Health Committee on March 12th, 2021

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

The additional quarantine measures are very important—

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Just a yes—

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

—to understand whether travellers are arriving with COVID-19, and furthermore whether—

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

So it's no.

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

— the positive cases are variant.

I'll turn to Iain Stewart to answer.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

That's okay. I got the answer. Thanks, Minister.

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

Actually, you didn't—

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

No, you avoided answering the question. You're trying to run out the clock. I understand that, Minister. It's fine.

I have a constituent in southern Alberta who is a lawyer and filed an action against the government on the hotel quarantines. His argument is that during the Oakes test, the government must prove that it has jurisdiction or is warranting an infringement on Canadian rights in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, section 6. He got a response from Health Canada and your department saying you will not relinquish any data that would justify the reasons for the hotel quarantine.

Why is it your decision not to release that data? It would show information on why the hotel quarantine is justified.

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

I'll turn to Iain Stewart to speak in general about the data we're collecting. As this is a matter in front of the courts, it's not for me to speculate or discuss.

Perhaps, Iain, you could speak about the data we're tracking.

[Iain Stewart]

For sure I could speak about the data. The quarantine—

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Just before you go to Mr. Stewart, your statement was you are not going to release any information to help in the courts, so to me—

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

As the member knows—

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

I haven't asked the question yet, Minister.

If there is science and data that would warrant the reason for a hotel quarantine that would say it is safer for a Canadian to quarantine in a hotel as opposed to in their house, or if this is a means to reduce the spread of the virus, why would you not want to share that information with Canadians to be transparent? Why are you refusing to share that information?

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

As the matter is in front of the courts, we don't respond.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

I think if this wasn't a political decision you would have been happy to share that information.

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

No. As a matter of fact, I'll negate that. We don't respond to matters in front of the court.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

This was before this was in the court. We've asked this question before, and you've refused to answer it, Minister. To me, this has nothing to do with a court case.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Thank you, Mr. Barlow.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

We go now to Mr. Kelloway for five minutes.

[Mike Kelloway, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Thank you, Chair, and hello to all the witnesses.

Again, there are so many people to thank as we go through an unprecedented pandemic. You're one of the many on the front lines and behind the scenes, and in some cases in front of the camera and behind the scenes, so this is Just a special thank you from people in my riding and me.

My questions will be directed to the minister. Hello, Minister.

I want to talk a little about health care services in rural and remote communities like mine here in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton—Canso. Many of my constituents, Minister, do not have easy access to a hospital. Some don't even live in communities that have active clinics, but they still need to get the care they need when they need it.

I know that your mandate letter instructs you to work with the Minister of Rural Economic Development to ensure that all Canadians have access to more health services. I'm wondering if you can tell us more about the progress you're making on this file, especially in light of COVID-19.

The way I approach things is I want to give people an opportunity to answer and to speak. I know somebody mentioned about running out the clock. I like answers that are thoughtful and introspective and empathetic and evidence-based. Consider this the time to do so.

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

Thank you very much.

Through the chair, first of all I want to acknowledge the challenges that Canadians face in rural and remote communities. I know we live many kilometres apart, but in my riding as well I have rural communities and remote communities that I serve.

You're absolutely right that the challenge of accessing health care services in these communities is profound. This won't come as a surprise to the member, but in fact people who live in these communities often have to travel multiple times per week back and forth to larger centres for specialized services. In order to see anybody other than a GP, people often have to travel. In some cases there might not even be a GP in some of these communities, so it is a significant gap. I was very excited to work on this issue when I was first appointed minister, way before the pandemic, in what feels like a lifetime ago, because I knew it so well as an MP representing rural communities.

In some ways, COVID-19 has been an asset, weirdly, for virtual access to primary care. You wouldn't think that COVID-19 had anything good about it, but it did cause provinces and territories to quickly accelerate access—for example, to change their billing codes to be able to allow doctors and a variety of other health care practitioners to bill for virtual visits.

This has been a real breakthrough for rural and remote communities that struggle—and will struggle, from my perspective, for a very long time—to hold on to professionals in their communities. We know that often people don't want to relocate to small communities. We try. We have a million different ways, I think, in every province to try to lure people to these beautiful places and keep them, including by introducing them to wonderful potential spouses and having them marry and stay in that area, but unfortunately it still is quite a challenge for some of these smaller communities.

Virtual care has proven to be a boon, actually, during the pandemic, and provinces and territories have realized just how much they can accelerate access to care. It's not ideal for every kind of care, but it really fills a gap for some of those primary care health services.

In the estimates, we're asking for $47 million for virtual care. It's part of a larger investment of $150 million. That's to strengthen this work that has already begun as a result of COVID-19 to strengthen those virtual care systems and hopefully help the provinces and territories solidify this gain they have made in breaking through a barrier in providing access to care in some very challenging geographical settings.

[Mike Kelloway, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Thank you, MInister. I think that's a great example of more prospects for working together with the provinces in a collaborative effort.

I'll go to my next question. We keep hearing about the tools provinces and territories have for stopping the spread of COVID-19, whether that's testing, contact tracing, PPE, public health measures or vaccines. We know that none of these alone is a silver bullet to winning the fight against COVID-19, but I think it's important for people out there watching.

Can you explain a little more why there is no silver bullet to COVID-19, the necessity of a multi-layered approach and how these measures work together? I think this is really important for Canadians to hear.

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

It's such a wise question. I really appreciate the question from the member, because it reflects a deeper thinking about the complexity of disease prevention and protection.

The member is absolutely right. There is no silver bullet. There are many tools. Some of them are stronger and some of them are weaker, and they all have challenges, but I will say that it is about adding layers of protection to Canadians.

Of course, we need to be able to detect the virus, so this means testing and tracing and being able to put out the embers and the flames very quickly, as you might say. We also need to have tools like vaccination to be able to prevent the deaths that we have seen in long-term care and in other settings. We need to have strong measures at our border to protect against importation. We have to have a heavy investment in research and science so that we can understand how the virus is changing and our tools can keep up.

I think Dr. Tam talks about this quite eloquently when she talks about the layers of protection that we need both as a society and as individuals.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Thank you, Minister, and thank you, Mr. Kelloway.

We go back now to Ms. Rempel Garner.

Ms. Rempel Garner, please go ahead for five minutes.