National Defence Committee on Jan. 29th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Karen McCrimmon]

Good afternoon, everyone. I call this meeting to order.

Good afternoon and happy New Year! Welcome, everyone.

I'm going to break with a little tradition. Normally, I scale down my opening remarks, as per the direction we've gotten from the House of Commons, but because this is our first session in this new year and there is new technology and new procedures, I'm actually going to do the entire thing. Then from here on I'll just go back and use my shortened version. There are some important changes included in the direction that we've received today from the House of Commons.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House order of January 25, 2020. Committee members will be attending in person or through the Zoom application. The proceedings will be published on the House of Commons website.

For your information, the web broadcast will always show the individual who is speaking rather than the entire committee.

We're in this new webinar format and they are public committee meetings. I'm hoping that your sign-in process was a little quicker than normal. I was really happy for the extra help from our translators to make sure that all of our equipment was working and that translation is going to work well today.

Also staff are on, but they are non-active participants and they can view the meeting in gallery view.

There is one thing that they asked us to remind you of, and that is that taking screenshots or photos of your screen is not allowed.

We are going to follow the health authorities' guidelines that have been put into place here, whether about distancing or about masks. We're allowed to take off our masks when we're sitting, but if we get up to move around then we must replace our masks and use all of the proper hygiene. I ask that those of you who are here with us in person today adhere to those measures.

Members and witnesses may speak in the official language of their choice. We have some terrific interpreters with us here today. You have the choice at the bottom of your screen of “floor”, “English” or “French”. You don't need to switch between languages now. If you're going to speak sometimes in French and sometimes in English, the system will automatically switch for you.

You'll also notice that the “raise hand” feature is now more easily accessed with the location on the main toolbar, should you want to speak or alert me about something.

Please, before you start speaking, wait to be acknowledged. It's all about making Zoom work better for us. You know how to unmute yourself. After all these months, I still have to remind myself to unmute the microphone. Isn't that awful?

All comments and questions should be addressed through the chair. Try to speak very clearly and not as quickly as I tend to speak sometimes. It makes the job of our interpreters difficult when we speak really quickly.

We're going to try to keep a consolidated order of questioning. We have, from each party, a list of the members and the order in which they are going to speak. We're going to try to adhere to that as much as we possibly can.

Today we are resuming our study of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canadian Armed Forces operations. We are very lucky to have two very sought-after witnesses with us to help us.

We have Major-General Dany Fortin, vice-president, vaccine rollout task force, logistics and operations at the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Also with us is Major-General Mark Misener, acting chief of staff, operations, Canadian Joint Operations Command.

We thank you, witnesses. We understand just how valuable your time is and we are very grateful that you can be with us today.

I'm going to allow each of our witnesses a 10-minute opening statement. Then after the two statements are done, we will proceed with rounds of questions.

With that, I would like to welcome Major-General Dany Fortin to address the committee.

Welcome, General Fortin, and thank you for your time.

[Major-General Dany Fortin, Vice-President, Vaccine Roll-Out Task Force, Logistics and Operations, Public Health Agency of Canada]

Madam Chair, thank you very much.

Thank you for inviting me to discuss the role that my team and I have been playing in the whole-of-government response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

I am Major-General Dany Fortin. As you mentioned, I'm the vice-president of the vaccine rollout task force, logistics and operations, at the Public Health Agency of Canada and responsible for the oversight and distribution of COVID-19 vaccinations to Canadians.

The distribution of COVID-19 vaccines on a national scale is an operation of unprecedented proportions. It became evident early on in the procurement process, as the Government of Canada was identifying vaccine candidates, that the early-to-market mRNA COVID-19 vaccines would have unique handling and storing requirements that would necessitate novel, fit-for-purpose logistical solutions outside the scope of Canada’s usual immunization programs.

The particular suite of challenges posed by these novel vaccines lends itself well to CAF organizational skill sets in managing complex large-scale operations, particularly when complemented by the scientific and immunization expertise within the public health domain to form an interdisciplinary team to guide the distribution of many millions of vaccines across the nation.

By way of context for the Canadian Armed Forces and the Department of National Defence augmentation to the Public Health Agency, the team has been operating in its current configuration since November, but the Canadian Armed Forces and the Department of National Defence augmentation to the agency goes back over 10 months. Over the spring and summer months, from March to August, a team of CAF members supported efforts to develop the warehousing and distribution contracts for Canada’s large-scale PPE orders.

