Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Oct. 29th, 2020

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

You spoke to the committee and mentioned our regional health authority system that we have here in British Columbia. Do you have an elections readiness committee based on all of the regional health authorities and yourself?

[Dr. Bonnie Henry]

No, we didn't have an elections readiness committee in public health. My office had been working very closely—as this is a provincial issue and my office is a provincial body—with Elections BC, as I mentioned, from March, when there were concerns raised by Elections BC.

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

As it stands today with our increasing numbers, in your opinion, would it be safe to launch a five-week election?

[Dr. Bonnie Henry]

With the measures we had in place, I think we could safely have an election at any time during this pandemic. At this point, where we know what we know, we know what measures need to be taken.

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Are there things that you would do differently?

[Dr. Bonnie Henry]

From a health perspective, I think we covered all the bases. It's a challenge with the way the Election Act is; there is this period of time before the counting of the mail-in ballots. I'm sure Elections BC would have things to say about that.

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Dr. Raymond, would you be aware if the Prime Minister had consulted yourself or Dr. Tam on the potential snap election?

[Dr. Barbara Raymond]

Dr. Tam briefs the Prime Minister and the cabinet on a regular basis. I'm not privy to what is said in those meetings. I can tell you that if Dr. Tam were posed the question, I'm confident that she would be very careful, as Dr. Henry has alluded to, in terms of outlining and providing advice or saying what considerations need to be taken into account. However, I would be surprised if she were to give that sort of advice. It wouldn't be consistent with her.

Elections Canada is our interlocutor. That's whom we work with, and that's whom, I assume, the Prime Minister works with. There's no direct contact between the agency and the Prime Minister.

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Thank you for that. As a Beatles fan, I appreciate your Beatles reference to The Long and Winding Road.

I just want to clarify this. I believe my colleague Daniel Blaikie asked you this question, but in your opinion—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

I'm sorry, Mr. Doherty, your time is up. I think I lost track a little bit there. I'm sorry about that.

Next we have Mr. Alghabra.

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Good morning to the witnesses. I do want to echo what our colleagues have said and offer my deep gratitude and appreciation to both of you, Dr. Henry and Dr. Raymond, for the work you've done over the last seven months. I can't even imagine how demanding it's been and how many sleepless nights and long hours you've had. I know you also have teams working with you who are working equally as hard, so I do want to acknowledge and appreciate your work.

This is a good segue from my other statement. One of the things I really adore about our institutions is the separation between political and government institutions, including public health advice. Unlike what we're seeing in some other countries, at the political level we have resisted—at times it may not have been easy—the politicization of public health advice and the role of public health in the public square. That's why I think it's really important, while both you and your agencies are working closely with Elections Canada or Elections BC, that the premier or the Prime Minister avoid the appearance of politicization, the timing of an election, and drag you into the timing of an election. Can you just imagine what that would imply? As I said, I'm grateful.

Dr. Henry, if you allow me to ask a question, the B.C. election, as you said, has just wrapped up, although they're still counting some votes. It's been ongoing for several weeks. Have there been any reports of spread or transmission at polling stations or because of the election process?

[Dr. Bonnie Henry]

I can say quite perfectly, no. We have been monitoring that carefully. We were looking for any challenges that arose. We had contact with the electoral offices about that and we have had no concerns with the conduction of the voting.

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Can you describe to the committee the relationship you had with Elections BC? Was it a formal weekly meeting or informal? Can you describe to us the interaction before and throughout the election period?

[Dr. Bonnie Henry]

They reached out to my office in March, and we met. One of my colleagues, Dr. Brian Emerson, was the primary contact, and we had discussions with them by phone and email at least weekly through this entire period. They had very detailed plans and thought through concerns in some detail, and we provided advice to them on that. We had several meetings by Zoom with the electoral officers from all of the electoral districts as well as with the all-party committee that developed the guidance for conducting the campaign. We met, I believe, two or three times with them.

It was not formal in that we didn't have terms of reference, but we did meet regularly and had an ongoing back-and-forth around questions and guidance as needed.

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Did you have any employees of your agency visit election polls or inspect them?

[Dr. Bonnie Henry]

We had an opportunity to do that if it were needed and we provided advice. I voted, so we were certainly aware, but we didn't do formal inspections.

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

This is a question for both of you. Our task here at committee for this study is to provide guidance to the returning officer for Elections Canada on guidelines for an upcoming election, whenever it happens, under pandemic circumstances.

Do you have any advice for us on what we should provide as guidance to Elections Canada or to the public?

[Dr. Bonnie Henry]

I'm certainly willing to start.

I think there should be very detailed plans about how electoral places will work, but I would also suggest that it would be helpful for the committee to provide recommendations to parties about how to campaign safely. That was something that the public appreciated. Also, the fact that we were able to ensure that they all had plans that were reasonable was something that supported the election happening safely.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you, Dr. Henry.

Mr. Lukiwski, go ahead for five minutes.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, SK]

Thank you very much.

Thanks to both Dr. Raymond and Dr. Henry for being here. I appreciate that very much.

Many of my colleagues have gone over a lot of the ground and asked questions that I was going to ask, although I do have a couple, but before I get into those, just to satisfy my own curiosity, if nothing else, I'd like to get a couple of questions out to both of you, starting with Dr. Henry.

Dr. Henry, how long have you been in your current position?

[Dr. Bonnie Henry]

I was appointed as the provincial health officer in February 2018.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, SK]

Since you say you were appointed, I assume then there is a term that you have been appointed for. Could you tell us what the term is, or is it unlimited?

[Dr. Bonnie Henry]

No, it's unlimited. My position is an independent position, but it's an order in council position, so I serve at the pleasure.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, SK]

The term for your position has no end.

[Dr. Bonnie Henry]

No. My predecessor was in it for almost 20 years.