading to disruptions of basic goods.
“If there is a pandemic, how many people will be off work? It is impossible to determine with certainty – estimates vary because no one will know for sure how ill the new virus will make people, how fast it will spread, or how many people will not go to work, until it happens,” writes the CCOHS.
According to the handbook, a future pandemic “will come in 2 or 3 waves about 3 to 9 months separating each outbreak. Each wave is expected to last approximately 6 to 8 weeks. A pandemic may last in these cycles for up to two years or more.”
The implications of this scenario are far-reaching. The guide urges employers to brace for reduced labor supply, supply chain interruptions, and dramatic shifts in consumer demand.
Perhaps most concerning is the warning about possible disruptions in essential services such as telecommunications, banking, water, power, gasoline, medicine, and even the food supply.
“In more extreme situations, (expect) possible disruptions in other services such as telecommunications, financial/banking, water, power (hydro), gasoline/fuels, medicine or the food supply.”
Pandemic contingency plans exist at several levels of government. As exclusively reported by True North, Canada, the United States and Mexico released an updated human-animal influence pandemic agreement that included considerations for further vaccine mandates, border measures and travel restrictions.