Early in the fall, additional CAF members and DND personnel were brought in to bolster planning and coordination capacity at the agency and contribute to the creation of a dedicated vaccine rollout task force. The vaccine logistics planning team and the national operations centre for vaccines advance party preceded my November arrival by a month.

My team at the agency currently has 52 personnel. It includes logistics experts, operational and medical planners and specialists, information technology and systems experts, contracting experts and a communications team to prepare me for the engagements. It is focused on all dimensions of COVID-19 vaccine distribution planning, including ancillary supplies and cold chain enabling equipment, as well as the running of the vaccine rollout national operations centre, the central coordination hub for the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to provinces and territories, as well as to federal jurisdictions.

The mandate of the national operations centre includes the coordination of vaccine orders from federal, provincial and territorial partners to the manufacturers; the coordination with the federal logistics service provider for the transport and distribution of vaccines to vaccine delivery sites across Canada as identified by provinces and territories; the coordination of delivery of ancillary supplies and enabling equipment from the agency’s national emergency strategic stockpile; and ensuring the timely and transparent communication between partners and stakeholders, including vaccine manufacturers and logistics service providers, is maintained to enable efficient operations.

The team’s work revolves around the planning and coordination of the practical aspects of the COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Throughout November and December and now into January, we implemented a deliberate and phased approach to COVID-19 vaccine readiness. This provided us with the opportunity to assess and begin scaling up the cold chain capacity across Canada and to roll out the training, ancillary and enabling equipment.

My team helped strengthen the distribution plan by introducing risk mitigation tools. Through a series of established exercises and rehearsals, we collectively stress-tested the vaccine distribution plans, verified their effectiveness, identified the challenges and established contingency plans.

In light of the unique cold chain requirements of both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, this approach ensured that the initial capacity to receive, store and administer the vaccines at the provincial and territorial level was appropriate for the limited supply expected in phase one or the first quarter. These efforts culminated in an early vaccine rollout mid-December.

Our planning and execution, at every step, has been done in close collaboration with all stakeholders—federal, provincial, territorial, and indigenous partners, as well as industry stakeholders—to ensure that vaccines continue to be delivered efficiently and safely to all regions in Canada.

The quantity of doses arriving in Canada will continue to grow. We expect that shipments from Pfizer-BioNTech will accelerate in the latter half of February and through March to reach their Q1 commitment of four million doses. We also expect over one million doses of Moderna in March to reach their commitment of two million doses by March 31.

This will set the stage for the large scale ramp-up we anticipate in the second quarter of 20 million doses of approved vaccines, with the potential of even more as additional vaccine candidates are authorized by the regulators at Health Canada, and supply becomes available.

We are working to build capacity within the Public Health Agency of Canada and to support efforts across the provinces and territories to ensure the success of Canada's COVID-19 immunization campaign, and to set the conditions for a more robust institutional capacity to face future pandemics.

While we focus on this mission, we are working to identify key capabilities and functions currently being provided by Canadian Armed Forces and Department of National Defence members on the team so that appropriate human resource planning can occur at the agency to ensure the continuity of COVID-19 vaccine distribution to Canadians.

In conclusion, the CAF members and DND personnel assigned to this mission are proud and humbled to be part of this whole-of-nation effort to support Canada's COVID-19 immunization strategy.

With that, I will say thank you very much, and I will now hand it over to General Misener.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karen McCrimmon]

Thank you very much, General Fortin.

General Misener.

[MGen Mark Misener, Acting Chief of Staff, Operations, Canadian Joint Operations Command, Department of National Defence]

Madam Chair, thank you for the opportunity to appear today to discuss the role that the Canadian Armed Forces is playing in the whole-of-government response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

I am Major-General Mark Misener, chief of staff to the commander of the Canadian Joint Operations Command.

I will focus my remarks today on how the CAF operates to support this whole-of-government plan, the role of CJOC in this operation and our support to the COVID-19 vaccination plan.

At CJOC, we are responsible for the command and control of Canadian Armed Forces operations, whether domestic or international. In that sense, we are the action arm for the Canadian Armed Forces COVID-19 response, as we support the government in delivering on the support requested from federal, provincial and territorial governments. This also includes the planning needed to undertake these operations.

