Public Accounts Committee on April 20th, 2021

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly Block]

I will call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 26 of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. The committee is meeting in public today and is being televised.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(g), the committee is meeting today to study Report 8: Pandemic Preparedness, Surveillance, and Border Control Measures of the 2021 reports 6 to 9 of the Auditor General of Canada.

Members, I'd like to take the last 10 minutes of the meeting today to discuss some committee business. I believe the clerk has sent you the relevant information for that portion of our meeting.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format pursuant to the House order of January 25. Therefore, members may attend in person in the room or remotely using the Zoom application.

Madam Clerk, I would just have you confirm that there—

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Angela Crandall]

There's no one in the room. Sorry about that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly Block]

Thank you very much.

For all of you who are participating virtually, interpretation services are available for this meeting. You do have the choice at the bottom of your screen of the floor, English or French. Before speaking, click on the microphone icon to activate your own mike. When you are done speaking, please put your mike on mute to minimize any interference.

When speaking, please speak slowly and clearly. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, the use of headsets with a boom microphone is mandatory for everyone participating remotely. Should any technical challenges arise, please do advise me and note that we may need to suspend for a few minutes as we need to ensure that all members are able to participate fully.

I'd now like to welcome our witnesses this morning. Joining us today from the Office of the Auditor General are Karen Hogan, Auditor General of Canada; Carol McCalla, principal; Chantal Richard, principal; Sarah McDermott, director; and Francis Michaud, director.

From the Canada Border Services Agency, we have John Ossowski, president; and Denis Vinette, vice-president, travellers branch.

From the Public Health Agency of Canada, we have Iain Stewart, president; and Cindy Evans, vice-president, emergency management branch.

With that, welcome, all. I will turn the floor over to Ms. Hogan for five minutes.

[Karen Hogan, Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General]

Madam Chair, thank you for this opportunity to discuss our audit report on pandemic preparedness, surveillance, and border control measures. I am accompanied today by Carol McCalla and Chantal Richard, the principals responsible for this audit, and by Francis Michaud and Sarah McDermott, the directors for the audit.

This audit focused on whether the Public Health Agency of Canada was ready to respond to a pandemic and on the agency’s actions in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also examined whether the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency implemented and enforced border control and mandatory quarantine measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 in Canada.

Overall, we found that the Public Health Agency of Canada was not as well prepared as it could have been to respond to a pandemic. I am discouraged that the agency did not resolve issues that, in some cases, were raised repeatedly for more than two decades.

Since the last major health crisis in Canada in 2009, the agency had worked with its provincial and territorial partners to develop plans and guidance to support a coordinated national response. However, not all emergency and response plans were up to date, and more importantly, the federal-provincial-territorial response plan had not been tested before the pandemic broke out.

Early warning is key to limiting the introduction and spread of an infectious disease. We found that the agency’s two main early warning tools—the Global Public Health Intelligence Network and the agency’s risk assessment process—did not work as intended. When an unknown pneumonia was first reported in China, the network did not issue an alert to domestic and international public health officials, contrary to its own criteria.

In addition, the agency used a risk assessment tool that was untested and not designed to assess the potential impact of the introduction and spread of COVID-19 in Canada. The agency continued to assess this risk as low, despite growing COVID-19 case numbers in Canada and around the world, until the chief public health officer of Canada requested a change to the risk level in mid-March 2020.

We also found that the agency had not addressed long-standing issues, including with the information technology infrastructure it uses to conduct health surveillance activities. For example, the agency had not finalized an agreement to share health data with its provincial and territorial partners. These issues impeded the exchange of health data between the agency and the provinces and territories, and had an impact on the agency's ability to form a consistent and timely picture of COVID-19 infections in Canada. Despite these problems, as the pandemic progressed, the agency quickly and continually adjusted its response to trigger public health measures and slow the spread of the virus.

When discretionary travel was prohibited and mandatory quarantine was imposed on incoming travellers, the Canada Border Services Agency reacted quickly to implement public health measures at all air, land and marine ports of entry into Canada. The Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency worked together to implement border restrictions and communicate quarantine requirements to incoming travellers.

