Feds mustn’t forget to fix pandemic failures in rush toward recovery

The federal government has struggled at times to react and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, which appears to have caught countless governments around the world unprepared. Canada's government clearly didn't learn enough from the SARS epidemic of 2003. It neutered the Global Public Health Intelligence Network (GPHIN) shortly before it was needed most, when COVID-19 struck. It did not replace an expired stockpile of personal protective equipment, leading to a mad scramble to procure enough for essential workers. It failed to anticipate that Canada would fall behind other developed countries when it came time to procure vaccines for a new, deadly virus quickly, leaving Canadians still waiting for their second or even first dose. A report released by Auditor General Karen Hogan last week revealed that Indigenous Services Canada could not respond to more than half of the requests for medical assistance from Indigenous communities, because the government had not addressed a longstanding shortage of medical workers available to those communities before the pandemic struck. Ms. Hogan also reported that the government's data on its PPE supply was so bad she couldn't properly evaluate it. Provincial governments, particularly in Ontario and Quebec, have also failed miserably year after year to address structural problems in Canada's long-term care sector for the elderly, which were well documented in a report by Canada's military and which certainly contributed to the 14,000 deaths from COVID-19 in those homes so far over the course of the pandemic. Those lessons have been learned the hard way, after thousands of deaths. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet ministers have promised to take action to address these inadequacies: they have pledged to wrestle the provinces into an agreement on national standards for long-term care homes; they have subsidized the startup of a domestic vaccine production facility; and they have started an investigation of the government decisions that undermined the GPHIN, and promised to address whatever shortfalls that investigation identifies. They have vowed that the policies for stockpiled PPE will be changed. The government's public communication has been at times confusing and confused during the pandemic, as politicians and scientists alike have sometimes been unable or unwilling to explain changes in advice about wearing masks, and decisions about closing borders. Those errors must not be repeated next time. And there will be a next time. As Canadians receive their vaccines and better times return, it will be easy for political leaders and the journalists who follow them to forget about some of those promises. The economic recovery will be a more positive story to tell. Federal and provincial negotiations will lose momentum as public pressure recedes. Seemingly more-pressing matters will arise. Our political leaders cannot allow Canada's government to be unprepared for the next pandemic, whenever it arrives. Canada has access to the technology and resources to tackle these problems and change these policies. The government must act to do so, as soon as possible. Canadian lives will one day depend on it. The Hill Times

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Feds mustn’t forget to fix pandemic failures in rush toward recovery

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