Health Committee on April 12th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome, everyone, to meeting number 28 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health. The committee is meeting today to study the emergency situation facing Canadians in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and, most specifically for this meeting, the collateral effects of the pandemic.

I would like to advise the committee that the witnesses we requested last week for the meeting have confirmed availability for Friday.

I would now like to welcome the witnesses for our meeting today. From the Calgary Airport Authority, we have Carmelle Hunka, vice-president for people and risk and the general counsel. From the Centre for Future Work, we have Dr. Jim Stanford, economist and director. Finally, from Share Family & Community Services Society, we have Ms. Claire MacLean, chief executive officer. Welcome to all of you.

Before we get to the witnesses, we may have some business to take care of first.

Ms. Rempel Garner, did you want to move your motion at this time?

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

What motion, Mr. Chair? I don't think you're at liberty to talk about motions that have been put forward. Is that correct?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

You have informed the committee of a notice of motion. I'm—

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Chair, I put to you, before you say what you're going to say, that when a motion submitted to the clerk in confidence is disclosed without the mover putting it forward, there is a breach of privilege.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

I haven't actually disclosed the motion. I just noted that you filed one. The members of the committee are all aware of the fact that you have filed one.

I take it that you do not wish to move the motion at this time.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

I find that your raising this matter in this manner is inappropriate.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Well, thank you. I'll take that as a no.

That being the case, we will carry on with our business.

We will start with our witnesses. Witnesses, you will have seven minutes for a statement. We'll start with Ms. Hunka, vice-president of people and risk and the general counsel for the Calgary Airport Authority.

Please go ahead, Ms. Hunka, for seven minutes.

[Carmelle Hunka, Vice-President, People, Risk and General Counsel, Calgary Airport Authority]

Good morning, and thank you, Mr. Chair.

Honourable members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to speak with you today.

My name is Carmelle Hunka. I am the vice-president, people, risk and general counsel at the Calgary Airport Authority.

Airports play a critical role in ensuring the safety and health of countless travellers, thousands of employees, and the communities we serve. I'm here today to provide an update on our efforts, to call on government for increased collaboration with industry on a national approach to testing, and to support innovations aimed at ensuring the safe return of air travel.

I am pleased to answer any questions you might have.

The Calgary Airport Authority is an enabler to the economies of Alberta and Canada, generating billions to provincial GDP, and employing, directly and indirectly, thousands of Albertans. The YYC Calgary International Airport has proudly played a vital role in Canada’s air transportation ecosystem, and since the onset of the pandemic, YYC remains one of four Canadian airports designated to receive international travellers.

As you know, COVID-19 has had a particularly devastating impact on airports, air carriers, and the thousands of complementary businesses that rely on Canada’s air transportation system. The pandemic decimated demand for travel, erasing almost 25 years of passenger growth at our airport, and bringing us back to the same number of guests we last saw in 1995. Our airport revenues declined 60% year over year, and we’ve taken on an additional $68 million in debt in 2020 in order to maintain our operations.

Despite this, we remain committed to prioritizing the health and safety of passengers and employees. This commitment was recently reflected in YYC’s participation in the international border testing pilot program, in the screening program now offered to our employees, and in our vision for the future.

The international border testing pilot program was implemented to test inbound international travellers at YYC from early November of 2020 to late February of this year. The pilot program offered travellers entering Canada from international destinations an opportunity to reduce the 14-day quarantine following two negative COVID-19 tests. One test was taken at the airport upon arrival, and another six or seven days later. In the event the first test came back negative, travellers could shorten their quarantine, so long as they remained in the province and followed other restrictions.

Alberta’s chief medical officer of health considered the pilot project to be a vital tool in identifying variants of concern coming into the province. Overall, health officials determined a positivity rate of 1.37% for the first test, and 0.69% on the second test. We share the view that this data collection has been a success and that airport testing was an effective measure in containing the spread of the virus, notably by providing an important early warning system.

Additionally, the first report of the Minister of Health’s COVID-19 testing and screening expert advisory panel includes the deployment of rapid testing for screening as one of its recommendations.

