The pandemic has revealed weaknesses in global and domestic supply chains, and it has ignited innovation in Canada and elsewhere that has revealed payoffs for flexibility. There will be lessons to learn from how supply chains evolve. It will be interesting to see if future arrangements build in more redundancy of suppliers, and if more production of critical goods will be done domestically.
More broadly, there may be changes to industrial structures as economies put less emphasis on global supply chains for products deemed essential for national health and security. One clear impact of the pandemic is that many companies and employees have quickly moved to full-time telework arrangements once thought impractical, if not impossible.