Evidence of meeting #25 for Health in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was vaccines.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Thank you, Chair.
Minister, what benchmarks are you using to determine when you will end the quarantine hotel program, or maybe more simply, do you have benchmarks right now that you are using to determine when you will end the quarantine hotel program?
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
We are carefully monitoring the data we're collecting at the border from both the pre-test and the post-test arrivals. The day 10 testing data is just arriving now. All of that data will help inform our next steps as we evolve our stance at the border.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Then you don't have any benchmarks right now that you're using to determine when you would lift the quarantine hotel program.
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
No, that's not what I said. I said that what we are doing is evaluating the data, evaluating the science and monitoring the variants of concern so we can better understand how we can protect against importation and follow the virus as it mutates and changes.
Conservative
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
They might be things like per cent positivity. They might be things like the number of variants that are coming in. It would include measures around quarantine adherence. There are a number of measures that we monitor.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Which of those benchmarks would you use to determine when you would lift the quarantine hotel program?
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
This is an issue I'd like to turn to Dr. Tam and Iain Stewart on, because I think it's important that—
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
We're two minutes in.
Minister, you're the minister, okay, so you have to be able to communicate some of this stuff to me as the opposition critic.
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
Thankfully, we have officials and scientists leading our way here, and we're very grateful—
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Ms. Rempel Garner, I've asked you not to bully the witness. The officials are here to assist the minister—
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
No, no, no, no, Chair; we're here for supplementary estimates, so she is saying—or I think she's arguing—that she can't answer questions, and I think asking what she does is relevant when we're looking at things like salary lines—but I digress, and I'll go on to my next line of questioning.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
I think it's important that we remember that we have to display courtesy and proper fairness to the witnesses, and it is appropriate for the minister to ask officials to respond if they can give the appropriate answer.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Chair, I realize you might not like my questions, but I do have the right to ask them. I will continue.
Minister, will vaccinated persons be exempt from any lockdown restrictions?
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
I think the member knows—perhaps she doesn't, but the member should know by now—that in fact any kinds of public health measures at the local levels are applied by provinces, territories and local jurisdictions, so those are best posed to those jurisdictions.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
However, the Minister does know that her officials and occasionally she herself will make comments about provincial lockdown restrictions with regard to federal modelling on case projections and things like that, so I just find it odd that she doesn't have a plan when you're asking for several hundred million dollars.
I'll continue.
Do you have any benchmarks that you are using at the federal government to recommend to the provinces around lifting or continuing lockdown restrictions?
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
Provinces and territories work collaboratively together in a number of different ways. One way is through the special advisory committees of medical officers of health of each province and territory—
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
I asked for benchmarks, and you're a year into this, and you're asking for several hundred million dollars today—
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
They meet regularly to talk about the modelling that's happening nationally and the modelling that's happening in each province and territory, and then decisions are taken based on the risks perceived to those particular people in that particular province or territory in collaboration with—
Conservative
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
—local officials. Of course, it's very important for the provinces and territories—
Conservative
Liberal