QUESTION PERIOD — Health
COVID-19 Pandemic--Rapid Testing
February 10, 2021
Honourable senators, my question is for the Government Representative in the Senate. Senator Gold, I believe that every government across Canada is trying their best in these unprecedented times to find the elusive balance between the protection of public health and the economic recovery. We will not be able to restore vibrancy to the economy while this pandemic rages. We all know the role of vaccines for a longer-term protection and have no doubt that they will be effective. But in the interim, I have long been curious about why we have not more vigorously used testing and aggressive contact tracing in Canada.
On February 2, Perrin Beatty, CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, joined experts to co-author an open letter urging adoption of a rapid testing program combined with rigorous contact tracing. Twenty-eight other leading public health and business advocates from across the country signed on to the appeal, including four from British Columbia. Bottom line, this group estimated that at a price tag of $2 billion, we could be testing 200,000 people per day almost immediately, and testing 5 million people daily by April.
The imagery of a country on the war footing against this virus comes to mind.
I’m aware that all government spending on the COVID response must be repaid and that there are always federal-provincial considerations, but given the stakes, could you tell me whether the Government of Canada is seriously considering the rollout of this kind of large-scale national rapid testing program?
You’re entirely correct to note how important testing and contact tracing will be for us to be able to continue forward to open up the economy in a safe and sustained way.
As I’ve reported earlier in this chamber, the federal government and its officials are in the ongoing process of approving new testing technologies as they come on stream. The government has authorized six of these tests; expect more as the technology develops. At this date, I’m advised the government has deployed almost 17.7 million rapid tests to provinces and territories, and shared guidance on how they can be used effectively. The provinces then decide as to how to use them.
I’m not aware of the situation in British Columbia, senator, but I know that in both Quebec and Ontario there have been pilot projects to determine how best to use them to assess the reliability and so on.
Very importantly and promisingly, the Government of Canada is partnering with the Creative Destruction Lab Rapid Screening Consortium to launch a workplace pilot project — actually a series of pilot projects — in several provinces and territories, in various sizes of businesses and industries, to see how rapid testing can be done quickly and effectively in those workplace settings. We await with interest the results of those projects.
Senator Gold, Australia has apparently used rapid testing and contact-tracing programs at the national level with great success. Canada and Australia are comparable as federal states. Has the government assessed whether there is anything unique about Canada that would preclude us from adopting the kind of program implemented by the Australian government?
The Government of Canada is in contact with its counterparts and allies around the world, and especially those with whom we share similar constitutional frameworks. But there are federations and there are federations; some are more centralized and some are more decentralized. And there are limits to how easily one can incorporate the actual practices of one to another.
The federal government of Canada is working carefully, closely and properly with its provinces and territories. We’re working together to find appropriate ways to meet the needs of Canadians and the particularities of those needs as they are expressed throughout this very large country.