QUESTION PERIOD — Public Health Agency
National Emergency Strategic Stockpile
June 10, 2021
Honourable senators, my question is for the government leader in the Senate.
Last October, Prime Minister Trudeau acknowledged that there had been problems with funding and scientific capacity at the Public Health Agency of Canada. In characteristic fashion, of course, he blamed it all on Stephen Harper — who hasn’t been Prime Minister, colleagues, for close to six years.
Prime Minister Trudeau claimed that under the previous Conservative government, there was “marginalization of scientific voices.” However, it was not Stephen Harper, colleagues, who closed three of the nine National Emergency Strategic Stockpile warehouses and threw out millions of N95 masks and other personal protective equipment. It was the Trudeau government that decided that.
Senator Gold, my question is simple: Can you tell us what scientific voices, if any, upon which your government based its decision to close those warehouses and throw out PPE rather than replacing them?
I would have to make inquiries about the specific advice the government took with regard to that matter, and I will certainly undertake to do so.
Senator Gold, the Trudeau government put management efficiency before science in order to save $900,000. This ended up costing thousands of Canadian lives, not to mention $1 billion in rushed orders to replace the PPE that had been thrown out by the Trudeau government.
A Public Health Agency staff email on March 20, 2020, graphically illustrated the unfolding disaster the Trudeau decision led to, which reads:
We have received urgent requests for personal protective equipment, primarily N95s. The requests particularly for N95s far exceed our stockpile. The team is working to try and triage and we have modest stock coming in, but too late.
Senator Gold, will your government finally — and for once — accept responsibility for this or will it continue to pass the buck?
Colleague, I’m driven to say that, although your questions clearly cast these issues in partisan terms, I choose not to answer in that way. This government has taken responsibility for the way in which it has responded to the pandemic. It has acknowledged that mistakes were made. It has pointed to the factual circumstances that led, in some cases, to Canada being less prepared — for example, on the capacity to produce our own vaccines. It has taken responsibility. As the Auditor General points out in her report, when the pandemic hit us, the government reacted quickly, swiftly and effectively — in her words — to respond.
Once again, the premise of your question, senator, with all respect, is not correct. It is not a question of not taking responsibility. There are lessons to be learned. Our committee here in the chamber is seized with that issue. We can all do better going forward, but the government is committed to continuing to work for the health and safety of Canadians.