Having witnessed the value of testing and screening, we’ve implemented voluntary COVID-19 testing for employees and select partners working at the airport. The on-site, 20-minute rapid antigen testing program provides an extra layer of protection for our employees and reduces the risk of asymptomatic transmission.

We are asking our government to collaborate with us and to enable technological advancements in screening protocols, including testing at airports, the effective use of data systems and the implementation of modernized screening infrastructure. We are also following closely on the progress of domestic and international efforts, notably by our G7 partners and the EU, in creating recognized documentation that would facilitate the movement of people across borders while the pandemic is ongoing. In the immediate term, a thoughtful, data-driven and tailored approach to restarting domestic travel is critical. We welcome the government’s participation in such collaborative efforts.

In summary, a unified approach to modernized passenger screening measures and the effective use of robust data systems are vital for restoring confidence in air travel as well as for maintaining the health of air transportation employees, passengers and the communities we serve. We hope to see the government contribute to such efforts.

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to answering any questions you might have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Thank you, Ms. Hunka.

We'll now go to Dr. Stanford. I'm advised by the clerk that we have five to six minutes per witness.

Please go ahead, Dr. Stanford.

[Dr. Jim Stanford, Economist and Director, Centre for Future Work]

Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members.

I'm grateful for the opportunity to meet with you today and I'm grateful for the work you are doing in trying to help Canada through this incredible moment.

I'm Jim Stanford, economist and director of the Centre for Future Work, which is a labour economics think tank with offices here in Vancouver and in Sydney, Australia.

As a labour economist, I will address the impacts of COVID-19 mostly in terms of work, workers and workplaces. I will draw on, in particular, a major report from our centre called “10 Ways the COVID-19 Pandemic Must Change Work For Good”. If any of you or your staff are interested in following that up, it's on our website, centreforfuturework.ca.

There are many overlaps, of course, between the COVID-19 pandemic and work. Workplaces were and remain a major site of contagion. This means the people who work there and the customers and clients they serve are vulnerable. That vulnerability stems not just from where we work; it's clear that some industries and some kinds of workplaces are particularly vulnerable to contagion, largely based on the spatial configuration of those workplaces and how closely people have to work with their colleagues or their customers.

There is also an overlap with how we work. In particular, there is an interaction between employment relationships and the risks of contagion as a result of the prevalence of non-standard or precarious work arrangements leading to vulnerability to disease. The growth of precarious or non-standard work arrangements in which people are not working in regular, full-time permanent positions with normal employment benefits has led to COVID being experienced in a number of ways.

First, workers in non-standard positions typically do not have access to paid sick leave, which means there is an economic compulsion on them to continue working even when they should be isolating.

Second, people in non-standard work situations are more often trying to make a living by cobbling together income from multiple jobs by holding two, three or even four jobs at the same time. This means they're working at multiple workplaces, which naturally enhances the risk of their sharing the virus among different locations. We saw how catastrophic that was in the roles of workers in non-standard situations and precarious employment relationships in spreading COVID across multiple long-term care facilities in the earlier stages of the pandemic.

The general absence of stability and permanence in work arrangements, the lack of training and skills acquisition in precarious work situations and the lack of channels through which workers in those jobs could express their concerns and needs also contribute to a greater vulnerability.

In terms of the impact of the pandemic on employment, we have seen the pandemic greatly exacerbate the inequality in employment outcomes that was already visible before the pandemic.

There was an incredible concentration of loss of employment hours and income in the initial months of the pandemic in particular sectors of the labour market, including particular industries—the face-to-face industries that had to be shut down immediately, such as retail, hospitality, arts and recreation, personal services and many transportation functions. There were also the demographic and gender groups: Young people experienced much worse job losses and women experienced more job losses than men.

Also, of course, there was the type of job, the level of work. Employment losses for part-time workers and temporary workers were four or five times greater than job losses experienced among permanent staff. In fact, there are many staff in relatively good jobs who were able to do their jobs from home and didn't lose any income as a result of the pandemic.

In this way, the pandemic has greatly exacerbated the consequences of inequality. In my judgment, it will impose lasting economic, social, health and fiscal costs on Canada unless our post-COVID policy response is fundamentally directed at helping those who need it most.

