Three lessons for the federal government from the COVID crisis

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The COVID-19 pandemic had an unprecedented impression on the lives of tens of millions of Canadians. It not solely negatively affected their bodily and psychological well being, but additionally impacted their household and social relationships, their youngsters’s instructional expertise, their jobs and incomes, and noticed their rights and freedoms critically restricted by government-imposed well being measures.

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One would suppose that an unprecedented occasion with such widespread impacts would have been adopted by an official public inquiry of some variety to find out what went proper, what went flawed and what classes may very well be realized to higher put together the nation to take care of future public emergencies. However with one exception, no authorities within the nation has seen match to carry such an inquiry.

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The one exception was the federal government of Alberta, which, in January 2022, established the Public Well being Emergencies Governance Assessment Panel (PHEGRP). Its phrases of reference known as for it to assessment the related laws and the public-health orders that had been made underneath it, and suggest amendments to enhance the capability of the province to reply to future public emergencies.

It was my privilege to chair that panel, which launched its report in November 2023 and really helpful over 60 amendments to key Alberta statutes, such because the Emergency Administration Act, the Alberta Invoice of Rights and the Public Well being Act.

For the reason that launch of the report, I’ve been requested whether or not any of the teachings realized by Alberta is perhaps related to the federal authorities, which performed a significant function in establishing the nationwide response to COVID-19. The brief reply to that query is “sure.” Particularly, there are three essential classes which can be related to the federal authorities.

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1. Select the emergency response entity fastidiously and correctly equip it to co-ordinate the response.

As a result of the COVID-19 disaster started as a well being emergency, the federal response was routinely assigned to the Public Well being Company of Canada. But the response measures adopted or really helpful to the provinces — obligatory vaccinations, masks mandates and social distancing, main to high school closures and financial lockdowns — had social, financial and authorized penalties far past the expertise and competence of well being officers, such because the chief public well being officer, to anticipate or handle.

In future, it will be wiser to assign the general co-ordination of the emergency response to an company particularly designed and outfitted to carry out that function, whatever the nature of the particular emergency. Within the case of the federal authorities, that ought to be a reformed and adequately outfitted company, resembling Public Security Canada.

2. Supply Canadians extra “balanced safety” throughout public emergencies — safety from the harms of the emergency, whereas concurrently strengthening the safety of rights and freedoms impacted by the emergency response measures.

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Measures adopted to guard Canadians from the harms of a nationwide public emergency resembling COVID-19 could nicely contain the momentary imposition of limitations on constitutionally assured rights and freedoms — for instance, limitations on freedom of expression, meeting, mobility rights and even the proper to equal good thing about regulation.

There’s a want, subsequently, to offer extra — not much less — safety of such rights throughout a nationwide emergency. If the safety of basic rights and freedoms is to have the precedence known as for by our Structure, the courts, specifically, have to be directed by regulation to offer extra weight, not much less, to the expeditious safety of constitutionally assured rights and freedoms throughout a time of emergency.

Whereas amending the Constitution of Rights and Freedoms to make sure such elevated safety throughout public emergencies could be extraordinarily tough to attain, the Canadian Invoice of Rights may very well be amended, alongside the identical traces because the amendments to the Alberta Invoice of Rights really helpful by PHEGRP.

These embody: strengthened safety for freedom of expression, educational freedom {and professional} freedom; express safety in opposition to prejudicial profiling by the state and discrimination primarily based on medical standing or historical past; and express ensures of the proper to knowledgeable medical consent and the proper to freedom of alternative with respect to medical procedures.

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3. Considerably broaden the service capability of the Canadian health-care system.

A nationwide well being emergency creates a surge in demand for health-care providers. However the Canadian health-care system doesn’t have the capability to satisfy the growing health-care calls for of Canadians underneath regular circumstances; it definitely doesn’t have the surge capability required to satisfy a spike in demand brought on by a well being emergency just like the COVID disaster.

Dozens of different international locations present their residents with common entry to high quality well being providers no matter capacity to pay, similar to Canada, however have larger system capability than we do — extra docs and nurses per capita, extra remedy beds (together with ICUs) per capita and shorter ready occasions to see emergency physicians, normal practitioners and specialists.

The polarization of the political debate in Canada over much-needed well being reforms — with advocates of reform invariably being accused by defenders of the established order of desirous to abolish universality and set up an American-style system — makes addressing the systemic deficiencies revealed by the COVID disaster extraordinarily tough. However a step in the proper route, as really helpful within the PHEGRP report, could be to convene a particular colloquium on finest Twenty first-century health-care practices later this yr.

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Specialists from international locations with health-care methods that considerably outperform Canada’s, notably on the capability entrance, ought to be invited to return and reply two questions: (1) What are the distinctive options of their methods that give them superior capability and efficiency? and (2) What adjustments did their governments should make of their health-care insurance policies and laws with a purpose to safe that elevated capability and superior efficiency?

Canadian legislators, policymakers and media ought to be invited to attend the colloquium, with none obligation to make any commitments, and with digital entry to all periods being supplied to most of the people. The goal could be to determine — from the testimony of credible outdoors sources — options of different common health-care methods that Canada and its provinces may take into account adopting.

That is needed with a purpose to enhance this nation’s capability to satisfy will increase in future health-care calls for, together with these created by future well being emergencies.

Nationwide Publish

Preston Manning was the founding father of the Reform get together, former chief of the official Opposition in Parliament and chair of Alberta’s Public Well being Emergencies Governance Assessment Panel.

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