In close collaboration with the Public Health Agency, the Canadian Armed Forces initiated Operation Vector, our support to Canada's vaccine distribution. There are three key components to this operation.

The first is supporting the Public Health Agency with planning assistance. This includes support to the national operations centre, the warehousing of PPE and equipment, supporting provinces and territories with planning, and if required and requested, assisting the provinces with their own vaccine distribution plans.

The second component is maintaining a robust ready force comprising sea, land and air force elements. These elements also support other government departments in order to streamline communications that are integral to all government contingency planning.

The third is vaccinating our own CAF members as our allocations are provided, including our members deployed overseas.

As the Canadian Armed Forces, or CAF, planned Operation Vector, it was important that our tasked personnel came from the local communities to the extent possible, both to minimize movement between communities and to draw from their deeper understanding of the local situation on the ground.

Operation Vector is maximizing the use of our Reserve Force and the Canadian Rangers to respond to demands, so as to keep CAF members' movement as low as possible and thus reduce the risk of spreading the virus.

The types of tasks anticipated range from assisting with planning and coordinating the transport, storage and distribution of vaccines, to assisting local communities with setting up vaccination clinics.

To date, we have seen requests to move equipment, such as the transportation of freezers to the territories in the north, and, in preparation for the receipt of the vaccine, assisting in the transportation of Canadians in remote parts of our country to vaccine clinics as well as assisting with the set-up of vaccine clinics themselves.

As for vaccinations for CAF members, we've already received an initial allocation of vaccines for our military health care workers and are fully part of the national plan. As the availability of vaccines in Canada ramps up, the CAF will conduct our internal vaccination plan to ensure our members are safe, better prepared to operate in the COVID environment and will not transmit the virus to the Canadian population at home or to our allies and partners abroad.

The CAF has supported Canadians throughout the pandemic and remains postured and prepared to do our part alongside other departments, partners and Canadians in the vaccine distribution effort.

In fact, as part of Operation Laser, the Canadian Armed Forces are currently providing vital assistance and care to northern and isolated communities. The Canadian Rangers also continue to be active across Canada, providing assistance to northern and indigenous communities as required.

Madam Chair, I would now be pleased to take your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karen McCrimmon]

Thank you very much for that, General Misener.

With that, we will start our rounds of questions with Mr. Bezan.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I want to thank you, witnesses General Fortin and General Misener, for the incredible work you're both doing on battling COVID across this country. There's no question in my mind that rolling out this vaccine and dealing with the pandemic would not be possible without the brave men and women in our forces. The skill set you guys bring to the job, the command, the control, the leadership and the delivery of services are, bar none, the best in the world. Please pass on our thanks and gratitude to all the members of the Canadian Armed Forces whether they are working on Operation Laser or Operation Vector, or they are deployed overseas, or they are standing ready here at home. They are all doing their part to keep all of us safe.

General Misener, you were talking about our troops and their getting vaccinated. We heard reports earlier this week that in the last month 250 members of the Canadian Armed Forces have been infected with COVID-19. Can you tell us quickly whether or not they became ill through community exposure, while in service in long-term care homes, or in helping our indigenous populations in northern communities, or if they were deployed overseas and became infected through that stage? Also, I hope each and every one of them has been able to recover from their illness.

[MGen Mark Misener]

Thank you for the good wishes, which I will pass on to the members of the Canadian Armed Forces.

In response to the question, obviously, the health, welfare and security of our members are very important. We follow PHMs, and we definitely take advice from the Surgeon General and our command surgeon as we implement not only our public health measures but our layered risk mitigation measures.

In response to your question, we have a very low percentage of people who have contracted COVID-19 compared to numbers in the general population. I can confirm from the information I know that it has been mainly through close contacts with family members and things like that and less so through conducting their duties.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

Thank you, General. I appreciate that. Again, please pass on our best wishes to everyone for a quick and speedy recovery.

I know that some of our colleagues are probably going to ask you questions about vaccinating our troops before they deploy, but I do want to go to General Fortin on the issues surrounding vaccine availability.

You were on the news yesterday talking about the complications of doing vaccine distribution across this country as part of Operation Vector because of the reductions in supply coming from Pfizer.

Today we learned that Moderna has now also decreased supplies. The Pfizer reduction puts us behind schedule by the end of February. The numbers I'm reading in the news show that we are 845,000 doses of vaccine short. Now with the Moderna reduction, that's going to put us at over a million doses behind the eight ball.

