Public Safety Committee on March 10th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Mrs. Stubbs only has 15 seconds.

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

Great.

Since this crosses multiple jurisdictions, have you asked the RCMP to do a national investigation? Do you have any sense of how many other people have been victimized per the Halton police comments? Have you ordered a review or revision to the training and the screening of officers after reports of sexual assaults of Canadians?

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

That may be a very important question, but unfortunately Mrs. Stubbs is out of—

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

I think it's probably the most important question.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

It may be a very important question. Nevertheless, you're out of time.

With that, Madam Khera, you have six minutes, please.

[Kamal Khera, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Allow me to first thank both ministers for being here on such short notice. Most importantly, thank you for for all the incredible work not only that you do, but certainly all your staff and all the officials have been doing on behalf of all Canadians since the start of this pandemic a year ago.

We're talking about the importance of strong quarantine measures that were announced last month specifically. Even prior to that, we actually had some of the strictest quarantine measures in place since the start of this pandemic back in March.

Minister Hajdu, maybe I can start with you. Can you perhaps talk about why these very strong and specific hotel quarantine measures were implemented in the first place?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Thank you very much, MP Khera.

Through the chair, I'll just say that when the world was alerted to the increase in variants of concern, and in particular the one that began in the U.K., it was clear that we needed to track these variants and we needed to understand not just these variants, but also how the virus was shifting and changing. Of course, when we see explosions of growth in other countries, like the U.K., the U.S. and many other countries—some reported, by the way, and some that don't keep very good track of their numbers—it's important we here in our country understand what variants might be imported that we know of, and in fact, any changes to the virus that could put the work we've done together at risk.

[Kamal Khera, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

Thank you, Minister Hajdu.

Minister Blair or Minister Hajdu, perhaps you can walk us all through the procedure, the step-by-step of when someone decides to enter Canada. I think there might have been some confusion, at least among Canadians, my constituents and certainly the opposition, regarding which agencies have what responsibilities in terms of assessing and processing travellers at the border, which other jurisdictions are involved.

This morning I was speaking with the Chief of Police in Peel, Chief Nish, and I note they have also been involved at Pearson Airport.

For the sake of clarity, I'm not sure, maybe the both of you can answer and walk us through specifically how the CBSA and the Public Health Agency of Canada officers, along with other jurisdictions, are working together at the border entry points and how their roles differ.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

For a point of clarification, maybe we can start with the Minister of Public Safety, and then go to the Minister of Health, because that seems to be the jurisdictional flow.

[Bill Blair, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I'll try to be very brief in my response to give my colleague the opportunity to answer the second part of that process.

Every person arriving at Canada's border is subject to screening by the CBSA, which makes a determination as to whether the person has a lawful right of entry into the country. By the way, under the Constitution, all returning Canadians have a right of entry. It also includes permanent residents and indigenous persons. They ensure that people can lawfully enter the country. They also enforce, as I've mentioned, over 90 different pieces of legislation.

Since the implementation of the quarantine measures, we've asked more of our border officers. They make a determination of the reason for travel. There's a very clear criterion that has been established by order in council for essential travel. Essential travellers are exempt, and there are a number of other exemptions that have been put in place by order in council. The CBSA officer determines whether the arriving traveller is required to enter into quarantine. If they are, in fact, by the rules that have been put in place by order in council, that individual is then referred to the Public Health Agency of Canada. They also make a determination on the adequacy of the quarantine plan and they order them into quarantine, because they're designated quarantine officers under the Quarantine Act. They've been designated by PHAC.

We also check now, since January 6, to ensure that they have a COVID test, a negative COVID test obtained within three days of their arrival into Canada in the country of origin from which they departed. That is a requirement before they even board the plane. People who are arriving at our land borders are also subject to either referral to PHAC for testing right at the site, at now 20 different sites across Canada, or if they arrive at any one of the other 97 points of entry, they can be given a self-administered test by the CBSA officials.

We then collect that information, pass it on through PHAC to the police of jurisdiction for follow-up and enforcement.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

You have roughly one minute left.

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Regarding the hand-off to the Public Health Agency of Canada, there are a number of different routes a passenger might take. If in fact they are symptomatic or they don't have an adequate quarantine plan, they are transferred to a federal quarantine facility where they're supported to isolate, sometimes for the entire duration of their quarantine if their plan is not strong.

What we're trying to protect against in these designated quarantine facilities is the onward transmission of COVID-19, especially for people who are living in very crowded situations, who don't have, for example, a private room in which to isolate within their household or are in a household with very vulnerable people who, in getting COVID-19, might actually die.

