The Impact of Policies on Cities’ Resilience in Canada: A Multi-scalar Approach

Abstract

The 2020 economic crisis that stemmed from the COVID-19 pandemic has had an adverse effect on economies worldwide. The effect of the crisis has not been homogenous, with some cities being more adversely impacted than others. The economic crisis provides an opportunity to examine the multi-scalar dimension of localities' resilience. In particular, the economic crisis originates partly due to containment measures, which allows the examination of how national and subnational policies influence localities' resiliency. Specifically, this chapter examines the resilience (i.e., resistance and recovery) of Canadian cities to the economic crisis, investigating the multi-scalar influences of provincial policies to reduce the spread of the virus to determine if various degrees of policy stringency influenced cities' resilience. The research finds that the degree of stringency of provincial policies did not significantly affect the resiliency of cities. Additionally, when decomposing localities' resilience (i.e., resistance and recovery) into local-specific factors and industrial mix using the shift-share analysis, it is found that local-specific factors significantly determined the cities' resilience, whereas the industrial mix had a marginal effect. Further, cities exhibited heterogenous resiliency to the crisis, with larger cities generally experiencing a greater capacity to recover. Also, it appears that the crisis has had hysteretic effects on cities, with some cities exited with a greater post-growth level. In comparison, others exited with a lower post-growth level. Overall, the findings have important policy implications for local economic development, especially regarding the importance of local capacity.