In terms of what we do to ensure a stronger labour market, stronger employment and safer jobs coming out of the pandemic, I will refer you to the full study. We have a 10-point agenda, which includes reconfiguring spatial relationships in workplaces; the provision of paid sick leave, which is an essential step; measures to enhance stability and well-being when working from home; and of course measures to address this overarching problem of precarious employment and how that contributed to a negative health outcome.

I would recommend the full study for a deeper view.

Fixing work after COVID is going to be a substantial, long-term task. It will have to involve all stakeholders: federal and provincial governments, employers, regulators, unions, educational institutions, and more. In my judgment, it is essential. The pandemic was a wake-up call that exposed fractures in our labour market and our employment relationships that were visible before the pandemic, but now we realize those are harmful not just to the workers affected but also to public health. In order to make work better, but also make public health safer, we have to fix work coming out of the pandemic.

I'll leave it at that, Mr. Chair. Thank you, again, and I look forward to our discussion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Thank you, Doctor.

We'll go now to SHARE Family & Community Services Society, and Ms. MacLean.

Ms. MacLean, please go ahead. You have five to six minutes, please.

[Claire MacLean, Chief Executive Officer, SHARE Family & Community Services Society]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and honourable members of the committee. It's really a pleasure to be here this morning.

My name is Claire MacLean. I'm the chief executive officer of the SHARE society.

SHARE is a registered charity. We are somewhat unique in terms of social service agencies in that we don't serve just one demographic, such as seniors, or one area of need, such as autism. We really are here to support members of our community during times of vulnerability. It is our deeply set belief that if we can wrap our services around people during those times of vulnerability, they can come out on the other side with better outcomes.

As a result of that belief, SHARE delivers a wide range and different buckets of services. We have services that address financial vulnerability, such as the food bank, a rent bank, employment programs and affordable housing. We have services that support the vulnerability of mental health, including counselling and addiction services. We have services to support the vulnerability of aging, including social connection services for our seniors and transportation to medical appointments. We have services that address the vulnerability of disability, including services for children and youth with special needs. We have services that support the vulnerability associated with being a newcomer or a refugee to our country. Finally, we have programs that support the vulnerability of early and middle childhood, including parenting programs.

Through this wide range of services, SHARE supports about 22,000 people each year in the cities of Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, New Westminster, Anmore and Belcarra.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, SHARE was one of those classified as an essential service provider. Our food bank has not missed a single day of food hamper distribution. Across all of our programs, our staff have done a really amazing and admirable job at coming up with creative solutions to ensure that the people in our community could continue to access the supports they needed.

I know the committee has already heard expert testimony around the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on vulnerable members of our community. I can add my voice as further witness to that fact.

We cannot talk about the impacts of this pandemic without talking about the financially vulnerable members of our community. These are folks who are at higher risk of contracting the virus. They lack paid sick leave and therefore are more likely to attend work if they have symptoms or have to work alongside someone doing the same. The financially vulnerable are more likely to live with roommates or extended family, thus expanding the contacts they experience on a day-to-day basis. These members of our community are often employed as casual or part-time workers with multiple employers at multiple locations, again expanding their contacts.

In addition to being at higher risk of just becoming sick, the financially vulnerable members of our population are also at a higher risk for the collateral damage of this pandemic. They are the ones more likely to have been laid off by struggling businesses, and they do not have the same access to mental health supports, child care, domestic supports, recreation services or even nutritious food. You cannot talk about the emergency situation facing Canadians as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic without talking about financial vulnerability.

However, there is good news on this aspect. Some of the government’s actions during the height of the pandemic were very effective at helping to mitigate the impacts on financially vulnerable people. We heard from the community members that SHARE serves that the CERB payments were critical to ensuring the well-being of their families. In addition, the funding supports for food banks were incredibly impactful. With a food bank that serves over 2,000 people every month, I can tell you that the funding SHARE received allowed us to feed more households and get them the nutritious food they needed. We appreciate these efforts and thank the government for its actions.