However, the Public Health Agency of Canada had not contemplated or planned for quarantine on a nationwide scale, including following up on travellers identified to be at risk of non-compliance. As a result, the agency had to develop enforcement capacity in real time. We found that the agency did not know whether two-thirds of incoming travellers had complied with quarantine requirements. Therefore, the agency could not gauge the effectiveness of the mandatory quarantine in place to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Our report includes eight recommendations, and the two agencies agreed with all of them.

This concludes my opening statement. We would be pleased to answer any questions the committee may have.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly Block]

Thank you very much, Ms. Hogan.

We will now go to Mr. Ossowski, for five minutes.

[John Ossowski, President, Canada Border Services Agency]

Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the Public Accounts Committee.

I am pleased to be here to respond to your questions about the Auditor General’s findings on the enforcement of border control measures during the pandemic. I am here with Denis Vinette, vice-president of the Travellers Branch.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

I have a quick point of order, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly Block]

Yes, Mr. Longfield. I think I know what you're going to say.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

The English and French are at the same volume on the English channel. If that could be fixed, it would be great.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly Block]

Madam Clerk, what is the remedy for that?

[The Clerk]

I'll let you know in a moment.

[John Ossowski]

I can continue in English, if that's okay.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

No, it's important to get the translation right.

[The Clerk]

Mr. Ossowski, are you now on the floor channel and will be speaking in English?

[John Ossowski]

I'm speaking English and I have the English channel selected.

[The Clerk]

You should be fine.

[John Ossowski]

I want to thank the Auditor General for her report. We accept the recommendations to ensure that border service officers have the appropriate guidance and tools to enforce border control measures and to conduct a review of decisions related to essential service providers to ensure that exemptions are properly applied.

The Canada Border Services Agency's border service officers have been at the front line of the pandemic since January 2020, when enhanced screening measures were first implemented. In addition to the 90 acts and regulations that they normally apply, they've also been responsible for implementing the provisions of over 45 pandemic-related orders in council. These provisions apply to different categories of persons presenting at our ports of entry, such as essential service providers and citizens. They are designed to restrict travel and reduce the spread of the virus.

It's important to note that these provisions, which are revised regularly to reflect the changing pandemic conditions, add several layers of complexity to the decision-making process. Every day, CBSA officers make over 35,000 decisions regarding entry. Each decision reflects an individual's unique circumstance and is based on several factors, including the OIC provisions, to determine whether a person is permitted to enter Canada and what their quarantine obligations are. Our officers exercise their professional judgment in a highly complex environment and are well supported in their training to apply these measures.

I want to emphasize that our officers have neither the discretion nor the authority to overcome the obligations and requirements as prescribed in the orders in council. They cannot exempt travellers from quarantine based on any business-related or compassionate factor. That said, given the complexities they face while making these decisions, there may have been isolated incidents of misinterpretation that resulted in incorrect decisions. In such cases, we have strategies to continually learn and improve.

The CBSA continues to support other government departments and initiatives. We have been supporting the implementation of pre-arrival testing and the mandatory digital submission of contact and quarantine information with the ArriveCAN application, which has now been downloaded over 1.4 million times. These contributions have helped the government monitor and control the travel-related spread of COVID-19.

In response to the Auditor General's recommendations, the CBSA has developed a management response and action plan and is already taking steps to address the findings.

To ensure that our officers have a sound understanding of new border measures, the CBSA has significantly expanded the provision of detailed technical briefings before new or amended OICs are implemented. Our objective is to support how new measures are applied to ensure clarity for frontline staff and consistency of application.

The CBSA has also established a process to monitor decisions made by CBSA officers in the application of the OICs for essential service providers, and adjustments will be made as required. We are also developing a new training tool to better assist frontline officers in understanding the complexities of the orders in council.

The CBSA is committed to enforcing border measures to minimize the spread of COVID-19 and its variants, while facilitating the continued flow of essential goods, including food and medical supplies.

We have been at the forefront of all this since the beginning. I am very proud of the work CBSA officers have done, and are continuing to do to protect Canada during this pandemic.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly Block]

Mr. Ossowski, I am so sorry, but are you finished your statement?

[John Ossowski]

Yes, I am.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly Block]

Thank you.

We will now go to Mr. Stewart, for five minutes.

