Seite - 240 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

VULNERABLE240 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 ex  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 Dollarama’s 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, “Inside the Slaughterhouse”, 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, “‘Alberta Didn’t Contain It’: COVID-19 Outbreak at Oilsands Camp Has Spread Across the Country”, 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>.