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‘Combatting a pandemic requires mobilizing intelligence’: former PCO clerk calls for reforms to emergency preparedness
By Mike Lapointe September 7, 2020
With no 'institutionalized' emergency response group, the capacity for ministers to tackle pandemics is 'woefully lacking,' says Mel Cappe.
Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, Transport Minister Marc Garneau, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, Health Minister Patty Hajdu, Treasury Board President Jean-Yves Duclos, and moderator and Toronto Star reporter Bruce Campion-Smith, pictured on March 16, 2020, at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade
More than half a year into the government’s unprecedented commitment of time, money and resources to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, a former clerk of the Privy Council Office argues that improvements can be made to fix “woefully lacking” capacity at the ministerial level for dealing with emergencies—including beefing up security and intelligence mechanisms in both the public health agency and in the PCO.
Mike LapointeMike Lapointe joined the The Hill Times in June 2019 and covers the federal public service, deputy ministers, the Privy Council Office, public service unions, the Phoenix pay system, the machinery of government, and the Parliament Hill media.
Follow - mlapointe@hilltimes.com
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