General Fortin, how are you going to be able to provide that logistical support to the government, which has been so inept at being able to get its hands on doses at the same rate that 20 plus other countries around the world who are way ahead of us in the vaccination process have?

[MGen Dany Fortin]

Madam Chair, I thank the member for his question.

To start off, I would like to point out that the manufacturers are dealing with new products and with production challenges, and that we can expect fluctuations in their production.

We certainly have experienced a bump in the road with the recent reduction in what we can hope to receive from Pfizer during a period of about four weeks.

Pfizer assured us that we are to receive four million doses by the end of March and they continue to assure us of that. Moderna assures us that they will provide two million doses by the end of March. As we get closer to that deadline, there is more and more pressure on all of us to provide the right quantities.

I want to assure Canadians that we are working extremely hard with the manufacturers and with all the stakeholders to have as efficient a rollout as possible. We are dependent on what the manufacturers are able to produce with a new technology and a new type of vaccine, with the global demand or global market that is putting pressures on everyone.

I remain committed to providing as clear a picture to Canadians and to this committee and other committees as possible with regard to what we can expect and when and to working very closely with all stakeholders.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

Thank you, General Fortin.

I'll go back to you, General, because the thing that Canadians are looking for is clarity. You saw some polling numbers today. They're getting more and more concerned about whether or not they will have access to these vaccines. As you just mentioned, a lot of this is dependent upon the manufacturers and the contracts we signed. We know that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is shown to be only 66% effective on one dose. That was in the news in the last couple of days as well. Whether or not that receives approval by Health Canada is another issue.

On the projection, on trying to get to where the Prime Minister has said, where all Canadians will be vaccinated by September, is that dependent upon the ability of vaccine companies to deliver? Outside of Pfizer and Moderna, is that including any other manufacturers to provide vaccines to Canadians?

[MGen Dany Fortin]

Canada has contracts with Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna for a total of 80 million doses this calendar year. Right there, with those two approved vaccines, we have sufficient quantities to vaccinate all Canadians who wish to get a vaccine.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

That's as long as they all get delivered, because we do know that the EU, as the Americans are already talking...them first, us last. So that is still contingent upon them providing vaccines without having reductions happen because of internal politics.

[MGen Dany Fortin]

It is entirely dependent on us receiving vaccines. Absolutely. Now, despite the immediate challenges, we expect to have six million doses by the end of this quarter and another 20 million of those two approved vaccines in the next quarter. That represents a significant jump and poses some challenges. We're working through that with provinces.

In the summer we can expect the larger chunk of the remaining 54 million doses. Our planning assumption is that 45 million will be made available for the summer into the early fall period. That's why we are confident that, based on those estimates, having received the majority of those 80 million approved vaccines, we will have sufficient quantities for all Canadians who want to get vaccinated to have access to a vaccine.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karen McCrimmon]

Thank you very much, Mr. Bezan.

We will go on to Mr. Baker, please.

[Yvan Baker, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Thank you, General Fortin and General Misener, for being with us today. I'd like to extend my thanks, on behalf of my community and my caucus, for your service, particularly at this critical time during COVID-19 as you help Canada fight COVID-19 through vaccinations, through Operation Laser and through a number of different ways. Thank you for that, and please pass that along to your teams as well, if you would.

I'd like to return to an issue that is close to my heart, close to many people in my community and I think close to many Canadians. That's the issue of long-term care. I'll direct my question to General Misener first.

In Etobicoke Centre, the community I represent, we lost 42 residents to COVID-19 at the Eatonville long-term care centre. This is one of the homes where Canadian Armed Forces personnel served in the spring. First of all, I'd like to once again extend my thanks to the armed forces for serving in all of the long-term care homes that personnel served in, but particularly those CAF members who cared for and saved the lives of constituents in my community in Etobicoke Centre. I'd also like to thank the CAF for preparing the report that was made public and that described horrific and abusive conditions at a number of long-term care homes where they were posted. I think that report is important, because it enabled awareness that led to advocacy and the federal government committing to national standards for long-term care. When implemented, those will make a difference for generations of seniors.