[Iain Stewart, President, Public Health Agency of Canada]

Thank you, Madam Chair, for the invitation to discuss the Auditor General's performance audit of pandemic preparedness and response. Foremost, we'd like to thank the Auditor General for her work and that of her team. We're pleased that she recognized the efforts of the public service to mobilize, adapt and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our top priority, as you can imagine, is supporting Canada's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are committed to incorporating the lessons learned to better our actions now and to prepare for future pandemics.

The Public Health Agency of Canada accepts all of the recommendations in the Auditor General's report, and we are already organizing ourselves to respond to those recommendations. A formal and detailed action plan has been developed and will be implemented within two years of the pandemic's ending. We're making progress on implementing the plan, but it may take longer than it would under normal circumstances, as many of the people involved in activities with the pandemic are, of course, the people who also need to turn their attention to the report's recommendations.

The Auditor General's report covered the period of January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2020. Since June 2020, of course, the pandemic has continued, and in fact we're in a third wave right now which is very serious. We have taken further actions in some of the areas touched on by the OAG, and therefore some of these things help inform our response to the recommendations.

With respect to, for instance, the recommendations on public health data and information sharing across Canadian jurisdictions, in October 2020, the Public Health Agency implemented a national COVID-19 public health data portal. This supports COVID-19 data collection, sharing and management. We're also working with federal, provincial and territorial partners on a pan-Canadian health data strategy.

On the early detection of public health events, an independent review of the Global Public Health Intelligence Network, GPHIN, is currently under way to ensure that it meets today's public health needs but also looking at its role in global and domestic public health surveillance going forward. We expect a final report and recommendations from this independent review later this spring. The advice and guidance from the Auditor General as well as the work of this review will inform our way forward in this area.

With respect to COVID-19 border measures, the Public Health Agency and the Canada Border Services Agency work very closely together— hand in glove. CBSA expanded its support for frontline border services officers beyond existing operational guideline bulletins with 24-7 live support and regular case reviews. CBSA also supports the Quarantine Act emergency order-in-council measures by conducting detailed technical briefings prior to their implementation to ensure they're well done. CBSA also monitors emergency order-related decisions by border services officers and is developing a training tool to help the border services officers implement the orders in council.

Finally, related to COVID-19 mandatory quarantine administration, in November 2020, PHAC transitioned to mandatory submission of contact information and quarantine plans via the ArriveCAN mobile app and website. This has significantly improved the collection of traveller information and has also supported the verification of compliance with the mandatory requirements.

PHAC's response to the pandemic, therefore, has evolved and been informed at each step by what is the evidence available, the science, the epidemiology, the expert opinions. These can and do change as information and knowledge about the virus and how best to fight it become available.

There are and will continue to be lessons for PHAC. These are lessons we learn through discussions like this. These are lessons we learn from watching how others are dealing with the pandemic. We continue to learn and adjust our approach as we work to respond to this and future global health events. Along with other audits, evaluations and lessons learned from the response, we are looking forward to continuing to improve the work of PHAC.

Thank you for the time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly Block]

Thank you very much, Mr. Stewart.

We will now move into our first six-minute round of questioning, starting with Mr. Webber, I believe.

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

That's right, Madam Chair. Thank you.

Thank you to everyone for being here today.

To the Auditor General, in your opening remarks, you seemed to suggest that the Public Health Agency is slow and mismanaged, failing to respond to audits, etc. Would you say that the root cause is poor management or a lack of funding resources?

[Karen Hogan]

Our audit looked at many aspects of how the Public Health Agency of Canada should be prepared for a pandemic, and we did identify that many long-standing issues had gone unaddressed. I think the most important one would probably be health surveillance information and finalizing an agreement with the provincial and territorial partners. That is a matter we raised back in 1999, in 2002, and again in 2008 during audits. There were even lessons learned that the department had identified.

What this underscores is that all too often we don't place a lot of importance on being prepared. The current pandemic has hopefully made everyone realize that we need to take time to invest in IT tools that support important aspects of preparedness and response for health crises, and that we need to act on known issues. This isn't the first audit where we've seen known issues that go unaddressed, and across the entire federal government, it's time to place some importance on those things we do behind the scenes that no one really sees but that really make a difference when we're in the middle of a crisis.

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

Yes, absolutely.

Ms. Hogan, the Global Public Health Intelligence Network was, of course, shut down by the current government, even though it was considered a world leader in its work. Who made that decision and how much did the government stand to save by doing so?