Health Committee on Feb. 28th, 2022

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

Thank you. I don't need any more.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

You go ahead and finish your answer, Ms. Diogo. He doesn't get to decide when you're done.

[Brigitte Diogo]

The chief public health officer provides updates to Canadians on a weekly basis on how Canada is faring against the virus. She continues to update on the key metrics we're monitoring. These will let us know whether we are getting closer to the endemic stage and what the future would be in terms of changing the border measures.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you.

Mr. van Koeverden, you have five minutes.

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

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, I would like in writing that information tabled to the committee, if we could, please, sir.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

What information is that?

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

I want what Ms. Diogo said.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Ms. Diogo, are you in a position to complement your answer with some written materials?

[Brigitte Diogo]

Mr. Chair, I indicated the updates that the chief public health officer provides on the modelling. There is certainly information that has been communicated publicly. We can make sure that modelling update is provided to the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you.

Mr. van Koeverden, you have five minutes.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I do want to remind every member of this committee that answers appear in the blues. If you're speaking while your question is being answered, it's not just rude; it's also inappropriate to suggest that they provide an answer in writing afterwards. If you're interested in the answer, just listen to the answer.

I also want to thank the witnesses for your patience today. I apologize that this meeting has gotten to the point that it has.

I have a question for my colleagues and not for the witnesses. If you'll indulge me, I'd ask for unanimous consent. I'm raising a motion:

That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the Committee invites the Minister of Health, the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, as well as officials, to appear for two (2) hours regarding the 2021-2022 Supplementary Estimates (C), the 2022-2023 Main Estimates, and the 2022-2023 Departmental Plans for the Department of Health, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Public Health Agency of Canada and that the meeting take place on Monday, March 21st, 2022.

M. Thériault, do you want me to read the motion in French?

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Thank you, but that's not necessary.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

All right.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Colleagues, there's a request here for unanimous consent. This motion really isn't up for debate, because it hasn't provided the requisite notice. If we have unanimous consent, we can deal with it now. If we don't, we'll consider it a notice of motion and it can come forward at a later date.

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

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Yes.

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

Could Mr. van Koeverden, through you, indulge me and just repeat the list of witnesses one more time? I don't expect that unanimous consent will be withheld.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

I'd be happy to:

the Committee invites the Minister of Health, the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health

—which is two people, not three, for the sake of clarity—

as well as officials, to appear for two (2) hours regarding the 2021-2022 Supplementary Estimates (C), the 2022-2023 Main Estimates...on Monday March 21st, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Do we have unanimous consent with respect to that motion, or shall we take it as notice? I see heads nodding around the room.

Mr. Thériault, do you agree?

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

I do not agree.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

We do not have unanimous consent, so we'll take it as notice of motion.

Go ahead, Mr. van Koeverden.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

Thanks, I'll table it in both official languages after the meeting.

Over to the meeting at hand, apologies for the delay.

My first question is with respect to the health data collection being supposedly inadequate according to the Auditor General's report.

First to the deputy Auditor General, could you be specific with respect to what areas require improvement please?

[Andrew Hayes]

I would start by saying that it is important to update and to ensure that the agreements between the federal government and the provinces about data sharing are effective.

Secondly, we need to ensure that there's an information system capable of collecting and storing all of the information from provinces that is required to be able to oversee and act in response to the pandemic is also important.

Finally, as we mentioned in our report, we need to test these systems and plans and agreements to make sure they operate effectively and, furthermore, that the resources needed are there, which is another important step.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

Thank you very much.

Today we've touched on, and I suppose over the last two years we've all become experts on, health care jurisdiction. I'm curious to know how the Public Health Agency of Canada has worked with provinces and territories to provide additional support and how we can look toward more supports in the future in various and specific ways. I'm thinking of long-term care, but particularly others from your perspective that are most important, to ensure the resilience of our health care system on an ongoing basis.

[Laila Goodridge]

We have been actively engaged with the provinces and territories, as well as indigenous and municipal governments.

During the COVID-19 federal response, we put in place a single window at the Public Health Agency [Technical difficulty—Editor] to reach out to us for the surge supports that would be available to them. We had over 150 operational calls with the jurisdictions to help them to get access to the resources available to them. That can include things like contact tracing supports and supplies from the national emergency strategic stockpile. As well, we were able to deploy epidemiologists. Just as an example, we were able to send epidemiologists to a James Bay area region that had several first nations communities, including Kashechewan, which saw over 10% of their population infected and several residents requiring hospital interventions.

The government also put in place a safe voluntary isolation sites program that allowed for over 60 isolation sites in 47 communities to be funded, which supported over 17,000 individuals. These are the types of activities that helped to [Technical difficulty—Editor] break transmissions.

One of the key learnings for this has been the ability to work with the jurisdictions, but also to put innovation and virtual supports in place. On the contact tracing, for example, we were able to support the programming with virtual call centre supports and similarly able to support other jurisdictions with remote epidemiological outbreak management.

There were quite a number of areas where we were able to work in concert with the jurisdictions. I think the gains that have been made in infection prevention and control programs as well have been another area where we've not only had an opportunity to step into an outbreak but also to help them lay a path forward in a number of areas to put key programming in place that would help mitigate further infections.