Merci beaucoup, madame la présidente and members of the committee. It is a privilege to be here today to speak about a pressing challenge facing our country, the H1N1 pandemic.
My name is Berry Vrbanovic, and I'm a vice-president with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and a councillor in the city of Kitchener, Ontario. I'm joined today by Alain Normand, who is with the City of Brampton's emergency measures and corporate security department; and Joshua Bates, a policy adviser with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities, or FCM, has been the national voice of municipal government in this country since 1901. With more than 1,800 members, FCM represents the interests of municipalities on policy and program matters that fall within federal jurisdiction. Members include Canada's largest cities, small urban and rural communities, and 18 provincial and territorial municipal associations. Collectively we represent almost 90% of the Canadian population.
The H1N1 influenza virus is a global pandemic that respects neither borders nor jurisdictional boundaries. Already, this deadly strain of influenza has killed more than 60 people in Canada, and health experts warn that a second wave of the virus could result in many more deaths during the coming flu season.
The central question facing all orders of government in this country is, are we as prepared as possible to effectively manage the H1N1 outbreak and protect Canadians?
It is FCM's position that any national pandemic plan is incomplete unless it includes provisions to keep key municipal services operating under the most difficult circumstances. We are therefore asking that the federal government design and implement a national plan, with municipal input, to keep critical front-line workers safe and on the job. This requires planning now to ensure that critical front-line municipal workers, such as police, firefighters, road crews, public transit operators, water and waste water workers, and municipal public health professionals, remain on the job during the worst of a pandemic. Without these workers on the job, the nation's entire pandemic response will be jeopardized, no matter how robust the rest of the plan.
Today there are 270,000 men and women working in these critical service areas for Canada's more than 3,600 municipal governments. Currently there is no national strategy, guidelines, or resources in place to ensure that these workers have timely access to the H1N1 vaccine, sufficient antiviral medications, or personal protective equipment; nor is there funding, resources, and expertise to respond to a pandemic crisis in the event it's needed. Only the federal government can provide the national leadership and coordination to address this gap.
A global pandemic such as H1N1 requires international and national coordination and the engagement of all orders of government. Canada must not limit itself to a patchwork of regional pandemic responses. Cities and communities from St. John's to Whitehorse must be assured that their citizens and the essential services they rely on will be protected by an effective national strategy that meets national guidelines.
Since the spring, FCM has engaged federal health officials, including Minister Aglukkaq, on these issues and concerns. We recognize that the federal government has taken important steps to protect Canadians against a pandemic. A national plan to protect the health sector has strengthened federal-provincial-territorial coordination in this area and provided a framework that can be extended to the municipal sector. Actions to increase a national antiviral stockpile and to secure a vaccine supply are also positive and welcome. However, the H1N1 outbreak has exposed a long-standing gap in the federal government's overall pandemic preparedness strategy, a gap that has been present under successive governments: a national plan to help cities and communities protect their critical front-line staff and to ensure they have the resources and expertise needed to carry out pandemic response roles assigned to them by federal, provincial, and territorial governments. As a country, we must safeguard the health of the men and women who will be on the front lines during a pandemic and responsible for keeping our cities and communities running while protecting the public.
A serious disruption in critical services such as policing, waste management, or public health would put Canada's pandemic response plan on life support and bring our cities and communities to a grinding halt. For example, without enough transit operators on the job, bus and light rail service would suffer and traffic gridlock would worsen. Doctors, nurses, and public health workers would struggle to get to hospitals, clinics, and temporary flu centres.
Establishing a strategy to protect and equip critical workers is a long-standing priority of municipalities. Well before the emergence of the H1N1 virus, many municipalities adopted comprehensive plans to minimize health and economic impacts of a pandemic.
More recently, municipalities have stepped up their preparations by training staff, preparing local flu treatment centres, implementing communication strategies to quickly share information with employees and citizens, and fast-tracking procurement of personal protective equipment to add to existing stockpiles. FCM's pandemic preparedness working group, established in April 2008, includes public health workers, emergency managers, and front-line emergency service providers from across the country.
We are fortunate to have Alain Normand, an emergency manager from the City of Brampton and a member of that working group, here with us today. The working group shares information about recent developments and best practices and relays information to the federal government about issues playing out on the ground, but local governments cannot go it alone. To keep cities and communities functioning during a pandemic, front-line municipal workers need access to a national vaccine, antiviral and personal protective equipment stockpiles, as well as resources and expertise.
I would point out that in 2008 a task force of the Public Health Agency of Canada recommended that the agency work with all orders of government to identify critical infrastructure workers and ensure they have access to rapid assessment and early treatment. More recently, federal officials have publicly stated that critical workers should receive priority access to an H1N1 vaccine.
Municipal leaders have been encouraged by recent public statements suggesting that the federal government understands the importance of protecting critical front-line staff, but we must implement a national standard or strategy to equip and protect these workers, and municipalities should be consulted by the federal government to help develop such a plan.
The challenge now is to put these words into action and to do so quickly. Cities and communities across this country are ready to help federal, provincial, and territorial governments identify and protect front-line municipal staff. With the flu season approaching, there's still time to fix this problem, but there is no time to waste.
Given the urgency of the current situation, we would ask that the Government of Canada implement the following four recommendations: one, design and implement a national plan with municipal input to keep critical front-line workers safe and on the job; two, implement the task group on antivirals for prophylaxis recommendation to engage all orders of government to ensure that critical infrastructure workers have access to rapid assessment and early treatment; three, ensure that critical infrastructure workers have prioritized access to the H1N1 vaccine; and four, ensure that municipalities have the expertise and resources required to fulfill pandemic response roles mandated by federal, provincial, and territorial governments.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. My colleagues and I will be pleased to answer any of your questions.