OTTAWA — A COVID-19 rapid-testing pilot for workplaces backed by corporate giants like Air Canada and Suncor has spread to more than a thousand businesses—and produced hundreds of thousands of data points about the pandemic. It’s a model the project’s organizers at a University of Toronto incubator hope will inspire better coordination between governments on health information.

The federal government has distributed nearly 64.2 million COVID-19 vaccines and ordered up to 67 million quick-result screening tests as of early October, shipping most to the provincial and territorial governments.

Businesses seeking to bring workers back into offices, factories and warehouses have sought access to both vaccines and tests. In January, the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) Rapid Screening Consortium launched at eight workplaces, backed by seed funding from 12 founding members, including Loblaw, MDA, MLSE, Rogers and Scotiabank. A non-profit spun out of the Toronto-based CDL, it provides participating businesses guidance to obtain antigen tests from governments, as well as training materials and templates for communicating with employees about testing.

At the start of October, the consortium had 1,672 members and 1,192 live locations, with 780,845 screening tests administered; 822 had come back as “presumptive” positives, which must be backed up by a regular PCR test. Health Canada awarded the non-profit almost $7 million starting in April, federal disclosures show, and its COVID-19 information portal recommends the consortium to employers looking to set up a screening program.

“None of us had done this before, so by banding together we were able to learn from each other,” said Brigitte Saint-Pierre, Air Canada’s director of technology strategic initiatives. While the carrier operates in a different sector than MLSE, Rogers or Suncor, “we had the same problems in implementing [screening tests],” she said, citing large geographic footprints, shift work and unions. Saint-Pierre and her peers at other firms remain in contact via email and text, consulting each other as new challenges arise.

New members of the consortium now buddy up with others in their industry—vet clinics with vet clinics, millwrights with millwrights. Four of the Big Five banks are members; rivals Air Canada and WestJet have collaborated. “They understand each other’s businesses so well,” said Sonia Sennik, executive director of both the CDL and the screening non-profit.

Employers use apps the consortium commissioned from Microsoft and Vancouver-based Thrive Health to manage their workplace programs. The non-profit has also set up a platform to track and analyze tests and results across the country, and share de-identified, anonymized data with other companies and federal and provincial governments.

“We have a fragmented health-care system,” said Janice Stein, a professor at U of T and the non-profit’s vice-president of strategy. “We don’t have a data system where provinces upload [information] using common metrics to the same [place] and can learn.” As governments modify pandemic policy, the consortium’s reporting provides insight into COVID-19 conditions in workplaces within their own borders as well as in other jurisdictions, she said.

Companies also see value in the data. It’s “the canary in the coal mine, that early warning sign of, ‘We’re starting to see something here in this geography or in this kind of setting,’” said Saint-Pierre, noting Air Canada applies its usual privacy and cybersecurity practices to the information it contributes. 

Businesses sought to participate in other parts of the pandemic health response. At a February meeting with then-Privy Council clerk Ian Shugart, the head of the federal public service, 17 CEOs “indicated an interest in having direct access to vaccines” to inoculate their own workers and people in the surrounding community, according to a summary memo prepared by the office’s COVID-19 coordination unit. The Logic obtained the document via access-to-information request.

The executives suggested to officials—including the deputy minister of health and two others—that “their ability to visualize, implement key performance indicators, and achieve outcomes was well-suited to the vaccination project.” One CEO recommended the use of pharmacies to give shots; every province ultimately distributed some doses via drugstores.

They also criticized governments’ communication about and coordination of the COVID-19 response. Participants cited “the importance of common and consistent messaging in order to maintain public confidence,” and sought a role in pushing it, “noting that, between all of the companies represented, their reach extended to every Canadian.” Some also cited differences in public health guidance across jurisdictions as a challenge for workers. Ottawa did not ultimately establish a formal task force to develop strategies for COVID-19 screening and shots, as the memo had proposed.

The Privy Council Office declined to identify the CEOs that attended the February meeting, stating it did not have their consent to release their names. “The discussions allowed everyone to learn from each other, including successful collaborations in the areas of rapid testing and vaccine promotion,” said spokesperson Pierre-Alain Bujold.

Governments’ prioritization of workplaces, and their partnerships with the private-sector on aspects of the pandemic response, have sometimes proved controversial. For example, doctors and parents have criticized the Ontario government for telling organizations distributing rapid tests to restrict access to workplaces, not individuals with school-aged children. And while the vaccines are free, governments are paying pharmacies to administer them.

Some provinces did authorize limited workplace vaccination, although they represent a small share of total shots administered. In April, Quebec announced 23 sites, including ones run by aerospace firms Pratt & Whitney Canada in Longueuil and Airbus in Mirabel; dairy giant Saputo in Montreal; and a mining consortium including RioTinto and ArcelorMittal in the Côte-Nord region. The clinics had administered a combined 345,000 doses at the end of September, said Robert Maranda, a spokesperson for Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux. The province had set a half-million target.

The Ontario government has “helped coordinate clinics for 17 different employers,” which have administered 68,789 doses, said Anna Miller, a spokesperson for the provincial health ministry, although she noted local public health authorities may have backed other workplace sites.

“There were certainly enterprises and companies and organizations that wanted” the CDL-led consortium to expand to vaccinations, Stein acknowledged. But the non-profit opted to stick to rapid tests.

It’s now considering the future of its network and data platform once the pandemic ends. “We have to find ways of capturing those innovations and then going to established institutions and saying, ‘Take this over. Run it,’” said Stein, noting that consortium staff all have other day jobs. Discussions are “exploratory and ongoing.” She declined to provide further details.