As we look ahead, I would implore this committee to consider two specific recommendations:

The first is that these supports be continued. Just as the financially vulnerable members of our community were hit harder by this pandemic, they will take longer to recover. This cannot be measured in months; rather, it will take years. Sustained government funding for food banks and programs that continue to put money directly into the hands of those in need in our communities is effective and necessary.

The second is that desperately needed infrastructure funding be provided to the community services sector. While attention and funding is justifiably focused on primary care and emergency care hospitals and services, it is the community-based services, such as those delivered by SHARE, that complete the cycle of support for our citizens.

A baby girl born at 26 weeks of gestation is sent home from her local hospital with a feeding tube and dire predictions for her long-term developmental and academic success. It is the speech-language pathologists, the physiotherapists and the occupational therapists at SHARE who work with her parents so that she can learn to drink from a bottle, take her first steps and say her first words.

It is through the work of SHARE and her family that she arrives at kindergarten, never having set foot back in the hospital since her infancy.

Similarly, for the senior who's using alcohol to manage his loneliness and depression and had to visit the emergency room after a particularly bad fall one evening, it is the SHARE counsellors who helped him find a better way to cope. SHARE's legal advocacy and housing teams help make sure that he doesn't get evicted and end up homeless or make more frequent visits to the ER.

Our nation's health care system does not work without social service and community-based organizations such as SHARE, yet we are consistently denied any type of basic infrastructure support and funding for IT or administration needs. To continue to starve this sector of supports places the health and well-being of all Canadians at risk.

Honourable members of the committee, as someone who has done this work and had the privilege of working in the field of community services for over 20 years, and has done work in B.C., Ontario and Alberta, I can tell you that these stories are not unique to the Tri-Cities or to SHARE. The need to support the most vulnerable members of our communities spans our entire country. The solution of direct financial support and sustained and conscious infrastructure funding for the community services sector is one that could be applied nationally.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Thank you, Ms. MacLean.

We will start our rounds of questions at this point. We will begin with Ms. Rempel Garner.

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

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

I'll start with questions for Ms. Hunka from the Calgary Airport Authority.

Ms. Hunka, if I'm not mistaken, you have your AGM coming up this week. Is that correct?

[Carmelle Hunka]

Yes. It's on Wednesday at 9 a.m. Mountain Time.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

You mentioned to us that in the last year, you've amassed about $68 million in debt. What do your financials look like in terms of cash flow for the next few months? What will you be telling folks at your AGM this week, in the context of what you can and can't say?

[Carmelle Hunka]

For our cash flow position, we will be advising of a $23-million deficit in 2020 as a result of the pandemic. Our revenues were down about 60%, as we indicated. Our expenses were down about 38%. As you can appreciate, an airport has significant infrastructure, and while we've taken decisive action and reduced significant capital programs, we need to expend regular resources on things like keeping our runways clear when there's snow. We can only reduce our expenses so much. What we will be advising is a cash flow deficit of $23 million.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

What does that mean? How long do you guys have to operate with that type of a deficit projection?

[Carmelle Hunka]

Our projection is that we will probably need to borrow, in addition to the $68 million, $200 million over the course of the next two years in order to remain cash positive. If we have to continue to borrow and we see the same types of situations, we may be cash flow negative and our liquidity will run out sometime in 2023.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Essentially what you're saying is that if things don't turn around, there is a risk of insolvency for the Calgary International Airport sometime in 2023.

[Carmelle Hunka]

We will certainly need to—and we are committed to this—maintain and take on additional debt as we need to. That's not the direction we would like to go. We are hopeful that we will find a way to fund recovery and bring back our operation.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

In terms of what could fund recovery, you mentioned a lot about the Calgary border pilot program. When that was cancelled, were you given any evidence or rationale for why that cancellation was needed for public health outcomes?

[Carmelle Hunka]

We were advised that the pilot program was being cancelled as a result of the new testing that was being implemented Canada-wide.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Were you shown any evidence or data that showed that the new system was more effective than the old system for public health outcomes?

[Carmelle Hunka]

We were not provided with that evidence or information. We participated in the change as a result of the order in council. We participated in the switchover and supported the government.