Canada’s Minister of Health, Jean-Yves Duclos, has responded to a scathing report from Canada’s Auditor-General criticizing the Public Health Agency of Canada’s performance in enforcing its own mandatory quarantine and testing measures for travellers, with a statement that recognized the government’s shortcomings.
“Our response has been far from perfect. We acknowledge it and we are making no excuses for it. We can and we must do better,” Duclos acknowledged.
Canada’s top watchdog looked at the PHAC’s performance during some of the worst days of the pandemic, from 01JUL 2020, to 30JUN 2021, and found it lacking.
In the words of the Minister of Health himself, some of the Auditor-General’s key findings include that:
The PHAC “lacked a way to track whether travellers arriving by air who were required to stay at a government-authorized accommodation while awaiting the results of their arrival test complied with that requirement;” and that
“PHAC was missing or unable to match 30% of COVID-19 tests for incoming travellers.”
Canada’s media had a heyday with the AG’s report.
“Ottawa has no idea if 75 per cent of air arrivals obeyed hotel quarantine rule,” reported Global News.
“COVID-positive travellers fell through cracks, quarantine hotel system flawed,” announced CTV News.
“Ottawa isn’t properly monitoring or tracking its COVID-19 border rules,” said The Globe & Mail, which also reported that opposition parties seized on the AG’s criticism, with the Conservative party calling for updated traveller testing and quarantine recommendations from the government’s expert panel.
Despite its mea culpa, the government also defended itself against some criticism, saying that additional monitoring protocols had already been put in place, with Duclos’ statement adding, “PHAC continues to work with provinces and territories and local law enforcement to improve the referrals and reporting process around travellers assessed to be at risk of non-compliance and will adjust its risk-based approach to compliance and enforcement, as necessary.”
Even so, the Minister of Health in his statement added he was accepting the AG’s recommendations for improving its Agency’s performance at Canada’s borders.
“For example, the Agency has awarded more than $27.1M in contracts to four private security firms to increase its number of agents physically following up with travellers required to quarantine,” it said.
In addition, Duclos has directed the PHAC’s Chief Data Officer “to come up with a plan to optimize the collection and sharing of travellers' information in order to ensure better follow up and better enforcement of border measures in the immediate future.”
