Why did Canada’s COVID-19 response vary from province to province?

Canada’s COVID-19 response varied by province because the Canadian federal state divides legislative and executive authority between the federal government and the provinces. Under the Canadian constitutional framework, provinces hold jurisdiction over matters of local concern, including hospitals and civil rights, which allows them to manage their own public health policies.12

While the federal government coordinated national efforts, such as border restrictions and economic support, individual provinces maintained the autonomy to determine their own approaches to pandemic management. For example, while Canada’s Atlantic provinces adopted a particularly aggressive strategy to combat the virus, most other provinces pursued more lenient policies, especially as the first wave of the pandemic receded in the summer of 2020. This variation in the application of social-distancing and mask-wearing practices, alongside differing timelines for economic reopening, contributed to the emergence of a second wave of cases across the country.3