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in other industries whose slow reaction to the pandemic and poor risk
management has led to important outbreaks and community spread.28
Two companies with official permission to remain operating
while much of the economy was put on hold to contain the virus, both
with workforces who were at an increased risk of infection as well as
being potential vectors of transmission. Two very different outcomes
for their workers and the public. Could the essential difference lie
in the fact that in making decisions about risk, Dollarama applied a
broader view of its interests, one that extended to the public interest
in protecting public health?
In the context of a public health crisis where prevention is criti-
cal to reducing negative outcomes, promoting a proactive response
to risk, such as that adopted by Dollarama, is vastly superior to rely-
ing on a reactive exÂ
post corrective accountability dependent on scarce
regulatory resources. Could the key to bridging this gap between
hard enforcement and voluntary cooperation be as simple as framing
the best interests of the corporation to reflect Dollaramaâs approach?
Is the time ripe to recognize explicitly that private interests can and
should cede to the public interest where the corporation plays a key
role in protecting the common good?
Corporations and the Public Interest
Corporations are vehicles of commerce that make it easier to bring
people and resources together in the pursuit of common objectives,
chief among them generating a profit. While hardly revolutionary
itself, there has always been debate about whether the pursuit of
profit is the defining and perhaps singular feature of a corporation,
or whether it is or should be bounded by outer limits. The answers to
these questions inform how the standard applicable to management
decisions is framed and identify to whom managers are answerable.
For many years, it was an article of faith that private wealth max-
imization would translate into increased total welfare. In this respect,
note 20; Joel Dryden & Sarah Rieger, âInside the Slaughterhouseâ, CBC News
(6 May 2020), online: <newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/cargill-covid19-out-
break>. For a discussion of the working conditions in meat-processing plants in
Canada, see Sarah Berger Richardson, this volume, Chapter E-5.
28. Emma McIntosh, ââAlberta Didnât Contain Itâ: COVID-19 Outbreak at Oilsands
Camp Has Spread Across the Countryâ, National Observer (13 May 2020), online:
<www.nationalobserver.com/2020/05/13/news/alberta-didnt-contain-it-covid-
19-outbreak-oilsands-camp-has-spread-across-country>.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Title
- VULNERABLE
- Subtitle
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Authors
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Publisher
- Ottawa Press
- Date
- 2020
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Size
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Pages
- 648
- Categories
- Coronavirus
- International