A smart, essential look at the ideas, trends, and innovations blending purpose and profit, from the Future of Good editorial team.
It’s estimated that, even before COVID-19 struck, 700,000 small businesses in Canada were already at risk of closure in the next ten years, because they don’t have viable succession plans. And the pandemic made local business and community self-sufficiency even more urgent. Social acquisitions could be a big part of the solution.
Hudson’s Bay Company was deeply involved in British colonialism across a third of what is now Canada for 200 years. The company’s monopoly was based on the racist ‘doctrine of discovery’ and helped to destroy traditional Indigenous ways of life.
The pandemic is an opportunity to radically reimagine the ways Canadian government and civil society cares for people, say Sarah Schulman and Gord Tulloch — but to do so, both sectors need a deeper understanding of the problems embedded into our social safety nets.
Patients are dying in ICUs across Ontario because they — or their colleagues, friends, and families — cannot afford to take time off work if they are infected with COVID-19. Until a paid sick day policy is enacted, many workers will need financial help to isolate or seek treatment.
Oppressed communities have been hardest hit — health-wise, economically, and socially — by the pandemic. Many in the world of impact say this fact represents a failure of our social safety nets and an opportunity for a radical reimagination to help Canadians flourish.