COVID-19 Pandemic Committee on May 7th, 2020

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

What we concluded in committee this week is that the $125 million is not new money. It was already earmarked for the programs. The government can't say that programs already exist and, at the same time, claim that they are new programs. Something doesn't add up there.

What's more, there are different ways to make money available. I'd like to talk compensation. Everyone knows that the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement came into force a month earlier than planned, despite the promises that had been made. That resulted in additional losses, once again. An easy way to make money available without committing new spending is to provide compensation and announce programs for supply-managed sectors that got nothing. It seems to me that a time of crisis is a time for the government to practise some judo and announce measures. I am reaching out to the government, as I always do, but it has to come forward with announcements.

Can we expect the government to announce measures in the coming days?

[Marie-Claude Bibeau, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Our commitment to farmers in supply-managed sectors—meaning, egg, poultry and dairy farmers—is as strong as it always was. I repeat, our commitment is clear.

Dairy producers received their first payment at the end of last year or the beginning of this year. Support for poultry and egg farmers is in the form of investment programs, which aligns well with the recovery.

At this time, we are focusing on emergency programs to help farmers hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

When it comes to the dairy sector, I hope I can count on your support. As you know, legislative changes are needed to grant the Canadian Dairy Commission's request and increase its borrowing limit by $200 million so it can buy more butter and cheese.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Our next question will go to Mr. Lake.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, we're all inundated, as we've heard during this entire question period, with Canadians' concerns about the economic restrictions and the social restrictions that they're under. Over the last couple of months, the WHO has given one very consistent message in terms of coming out of those economic and social restrictions. On March 16, Dr. Tedros said in his briefing, “We have a simple message for all countries: test, test, test.” On March 25, 44 days ago, he said, “Aggressive measures to find, isolate, test, treat and trace are not only the best and fastest way out of extreme social and economic restrictions—they’re also the best way to prevent them.”

Does the minister agree with the WHO that relentless testing and tracing are critical to a successful economic and social relaunch strategy in Canada?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Thanks to the member for the very astute observation and question.

Absolutely, we agree that testing and contact tracing will form an important part of our response to living with COVID. We've been investing heavily in ensuring that we have the lab capacity, the collaboration across provinces and territories, and the variety of testing options to help us increase our capacity to test. We are aiming right now for a high volume of tests, but I will also say that in Canada we have one of the highest testing rates in the world.

Although we're doing well, I can assure him that I am with him and I believe we need to do more.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB]

I have some really quick questions for follow-up.

First, what is Canada's current testing capability?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Mr. Chair, as I mentioned to his colleagues yesterday, we have currently the capacity to do approximately 60,000 tests per day across the country.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB]

How many tests were conducted each day on average in Canada last week?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Mr. Chair, it's hard for me to get that exact number, but I will get back to him with the exact number.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB]

I'll save you the time. The exact number was 28,851, on average, every day last week. That's a gap of 30,000 from what your stated testing capability is.

I'll give another quote from Dr. Tam, back on April 22, 15 days ago. She said, “As a first tranche, roughly close to 60,000 is where the provinces can potentially expand to as a target already.”

Does the minister happen to know, ballpark, what the average number of daily tests in Canada has been since that statement?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Your estimate was slightly higher than what my estimate was going to be, so that's a great piece of news.

Listen, I will just say that I think if the premise here is that we could be doing more testing. I would agree, but I will also say that the provinces and territories are working incredibly hard on testing strategies that meet their own specific needs. I'm happy to have a conversation with the member later about that testing strategy.

Dr. Tam works with all the chief public health officers across the country to ensure that their testing strategy is going to be applicable and appropriate for their particular jurisdictions. We, as the federal government, provide the capacity for them to conduct those tests.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB]

Following up on that, is there a jurisdiction in Canada where relentless testing is not the appropriate strategy as provinces consider relaunching?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Each province and territory has its own outbreak and its own epidemic. For example, in British Columbia, where there are relatively fewer cases in general and less disease activity, they may have a different testing strategy than a province like Ontario, which is currently struggling with more outbreaks.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB]

Given your comment that our current testing capability is 60,000, and acknowledging that only at one point in the entire history of our COVID response, over several months, has our weekly average been over 30,000—it was about 31,000 for one day on a rolling basis—Minister, are you satisfied with our current testing amounts right now, given that we're testing 50% of what the public health officer advises would be best?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

I'm so amazed by the work the provinces and territories have done in a very short time to increase their capacity. We are supporting them with the tools that they need to get more testing done, but also to have other components in place that will allow them to do the rapid tracing of positive cases. I think it's very important to remember that testing strategies will be different across the provinces, based on the outbreak disease epidemiology. Having said that, I know that we can all do better, and I'm certain that my counterparts feel the same.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

I'm going to have to cut the minister off at that one.

I want to thank everyone for the session today, I think it went rather well. I'm very proud of you and proud of ourselves for what we managed to accomplish.

The committee stands adjourned until Tuesday, May 12, at noon.