The pandemic is an all-of-government response. We went from the mission statement, which is to protect the province from the SARS-CoV-2 virus, to protect the medical system. We needed to build a governance organization that covered all of the impacts of SARS-CoV-2 on the public. We needed to keep our businesses open and we needed to keep our schools open, because, by doing that, we are using what are called “non-pharmaceutical” interventions. There are 15 of them. Almost all of them should not have been used in this pandemic.
This pandemic should have had a targeted response to those who were most vulnerable—people over 60 with severe multiple comorbidities. Canada ranked last in protection of our seniors: 73% of the deaths in this pandemic happened in long-term care homes, and over 93% happened with our seniors. We didn't protect our seniors who were in the public or in our long-term care homes. We should never have closed schools. The impact on our children will last them their entire lives. What we've done is unconscionable.
However, I will leave it to that paper, which I will submit to the committee.