The current situation, however, is dire. Despite the above service that I talked about, despite the attention that was given to long-term care during the first wave, not enough was done—I'll speak about the context in Ontario—to learn the lessons from the first wave of the pandemic and protect our seniors during the second wave of COVID-19. In Ontario right now, approximately 256 long-term care homes, which is 41% of all long-term care homes in the province, are in outbreak. In Ontario, public health authorities project that more residents are projected to die of COVID-19 in the second wave of the pandemic than in the first.

To me, this is beyond reprehensible. The lack of action to protect our seniors in long-term care in the second wave, given what we knew from the first wave, is beyond reprehensible. Of course, it's also disappointing to me that the Ontario government has refused to work with the federal government and other provinces on national standards for long-term care. To me, this is the only way to ensure that, over the long term, seniors in long-term care get the care they deserve and we address the issues that were raised in the report prepared by the Canadian Armed Forces.

To your knowledge, General Misener, has the Ontario government requested assistance from the Canadian Armed Forces to help in long-term care during the second wave of the pandemic?

[MGen Mark Misener]

I'll begin by acknowledging that many people are suffering with COVID, especially in long-term care facilities, and by thanking the speaker for the comments on the Canadian Armed Forces contribution to long-term care facilities during wave one.

In response to your question on the Canadian Armed Forces, we're ready to respond wherever and whenever the government needs us to help protect Canadians. The defence team is part of a national response to help minimize the impacts of the pandemic. In a crisis, when civilian capacities are overwhelmed and the CAF are called to assist, we do so in support of civilian authorities to help stabilize the situation in the shorter term, providing time for resources to be put in place as necessary by civilian authorities.

We're capable of conducting simultaneous operations, including responding to COVID-19 and natural disasters, as well as other activities necessary for the defence of Canada and its interests. We continue with our critical tasks right now, such as training and recruiting operations, and we are prioritizing our efforts to ensure we're prepared to provide assistance when asked.

The CAF, as a force resource and trained for its military role in the defence of Canada, is able to support civilian authorities with general duties as well as to provide certain specialized capabilities if and when required. That said, our resources are finite, and CAF assistance is prioritized and managed in scale, scope and duration in close collaboration with federal, provincial and territorial partners. Meanwhile, we rigorously apply public health measures and risk mitigation measures as we implement them.

To date, I guess in response to your question, we haven't received a direct request to support Ontario in long-term care facilities, but we are very closely coordinated within our regional joint task forces with the planning that is happening with respect to the response to the COVID distribution and are providing support to Ontario in other areas, including in their distribution plan for northern and isolated communities.

[Yvan Baker, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Thank you, General.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karen McCrimmon]

We will go now to Monsieur Brunelle-Duceppe, s'il vous plaît.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I would like to thank major-generals Fortin and Misener for appearing before us today, despite the important work they do every day.

I assume that your troops and you are proud of the work done, and with good reason. I want to thank you once again for Operation Laser, as Mr. Baker nicely stated earlier, even though he tried to do a bit of politics by talking about your report on Canada-wide long-term care standards. In that report, you point out that there were many standards, but that they were not being met owing to labour shortages. Once again, this proves that the health transfers provinces are calling for must absolutely take place. That's the first thing.

I would now like to ask you how many vaccine doses the Canadian Armed Forces has delivered in Quebec and the provinces so far.

[MGen Dany Fortin]

Madam Chair, I thank the member for his question.

So far, we have delivered more than 1.1 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. The vaccines are distributed to locations identified by the provinces and territories, which then administer them at their own pace, according to their capacity and immunization plan.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you.

I assume you have weekly plans for vaccine distribution.

[MGen Dany Fortin]

We do have a plan for distributing Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, which are delivered on a weekly basis. As for Moderna vaccines, they are delivered every three weeks. They are distributed in close cooperation with the provinces and territories, which administer them according to their own plan because that comes under their jurisdiction.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

That's exactly right. So I assume, as Mr. Bezan pointed out earlier, that the recent announcements must have led to some delay in terms of distribution, which occurs weekly.

[MGen Dany Fortin]

That's right. We have a four-week delay when it comes to Pfizer.

Pfizer assures us that other countries are going through the same situation as us, and in equal measure. We are of course unable to verify that, but we know that other countries are also affected by the changes made to the company's production chain.

As for Moderna, that's a new change. We are talking about a 20% reduction in what should arrive next week.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Okay.

Did your distribution plan contain some sort of a buffer measure? Did you anticipate that delays may occur, sooner or later?