Page - 214 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

VULNERABLE214 this is often a problem6—but because of the forms of power being used by governments to respond to the current crisis. Accordingly, with legal accountability likely to be limited, there is a pressing need for robust political scrutiny of Canadian governments. Forms of Power Governments can use different forms of power to achieve their objectives. Terence Daintith makes an analytically useful distinction between imperium, dominium, and suasion. Imperium denotes “the government’s use of the command of law in aid of its policy objec- tives” taking the familiar form of statute and delegated legislation; dominium concerns “the employment of the wealth of government,” used to enter into contracts and otherwise spend money; and suasion relates to the use of information to enlighten and persuade the citi- zenry.7 Canada’s federal and provincial governments have used the force of law (imperium), the force of money (dominium), and the force of information (suasion) to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the federal level, Parliament has adopted economic emer- gency legislation to respond to the crisis. Bill C-13 provides significant fiscal authority to the federal government to respond to the economic fallout from the pandemic.8 Provincial legislation has also been passed at speed.9 Moreover, the provinces have invoked emergency powers under public health legislation.10 Some of these powers are 6. MacDonnell, supra note 2. 7. “The Techniques of Government” in Jeffrey Jowell & Dawn Oliver, eds, The Changing  Constitution  (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995) at 212-13, as summarized in Jo Shaw, Jo Hunt & Chloe Wallace, Economic and Social Law of the European Union (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). 8. See COVID-19  Emergency  Response  Act, SC 2020, c 5. 9. The Alberta Legislature modified existing public health emergency legislation through the Public  Health  (Emergency  Powers)  Amendment  Act, SA 2020 c 5 to give Ministers the ability to amend other parts of the statute book and to make orders with retroactive effect; see especially Shaun Fluker, “COVID-19 and Retroactive Law-Making in the Public  Health  (Emergency  Powers)  Amendment  Act (Alberta)” (6 April 2020), online (blog): ABlawg <www.ablawg.ca/2020/04/06/COVID-19-and- retroactive-law-making-in-the-public-health-emergency-powers-amendment- act-alberta/>. Perhaps this was motivated by a concern that emergency orders already made might not have had a sufficiently firm legal basis; see Shaun Fluker, “COVID-19 and the Public Health Act (Alberta)” (31 March 2020), online (blog): ABlawg <ablawg.ca/2020/03/31/COVID-19-and-the-public-health-act-alberta/>. 10. In Ontario, the government has invoked the Emergency  Management  and  Civil  Protection Act, RSO 1990, c E.9, which has given it the power to close all businesses