Health Committee on Feb. 3rd, 2020

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

Are we thinking about whether or not schools should actually be suggesting that some of the students just stay home for a bit to make sure there's an abundance of caution?

[Paul MacKinnon]

Again, from our perspective, it depends on what we see from that individual in the border context if we think they're ill. But we don't have any special procedures for students. What the schools are doing themselves I don't have data on.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

Would that not necessarily be part of the equation?

[Paul MacKinnon]

Do you mean what individual schools say to their students?

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

Yes. Especially since they're coming back from China, and we know that this thing is pretty intense, would it not be wise, just out of an abundance of caution, to have students...?

[Paul MacKinnon]

Again, I have no view on that. I don't know if other colleagues do.

[Heather Jeffrey]

I think that's part of the guidance that the Public Health Agency of Canada and the chief medical officer provide in Canada. It's outside our expertise, unfortunately.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

A lot of people, I'm assuming, a lot of students, have been returning and getting back to university. It's a concern.

I think somebody else had a question....

Oh, my time is over.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Thank you.

Mr. Van Bynen, you have five minutes.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you very much.

I was a municipal mayor for over 12 years. We went through exercises in getting ready for emergency situations. I'm sure that applies to your group. How often do you go through an emergency exercise so that the readiness is there and you're not looking around wondering what to do next? Can you tell me what you do on an ongoing basis to make sure the readiness is available?

I would invite each of you to make comments.

[Heather Jeffrey]

I can speak to that from the Global Affairs Canada side. We have a regular program of exercises, tabletop exercises. We work with other government departments, specifically on exercises related to international pandemic response following on our experience with the SARS and Ebola responses in the past. Abroad, we have regional emergency program managers who travel to missions abroad and do these exercises with each particular embassy to practice how they would react. Our standing rapid deployment team officers go through specialized training at least twice a year. They engage in these kinds of exercises. They actually do scenario-based field exercises about responding to consular emergencies on a large scale.

All of this comes together in these responses to be implemented in the field. The systems that we've had have allowed us the ability, for example, to deploy officers so quickly. We have a team of officers every week on 24-hour notice to move. Like the kind of team that went into Wuhan or that will be accompanying the aircraft, we can deploy them. Whether it be for the plane crash we saw with Ukrainian airlines in Iran a few weeks ago or for a situation like this, that kind of emergency practice and protocol is very important to the response.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

My next two questions are around assumptions. One of our assumptions is that if an at-risk person is entering the country, it will be by air. What have we done to look at all the other entry points? To what extent are we ready at the other entry points?

[Paul MacKinnon]

At this point, the questioning as to whether or not you are coming from Hubei province is, as I said, just at our international airports across the country. Mr. Vinette did speak about the fact that we share all of the information we have with all of our border service officers right across the country, including at the land border. They certainly have situational awareness, as do all the other front-line officers who are working at airports.

As I said earlier, this remains a fluid situation. We're constantly thinking about what it would look like if we were required to ramp up for any reason. We're doing that planning and thinking. At this point, the specific questions are at the airports. All the other crossings certainly have situational awareness and information that we're sharing with them.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

I would like to explore something a little further. There was a question around checking the airplanes. I think the response was that the airplanes or any of these units were checked after every flight. My concern is about whether that is a cosmetic review or cosmetic cleanup. To what extent are we checking that there might be something in the ventilation systems or those kinds of things? What types of checks and balances do we have in place to avoid that being spread inside a very close area?

[Aaron McCrorie]

Similar to some of the other questions around the understanding of the health dimensions of the virus, that's not our area of expertise at Transport Canada. We defer to our colleagues at the Public Health Agency of Canada. We're working with them to provide information to the airlines. Right now, 10 airlines are flying directly from China to Canada. We're working with them to share information on how to properly groom and clean the aircraft for this very reason. It's hard for us to speak to the effectiveness of that, because in terms of the health aspect, we defer to our colleagues at the Public Health Agency of Canada.

If you'll give me licence, I'll add a response to your first question. In the marine mode, we require vessels to report in to Transport Canada—to our marine security operations centres, where we work with CBSA, the Coast Guard and other agencies—96 hours before arrival. For those vessels that are coming from China or that had stops in China, about 22 of which are on their way to Canada now, we've instructed them to provide us with additional information, similar to what's being asked at the land border, so that we can gather that information, share it with our colleagues at the Public Health Agency of Canada, and do an assessment of the crews coming in to address the issue about their coming in on a non-aviation mode.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you.

I'm not sure if this panel could address this issue, but—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

I'm sorry, Mr. Van Bynen. Thank you.

We'll go now to Monsieur Champoux.

You have two and a half minutes.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you all for being here today.

Earlier, we were talking about other modes of transportation. We learned this week that VIA Rail has no safety or prevention measures or any way to check the health of passengers. From your remarks, I gather that the situation is fairly well in hand right now, but in the event of a broader outbreak, do you have a protocol ready for implementation that can be shared with VIA Rail? Have you already spoken with companies that transport passengers other than airlines?

[Aaron McCrorie]

Thank you for your question.

As I said, it's really the Public Health Agency of Canada that is responsible for deciding on the appropriate measures. Transport Canada's role is to work with the agency to convey the information to Canadian companies.

The role we would play is based on the assessment by our colleagues and the Public Health Agency of Canada or Health Canada that there was a need to take additional measures for something like Via Rail. Our role is to help facilitate that information exchange and work with them. We have inspectors on the ground making sure that those measures are taking place. That's what we're doing now in the aviation mode in supporting what our colleagues are doing at the CBSA, for example, and at the Public Health Agency of Canada.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

The measures can be implemented fairly quickly, isn't that true?

[Aaron McCrorie]

Yes.

[Denis Vinette]

This isn't new territory for us. It's what we do every day; we were doing it even before the crisis emerged. Our officers are always on the lookout, so that they're ready to respond.

Right now, we are in the midst of planning to determine the steps to take in the event of an outbreak. Our colleagues at the Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada provide us with the information on that. We talk to them daily. We are involved in the planning with Mr. Tanguay and his team so that we're ready should we have to take a different approach.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

I see.

In terms of airline passengers arriving from China, do you plan to make them use a separate passageway in the airport to keep other travellers safe? That would also make the screening process easier.

[Denis Vinette]

We follow the guidelines that the Public Health Agency of Canada gives us. That hasn't been deemed necessary at this time. Transport Canada advised the airlines that they must make sure pilots and cabin crew notify us if someone appears to experience symptoms during the flight. That way, the individual can be screened first, so they aren't waiting with all the other passengers. If no one shows any symptoms, passengers go through the normal process. We ask them questions and determine where they should go next depending upon the answers they give.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Very well, but you don't have any plans to process passengers arriving on flights from China in a separate part of the airport?