With the recent changes, people are asked to stay in a hotel facility, if they're not required to quarantine in a designated quarantine facility, for up to three days while they wait for their negative test. They are supported to do so by the Hotel Association. The Public Health Agency of Canada has a number of supports for travellers.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Unfortunately, we're going to have to leave it there, Madam Khera.

I understand Madam Michaud is having difficulties connecting.

Are we reconnected?

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I am here, but I am using my cellphone. I hope you can hear me well.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Okay, you have six minutes.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Okay.

My thanks to all the witnesses here today and to the minister.

I am very pleased that the committee has agreed to look into this situation, which, it must be said, has been rather chaotic since the beginning.

Before Christmas, there were concerns about people travelling abroad and ignoring health regulations although they were advised to stay home. They were going abroad and could bring the UK variant back to Canada. Quarantine was pretty much unmonitored—one or two automated calls were made to check that people were actually at home. It was very easy to lie.

The government finally listened to reason and decided to impose mandatory hotel quarantine. Although it has been chaotic, I think it is a good measure that is worthwhile to implement. However, there are a number of glitches. It took several weeks from the time the government announced the quarantine to the time they actually implemented it. Our fears were confirmed: the variant we have heard so much about entered the country.

There must have been discussions between the Department of Health and the Department of Public Safety. Perhaps the two ministers can shed some light on this.

Why did it take so long to implement the mandatory hotel quarantine?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Mr. Chair, I can start.

Thanks to the member for, first of all, reminding Canadians that we've been asking Canadians to forgo non-essential travel now for a year. I want to thank Canadians who have complied.

It's been a difficult time for Canadians, many of whom have family overseas and all kinds of different reasons for wanting to travel, but now is not the time for international travel.

The quarantine measures that have been in place for over a year are some of the strongest in the world; in fact, we've had mandatory quarantine in place for a very long time and high compliance rates.

We added an additional layer of protection, as I said, after the variants of concern became better known. First of all, there was the one identified in the U.K. Others were identified in other countries, which has led to vast growth in COVID cases that has led to the virus mutating.

We have always used science and evidence to decide how we should proceed next in our fight with COVID-19, and certainly we heard concerns from the scientific community about, not just the variants of concern that the world had identified, but how the virus might shift and transform in the future.

We're at such a critical stage in our fight with COVID-19, and we are seeing some success with provinces reducing cases. We are seeing success with our vaccination rollout. It became very clear that we could not take any chances when it came to not being able to identify and screen for variants of concern.

I will tell you that 100% of cases that are identified as positive at the border are screened for variants of concern, and we have identified a number of them. This is an important additional layer of protection while we enter into this next phase of vaccination and protection for Canadians.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Unless the minister wants to add something, I will continue.

Telling Canadians not to travel is not enough. The numbers have shown that people have gone abroad anyway. They have brought back the virus and its variants.

You have lumped everyone together. Those who had good reason to go abroad, to care for a loved one, for example, had to comply with the mandatory hotel quarantine. Those who could afford to pay for the hotel quarantine either decided to go anyway or found a way to get around the rules.

Why not just ban non-essential travel?

[Bill Blair, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

I will endeavour to answer that quickly.

First of all, I would remind you that, when the variants first emerged in the United Kingdom, we were among the first countries in the world to take very immediate and strong action to ban all flights from the United Kingdom. Over the ensuing days, we found that the variants had unfortunately spread into other countries, so we imposed an additional layer of security. We required that all people flying into Canada from any place, whether for essential or non-essential travel, must first obtain a negative COVID test before they came to the country.

We've also implemented requirements that they would also then submit to an additional test upon their arrival. As the variants and the concern that Canadians had about the emergence of these variants began to grow, we needed to add additional layers of protection in order to protect Canadians and to stop the spread of these variants. The measures that have been put in place were determined based on the advice that we had received from our public health officials that this was the best way to provide assurance of Canadians' health and safety for arriving non-essential travellers. That's why we've implemented those measures.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

I would like to know why it took so long at first to get access to the phone lines to book a hotel room. People waited up to 24 hours before they could book a room.

Why not have an online reservation system or let people book directly with the hotels? They could have shown proof of reservation when they got to the airport.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

One or the other of you may respond very briefly.

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'll turn to Iain Stewart to say a few words about the process of reservations.

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

Thank you.

Actually, it is possible to do online booking, although there are a lot of calls when you set up a new line, and we experienced substantial delays. The average call waiting time now is substantially reduced and is under seven minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you.

Mr. Harris, you have six minutes.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Thank you, Chair.

First of all, Madame Hajdu, we've never met before, so I want to welcome you to the committee and say hello.

I have a question for you for starters. Do you regard the measures taken on the land border between the United States and Canada to be reasonable?