Health Committee on Feb. 28th, 2022

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Did you have a registry?

[Brigitte Diogo]

We had asked hotel staff to give us information about people arriving at their establishment. This was the failure that the Office of the Auditor General of Canada reported. We knew from the start who was being sent to the hotel and who did not have a reservation. These cases were reported to the agency as soon as these people arrived at the airport.

The agency had increased its resources to be able to help travellers comply with quarantine requirements. We worked with airports to ensure that people could make a hotel reservation. We contacted everyone who tested positive. They had to go to the hotel to wait for their test results. The agency contacted each of these individuals to ensure that they understood the quarantine requirements.

There are indeed improvements to be made, and we continue to improve our border management system and quarantine tracking.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Ms. Diogo and Mr. Thériault.

We have Mr. Davies, please, for two and a half minutes.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you.

The Auditor General's May 2021 report on securing personal protective equipment and medical devices found that PHAC was not as prepared as it should have been to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic due to “long-standing unaddressed problems with the systems and practices in place to manage the National Emergency Strategic Stockpile”. It pointed out “that the unaddressed federal stockpile issues had been brought to [PHAC's] attention through a series of internal audits dating back to at least 2010.”

On a scale of one to 10, one being terrible and 10 being perfect, how would you describe the current state of Canada's national emergency strategic stockpile?

[Laila Goodridge]

We've made significant progress in situating ourselves to be ready to respond to the current COVID situation. We now have an eight-week stockpiled supply of key personal protective commodities, including N95 respirators, surgical masks, gloves and face shields. We've been able to actively respond to 379 requests for assistance from the provinces and territories and other government departments to support them with necessary medical equipment and supplies. As well, we procured over 40,000 new biomedical devices to support the increased needs given that the clinical—

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

I'm sorry, Ms. Evans, but I have limited time, which is why I framed my question very precisely. Those numbers are meaningless to me unless I know whether they're good or not. For instance, how many weeks of supply did we have in our stockpile at the time the Auditor General said that we were not doing a good job? You just said we have eight weeks now. What did we have then?

[Laila Goodridge]

Working with the provinces and territories we were able to put in place a supply and demand model that helped us to establish what the key burn rates were during COVID-19. We worked with the provinces to determine the needs both for their stockpiles as well as for the Public Health Agency. Certainly we had personal protective equipment—

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

I'm sorry, I'm going to go somewhere else. I have to say it's unacceptable to get that kind of dissembling to direct questions by the health committee. I just must say that for the record.

Ms. Diogo, what is the current state of knowledge on an infection-acquired immunity?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Please give a short answer, Ms. Diogo.

[Brigitte Diogo]

I'm not a scientist. I'll defer to the department to respond in writing to that question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Mr. Davies.

Next we have Mr. Barrett, please, for five minutes.

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

Thank you, Chair, and thanks to the witnesses.

Through you, Chair, to the witnesses at the Public Health Agency of Canada, a number of Canadian provinces have released step-by-step plans that detail their exit from COVID-19, or an end to COVID-19 restrictions in their jurisdictions. Has the Public Health Agency of Canada prepared a plan like that?

[Brigitte Diogo]

Mr. Chair, the agency is working with other government departments and in consultation with the provinces and territories about a phased approach to adjusting the public health measures. We are looking to inform those discussions with what we have learned from the science and data; but currently the border measures and the public health measures, and how to change them, are being discussed with provinces and territories.

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

Thanks for the answer.

Again through the chair, what benchmarks are being used by the Public Health Agency of Canada to justify the current restrictions or the change to restrictions at ports of entry, to go back to the response from the previous official, Mr. Chair?

[Brigitte Diogo]

With regard to a benchmark, we certainly monitor the epidemiology whether it's in Canada or elsewhere. We are looking at importation risk, at the results of our testing regime, at the positivity rates, for example, in the border testing to determine whether readjustments will be made to the measures. We're certainly looking, at the domestic level, at vaccinations and at the impact on the health care system in Canada. Those are some of the elements that go into the modelling that is done to determine whether we have to make adjustments.

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

While I appreciate the answer, Mr. Chair, I think knowing specifically what the benchmarks are would help inform the Canadian public and certainly members of this committee. We've seen that with some of the provinces in the step-by-step process they've laid out. What do those metrics need to look like? Is it a 100% vaccination rate? Is it a 0% test positivity rate? What numbers have been identified?

Through you, Mr. Chair, I'd quickly ask if the witness would undertake to provide those benchmarks to the committee in writing.

[Brigitte Diogo]

Yes, Mr. Chair, we can provide that information.

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

Thank you, Chair.

My next question is with respect to the requirement for proof of vaccination at our ports of entry. I want to refer to the “Statement on the 10th meeting of the International Health Regulations...Emergency Committee regarding the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic”, from January 19, 2022. That's from the World Health Organization. It lists and identifies actions that are critical for all countries. One item listed is that countries “NOT require proof of vaccination against COVID-19 for international travel as the only pathway or condition permitting international travel given limited global access and inequitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.”

It continues, but I'll stop quoting it there. I'll ask, through you, Chair, if the witnesses can tell us why that recommendation has not been adopted. Is Canada going to move away from the requirement for proof of vaccination as one of the other steps they're going to take towards sunsetting or ending the federal requirements?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

We're out of time, but we'll allow a brief response.

[Brigitte Diogo]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

There is no plan to move away from that requirement at this time. The vaccination has been a foundational piece in reopening to international travel. At this time, it's something we are retaining.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Mr. Barrett.

Next is Ms. Sidhu for five minutes, please.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all of the witnesses for being with us.

My question is for Ms. Diogo.

As an official response for PHAC's original branches, could you speak to your agency's relationship with various health systems of the provinces and territories? What were the challenges in inventory control and tracking among governments?

[Brigitte Diogo]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I believe that's a question for my colleague Cindy Evans.

[Laila Goodridge]

Mr. Chair, early on in the pandemic, there were some challenges with the provinces and territories being able to very quickly identify their current holdings of personal protective equipment. In that regard, the Public Health Agency moved forward quickly in collaboration with our partners at Public Services and Procurement Canada to engage in bulk procurement so that we could secure for Canada the personal protective equipment needed. Then we had a very transparent allocation framework where 80% of those procurements were moved quickly as they came in to the provinces and territories, with 20% being held back for the national emergency strategic stockpile.

We developed systems to collect information throughout the pandemic in terms of the holdings of the jurisdictions to help understand where the pressure points might be and where we might be at greater risk in terms of the supply coming in. We're fortunate to have very effective governance structures, including the Logistics Advisory Committee, where we could discuss the challenges and facilitate sharing across the jurisdictions where there were pressure points as Canada moved forward to increase its holdings of personal protective equipment.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

To follow up on that, Ms. Evans, what can be done to get better data surveillance? What is the timeline to identify gaps to be fulfilled?