How the Legislative Assembly of Ontario Responded To The COVID-19 Pandemic.

• Author: McGreechan, Hugh

Unplanned business interruptions can occur at any time. Having a Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) helped the Legislative Assembly of Ontario ensure that it had the resources and information required to mitigate and respond to the COVID-19 emergency and to enable resilience and resumption of onsite service delivery. In this article, the author(s) explain how the Assembly's business continuity planning helped staff navigate the challenging circumstances around the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic and how resumption planning is being used to return to more normal operations.

**********

What does the COOP do?

The COOP is designed to ensure that the Assembly, its Committees and business operations can continue to perform their functions and dispatch public business on an as needed basis, or during an internal or external crisis.

It provides guidance to allow decision-makers to:

* Assess a situation quickly and effectively.

* Notify stakeholders.

* Organize response activities, such as plan activation, alternate work locations/process implementation and coordinate efforts for business resumption/ resilience.

* Provide staff with information on the status of the situation and communicate any required actions.

* Inform clients/stakeholders about the status of Assembly services.

* Reassure stakeholders of the Office of the Legislative Assembly's ability to recover and restore services.

* Ensure consistent and timely messaging and centrally coordinate all communications activities until services are fully restored; and

* Support business recovery efforts.

COVID-19 Mitigation and Response Planning

In the early months of 2020, it was clear that a global crisis was developing in the form of a worldwide pandemic. While the impact and scale of the emergency was not clear, steps were initiated to monitor and prepare for the emerging situation.

The following actions were taken as the crisis escalated:

Initializing communication: A bulletin issued by Health Services was sent to staff addressing the virus, indicating how to remain informed and recommending preventative measures. Posters on hand-washing, cough and sneezing etiquette, and hand sanitizer use were also issued and posted in washrooms and office areas.

Installing hand sanitizer stations: Ensuring dispensers were located at main entrances as well as other critical areas such as outside the Legislative Chamber.

Initiating enhanced cleaning procedures: Cleaning high contact areas on a more frequent basis.

Testing Assembly continuity of operations: A tabletop exercise was conducted with all primary and secondary leads.

Providing communications updates: Circulated as needed based on information from Ontario's Ministry of Health, Public Health Ontario and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Tracking COVID-19: Launching a reporting structure and tracking mechanism for COVID-19 related illness was established requiring Office of the Assembly Directors to report employee sick absences daily to Human Resources and directing Assembly staff to report any possible COVID-19 exposure...