Former Canada Pension Plan Investment Board CEO Mark Wiseman is calling for all hands on deck when it comes to supporting Canadian businesses in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak. In an interview on BNN Bloomberg, Wiseman, now the founder of FCLTGlobal, said Canada should do whatever it takes when it comes to supporting the domestic economy.

“We’re going to be in a tough time, and that’s why we have to ensure that we support Canadian businesses and Canadian employees across the board,” he said. “We have to make sure that we can get through what is going to be and is continuing to be a very, very, violent v [shaped move] in terms of GDP and economic growth in this country.”

Wiseman said Canada has the ability to open the fiscal funding taps more, if need be, in the wake of the federal government’s $82 billion aid plan.

“We have the flexibility to go further if we need to and I think Canadians should feel comforted in that,” he said.

Wiseman said he’s encouraged by moves the Canadian and American governments have made in the face of the virus outbreak.

“In terms of what governments are doing both here and south of the border, we’re headed in the right direction,” he said. “I think people have to keep in mind, this will come to an end, the question is when this crisis will come to an end, not if it will come to an end.”

Wiseman said he thinks Canada will make it out of the crisis, given underlying strength that has built up in recent years.

“The good news is that going into this crisis, the structure of our economy was very strong,” he said. “The structure of the business community, the structure of fiscal policy, the structure of monetary policy, was in an incredibly good place.”

“We don’t have major structural issues.”