Health Committee on June 8th, 2022

[Dr. Harpreet S. Kochhar]

Unvaccinated people, if they are travelling in between different cities or different entities....

Maybe I'll confirm this, Mr. Chair. I think they're permitted to get on so long....

I'll get back to you, Mr. Chair. I want to confirm that I'm giving you the right answers. I'm sorry.

[Stephen Ellis, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Okay, then, I'll move on. It's the same policy stuff.

Are unvaccinated travellers permitted by air—yes or no? It's a simple answer.

[Dr. Harpreet S. Kochhar]

Again, is this domestic?

[Stephen Ellis, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Yes, it's domestic.

[Dr. Harpreet S. Kochhar]

On the domestic side, we don't allow the unvaccinated to travel on planes.

[Stephen Ellis, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Well, I guess maybe I'm a policy expert now, but oddly enough, you can get on a ferry inside of Canada unvaccinated and you can get on a plane unvaccinated from remote northern communities. You can do that.

I guess this is going to make this very difficult for you to answer this question, since you didn't know the policy, but how does the science that applies to other people not apply to these folks?

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, I think we'd all agree that we're fortunate to have officials here with us. My colleague is addressing the president of the Public Health Agency of Canada. I think a little respect is due.

Thank you.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

On that point of order, Chair, and after a quick review of the rules, Mr. van Koeverden's intervention is not a point of order. It's a point of debate.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Mr. Barrett.

Dr. Ellis, you can take whatever advice you want from those comments, but you have the floor. Go ahead.

[Stephen Ellis, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

I just find it somewhat distressing that the head of one of Canada's agencies doesn't know the policies that his agency creates. It also makes it very difficult to understand the science that directs such policies when you don't even know the policy.

Given the fact that unvaccinated Canadians are allowed to travel domestically by air and on ferries, how does that science apply to anybody else in Canada who is unvaccinated, say from my riding of Cumberland—Colchester, which is in Nova Scotia. How can they not get on an airplane if certain Canadians can?

What is the magical science that exists for certain people that doesn't exist for others in Canada? Please explain that to me, sir.

[Dr. Harpreet S. Kochhar]

Mr. Chair, maybe I'll come back to this question. Certain populations are exempt for travel for essential purposes, and that is an exemption. Discretionary travel is not allowed for foreign nationals on a plane, unless they have an exemption as such. Domestically, you cannot get on a plane, and that is the case. If you have a right of entry internationally, you can get on the plane, and that is also with a test, and then further day 1 and day 8 tests, as well as quarantine.

That's the main frame of the rules, Mr. Chair.

[Stephen Ellis, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Thank you.

Dr. Kochhar, through the chair, what do you determine as essential, and who determines that?

[Dr. Harpreet S. Kochhar]

Mr. Chair, we have described “for essential purposes” as those who are in certain sectors, for example, health care, oil and gas and others. There exist some other exemptions that are specifically related to maintaining the supply chain. They're considered to be essential. There's a definition, and that is how we treat them.

[Stephen Ellis, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Thank you for that.

Mr. Chair, I have a couple more questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

You can have one more.

[Stephen Ellis, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Great.

We spent about $2 billion on rapid antigen tests. How many of those are still on the shelves and have gone stale dated?

If you don't know the answer, I'd love for that to be provided and tabled here with the committee in the next two weeks, please.

[Dr. Stephen Lucas]

Health Canada, working with provinces, territories and other suppliers, has had very careful inventory management to avoid expiration of tests. This has been managed very closely, including working with manufacturers, taking a life-cycle approach in terms of being able to ensure that inventories are updated. This is an area where we take every step needed to minimize the risk of tests reaching their expiry date.

[Stephen Ellis, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, but I'd like to clarify that I asked specifically for a number, which wasn't provided, and then I asked that evidence be tabled here with the committee in two weeks, please.

[Dr. Stephen Lucas]

Mr. Chair, we can follow up with specific evidence, but I stand by my response that every effort is taken, in terms of the 600 million tests that have been acquired, distributed and used in Canada, to ensure that they don't expire.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Dr. Lucas and Dr. Ellis.

Next we have Dr. Hanley, please, for five minutes.

[Brendan Hanley, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Good afternoon, everyone. I want to thank all of the officials for appearing today.

I would like to start with Dr. Strong, on the theme of long COVID, the state of research, and what you see as the trends, where we're going and the plans for long COVID.

[Dr. Michael Strong]

It's a terrific question.

We have, since the inception of the pandemic itself, invested funding through rapid response programs. In addition to that, the government will be releasing another $20 million directed specifically at long COVID.

As an example of the type of work that's being done, $3.6 million went to understanding the impact of long COVID on children, youth and families in Canada, and that is really the foundation of what will be a much longer study. We're also looking very carefully at mechanisms; very little is known about how this actually occurs.

A lot of work is being done and will continue to be done as we go forward.

[Brendan Hanley, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Thank you very much.

Dr. Lucas, on the clinical patient side in terms of support for long COVID, I think we're all worried about the burden that long COVID is proving to present, with rates of 20% to maybe 30% of COVID disease leading to long COVID syndromes. That is clearly concerning. I hear probably every week from my own constituents....

I wonder if you could give me a bit of the state of where we are with support and projected support for long COVID.

[Dr. Stephen Lucas]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

This is an area of active work not only with the research community, as Dr. Strong just said, and with the Public Health Agency in working with their partners to better understand the prevalence and presentation of long COVID, but also with the provinces and territories in terms of supports.

We had a discussion on this just last week at the council of deputy ministers of health in terms of specific centres or clinics that some provinces are establishing; work to develop clinical guidance in terms of assessing treatment modalities linked with research programs; and work that is more from a health policy perspective in terms of assessing the potential future impacts—both health and, more broadly, social and economic—which will be supported by the research that Dr. Strong spoke about through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

[Brendan Hanley, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Thank you very much.

I want to pivot a bit. I noticed in the supplementary estimates some additional funding for the vaccine injury support program.

Dr. Tam, I wonder if you would be able to provide us a bit of an update in terms of the initial few months of that injury support program's existence and how that may be or will be perhaps increasing the confidence that Canadians have in our vaccine system.