Canada's COVID strategy is a mess. With vaccinations at a trickle, blanket lockdowns are the only tool provinces are using. It would be a lot easier to swallow the irreparable damage to hundreds of thousands of small businesses if there were any signs lockdowns were working.

At this stage, I can't see any pathway that would allow provinces to reopen currently locked down businesses before vaccines are in the arms of giant numbers of Canadians. At current rates of distribution, this will be months and months away.

Expanded and extended lockdowns will mean the certain failure of a massive number of businesses, even with full utilization of every one of the COVID support programs.

We need to find a way to safely reopen small businesses as we manage through the months ahead. We need to ensure workplace testing quickly goes from pilot to widescale use. We need more vaccine and rapid distribution.

Provincial govts are doubling down on the very policies that aren't working. I know many well meaning officials believe that shuttering retail, restaurants & service businesses will get people to stay at home. It seemed to work in the spring, but it isn't working now.