Evidence of meeting #4 for National Defence in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was pandemic.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:25 a.m.
Bloc
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe Bloc Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
Yes, that would be appreciated.
Did any of the 55 members who contracted COVID-19 become seriously ill or have to be hospitalized?
11:25 a.m.
MGen Marc Bilodeau
Madam Chair, I would like to thank the member for his question.
All 55 members who contracted COVID-19 in residential and long-term care centres recovered with no obvious sequelae. We monitor them closely. We keep a log of all the members who were infected and we will monitor them over the long term to make sure they remain in good health after having been infected.
11:25 a.m.
Bloc
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe Bloc Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
I see.
I asked you whether any of the members who contracted the virus had to be hospitalized because I want to know this. If we were hit by another wave or another pandemic and members of the military were called upon to assist in health care institutions or elsewhere, would the CAF be ready to care for them?
11:25 a.m.
MGen Marc Bilodeau
We don't actually have a military hospital in Canada right now. We depend on the civilian health care system for tertiary and hospital care. Those services are provided through a partnership. None of the 55 CAF members infected during the mission at residential and long-term care centres had to be hospitalized.
11:25 a.m.
Bloc
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe Bloc Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
Very good.
Did you have a protocol or procedure in place before the pandemic to deal with this sort of thing?
11:25 a.m.
MGen Marc Bilodeau
Do you mind repeating the question?
11:25 a.m.
Bloc
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe Bloc Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
Did you have a protocol or procedure in place before the pandemic to deal with this sort of thing?
For example, if a large number of CAF members were to contract the virus in the course of a military operation to provide assistance in residential and long-term care centres, did you have a pre-existing protocol to follow?
11:25 a.m.
MGen Marc Bilodeau
We have long-term partnerships with all civilian health care facilities in all regions of the country where we have military bases. Our members rely on those partnerships for surgical, hospital, preventative and specialized care. Through that partnership model, which is 20 years old, we can provide our members access to the care they need when they need it.
11:25 a.m.
Bloc
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe Bloc Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
This pandemic is an exceptional situation. Neither you nor I had ever experienced anything like it in our lifetimes. I don't think the world has been hit this hard by a global pandemic since the Spanish flu. This pandemic has been harmful on so many levels.
Do you think it's time to change the 20-year-old protocol? After all, one day, our military members may have to return to residential and long-term care centres or be deployed elsewhere.
Is it not time to change the protocol or make some adjustments, at least?
11:25 a.m.
MGen Marc Bilodeau
Obviously a crisis like this brings a number of the ideologies at the heart of our organization into perspective. The lessons learned process is critical because it teaches us how to better position ourselves for the future, and the crisis caused by the pandemic is not exempt from that process.
MGen Cadieu may be able to speak more broadly to the situation as it relates to the CAF.
11:25 a.m.
MGen Trevor Cadieu
Madam Chair, I do not have much further to add to that particular point.
Of course, as we go through this pandemic, once we're able to reflect on what we've learned through our operations in support of Canada, our chief of the defence staff will provide advice to the government on the apportionment of resources and how we're organized to deal with similar threats to Canada and Canadians in the future.
11:30 a.m.
Bloc
11:30 a.m.
Bloc
11:30 a.m.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I'd certainly like to start by expressing the thanks of New Democrats, on behalf all Canadians, for the Canadian Forces' responsive role in this pandemic in keeping our international relations going as well as aiding domestic authorities.
I want to continue on the question of resources. I have expressed my concerns many times in this committee that the operational budget of the Canadian Armed Forces, with the inflation rate in Canada, has barely maintained a pace that would allow the continuation of all of its operations. Now this year, we've had extraordinary operations added on top of that.
To the knowledge of our witnesses, has the Canadian Armed Forces received any additional and supplemental funding to help take care of these extra duties they've been assigned during the pandemic?
11:30 a.m.
MGen Trevor Cadieu
I'll have to return to the committee with a detailed written response in terms of the precise numbers.
As was the case I think with all government departments that had to mobilize in support of Canadians as part of the COVID-19 response, there was a supplemental request for resources. The actual details of that we'll have to return to you with a written response.
11:30 a.m.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC
Thank you. We'd very much appreciate seeing that response.
In this first round of questions, I want to focus on the assistance that was provided in long-term care by the Canadian Forces. We had, quite frankly, shocking reports issued by Brigadier-General Carpentier and Brigadier-General Mialkowski.
I wonder if today we could put on the record the main findings of those reports of what the Canadian Forces were confronted with when they were asked to help out in long-term care homes in Ontario and Quebec.
11:30 a.m.
MGen Trevor Cadieu
Madam Chair, I'll also turn to my colleagues who will provide supplemental responses.
Of course, as our Canadian Armed Forces members deployed into these facilities, they were mobilized by Canada and Canadians for a reason. Certainly it was because of the gravity of the situation in those long-term care homes.
What they discovered—and I'll just report in general terms—in a number of facilities.... I should also note that each of the facilities was different, so this is not a generalization of all 50-plus facilities that the Canadian Armed Forces proudly served in alongside our civilian colleagues.
In some of the facilities they saw, for example, non-adherence to policies related to infection prevention and control. In some cases, they discovered inadequate training and medical supplies for facility staff. They observed deficiencies in long-term care infrastructure. There were concerns with the standard of care that was being delivered in support of Canadians or vulnerable residents in some facilities. Of course, there were high rates of staff illness, and as a result of that, in some cases, absenteeism exacerbated the conditions in some of those long-term care facilities.
I'll turn it over now to the surgeon general to see if he has additional feedback, and then we'll go over to the commander of the health services group.
11:30 a.m.
MGen Marc Bilodeau
Madam Chair, to summarize those points, what was noticed was basically patient and staff safety considerations and concerns that needed to be addressed.
In health care, the security of patients and staff is paramount, obviously. This is the responsibility of every single health care provider or member of the health care team, when they notice those challenges, to raise them, to identify them and to make sure that they are being addressed.
11:30 a.m.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC
When this operation came to a close, and I'm assuming that I'm not wrong in saying they're no longer providing assistance in any of those homes, who was responsibility turned over to from the Canadian Forces for the activities that we had undertaken on behalf of long-term care? Did they simply go back to the existing long-term care, or was anyone else providing resources to deal with these challenges?
11:35 a.m.
MGen Trevor Cadieu
On the departure of Canadian Armed Forces personnel from those facilities, we had established beforehand with each of the provinces what we referred to as “transition criteria” that needed to be met and agreed upon between the Canadian Armed Forces and those provinces.
First and foremost, before the Canadian Armed Forces teams left those facilities, the provincial ministries of health and long-term care needed to assess and signal to us that CAF support was not required in those specific facilities, and then a number of other criteria had to be satisfied. For example, we needed to have confidence that the facility had the integral capacity to manage the situation of the respective facility; that the infection prevention and control measures that I referred to earlier had been addressed, established and were being enforced; and that staffing levels were sufficient. Those transition criteria needed to be codified in an exchange of written instruments or letters between the province and the Canadian Armed Forces.
To answer your question, Madam Chair, in many cases when the Canadian Armed Forces vacated facilities, it was at the request of the respective provinces, and they handed those facilities back over to the facility management themselves.
You'll hear some discussion about the Canadian Red Cross surging into the province of Quebec, for example. They were directed to other facilities that required supports outside of those the Canadian Armed Forces had occupied.
11:35 a.m.
NDP
11:35 a.m.
Liberal
11:35 a.m.
Conservative
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
First of all, through you to the surgeon general, where do the Canadian Armed Forces personnel fit in terms of precedence for access to a COVID-19 vaccination?
