Health Committee on June 7th, 2021

[Michelle Travis]

No response.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

This government has made a tag line, almost a credo, of being committed to the middle class. What's the impact on wages and working conditions of this hotel strategy?

[Michelle Travis]

For years, this hotel has provided good, family-supporting jobs, living-wage jobs.

Kiran and Elisa have worked in this hotel for years. They are women who have worked in this hotel for 40 years and would go back tomorrow if they could. This is a very long-term group of workers, and they've stayed in their jobs because they're good jobs. What the hotel owner wants to do is to terminate most of the workers—they have already terminated most of the staff—and to replace them with folks at minimum wage. The owner also wants to get rid of their union health benefits, eliminate a pension and drastically roll back any sort of economic gains that have been made over the years; and that's not right. We're concerned that the government has not listened to what's happening here, is not acting and is continuing to roll over their stay at this particular hotel. There are other hotels in the area they could be using. They don't have to be using this one.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you so much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Thank you, Mr. Davies.

Thank you all. Thank you to all of the witnesses for sharing with us your time today and for assisting us in our studies. It is most appreciated. Thank you to all of the members for the great questions. With that, we will suspend and bring in the next panel.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

I call this meeting back to order.

We are resuming meeting number 42 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health. The committee is meeting today to study the emergency situation for Canadians in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I'd like to welcome the witnesses. From the Department of Health, we have Dr. Stephen Lucas, deputy minister; from the Department of Public Works and Government Services, Mr. Bill Matthews, deputy minister; from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, Dr. Matthew Tunis, executive secretary; from the Public Health Agency of Canada, Mr. Iain Stewart, president, Dr. Theresa Tam, chief public health officer, and Brigadier-General Krista Brodie, vice-president, logistics and operations. From the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, we have Mr. Rob Stewart, deputy minister.

With that, thank you to all for being here. We appreciate your time.

We will go straight to questions, starting with Mr. Barlow for six minutes.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I appreciate everybody's time today.

I'll go to Mr. Iain Stewart first.

Mr. Stewart, the expert panel on COVID-19 testing and screening recommended that the use of the government quarantine hotels be discontinued. Have you given the government advice to allow the hotel quarantine requirements to expire on June 21?

[Iain Stewart, President, Public Health Agency of Canada]

Mr. Chair, I will note that I am not able to turn on my video, for some reason. Maybe it's being blocked centrally...?

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

I'm hoping my time hasn't started, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

It has, but we'll start you over.

Mr. Stewart, I did see you earlier. It is most helpful if you have your video on. I think it's helpful for the interpreters.

[Iain Stewart]

Not to waste everybody's time, I'll ask my office to get the IT people to come to see what we can fix. I'm very sorry, Mr. Chair.

Honourable member, if you would just repeat the question, I can take a shot at it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Mr. Barlow, I will start your time over again, if you wish to go ahead with Mr. Stewart without the video.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Yes. That's fine with me, Mr. Chair.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Thanks.

Mr. Stewart, the expert panel on COVID-19 testing and screening recommended that the use of the government quarantine hotels be discontinued. Have you given the government advice to allow the hotel quarantine requirement to expire on June 21?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Okay. Go ahead.

[Iain Stewart]

We've given ongoing advice around the government-approved accommodations, as you can imagine, and we're taking the testing panel report very seriously. We're giving it full consideration.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

On what day will the quarantine hotel program be ended?

[Iain Stewart]

Mr. Chair and honourable member, I'm not able to answer at this time.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

It's good to see your video now, Mr. Stewart.

[Iain Stewart]

Thank you, Mr. Barlow.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

You're welcome.

Mr. Stewart, we had some pretty enlightening testimony by a group of hotel employees during the previous panel. I think many of us on this committee found it quite ridiculous the fact that the federal government is subsidizing a company that has fired 80% of its staff, many of them women, as a way to maybe break a union.

With that in mind, Mr. Stewart, was a gender-based analysis completed for the hotel quarantine program?

[Iain Stewart]

Yes. We did do a gender-based analysis for our new border measures.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Was that done for the hotel quarantine program specifically?

[Iain Stewart]

It included the totality of the program.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Would you be able to table with this committee the results of that analysis?