I will say this to begin with. In my previous life I was a federal civil servant for 10 years. One of the lessons I would bring from that experience to what we're going through now is that too often MPs, be they from the government or the opposition, accept “no” from the civil service.
It's not a criticism, but I think this pandemic has really shown that when there's a sense of urgency, it's amazing how rapid and how innovative we can be as a government. When we don't accept “no” as an answer, we can get a lot of things done.
I'm particularly encouraged by something that the chamber had advocated for a while back—not necessarily implementing basic income or “Mincome” but taking a look at an experiment around that. I think we're living that experiment right now. There are a lot of lessons to be learned from that.
On a global scale, I would say that as a government, as elected officials, we need to be pushing the public service to embrace innovation. The opportunity is being made abundantly clear through COVID.
In terms of opportunities to continue to engage, I'm obviously a little biased, but I can't emphasize enough that the chamber network is the only business organization that represents all sizes and sectors of business from coast to coast to coast. I do want to give particular kudos to our national voice, Perrin Beatty, who has done an exceptional job in stewarding the network through this.
Continuing to engage those organizations that live and breathe within their communities, that are Main Street, Canada, and that know the mom-and-pop shops and those that are exporting internationally and are multinationals, through organizations like the chamber, really enables you to tap into not just one voice but the entirety of voices of the community.
This is my last comment. We're a vast country geographically, with multiple cultures and languages. Continue to look at digital transformation as an opportunity to engage meaningfully, not just in town halls where everyone calls in and you have five questions and get the check box consultation. Seize the opportunity to engage Canadians digitally.