C-293 – Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness Act – sets up a committee to review Canada’s response to COVID-19 and report back on what we should do to better prepare for future pandemics. The Minister of Health would also be required to put together a pandemic prevention and preparedness plan based on this information.
Comprehensive Review of the COVID-19 Response
So first up, within 90 days of C-293 passing the Minister of Health would establish a committee to review our response to COVID-19. The committee will be responsible for looking into ways to improve our response to future pandemics based on what we learned from COVID. The committee is going to be gender-balanced and represent a range of relevant backgrounds and disciplines. (No specifics here, they just want a diverse range of expertise)
Key areas the committee will be examining are:
- The capability of the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Department of Health to respond to COVID both before and during the pandemic
- The public health and pandemic response capabilities of provincial and municipal governments
- The effectiveness of the powers under any applicable federal laws before, during, and after the pandemic and the coordination of the measures taken under those laws
- The impact of the pandemic on health, economic, and social factors
Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness Plan
The Minister of Health will need to put together a pandemic preparedness plan. This plan will cover:
- A summary of strategies the Minister will take to prevent the risk of a pandemic and prepare for disease outbreaks that could leave to one, as well as the timeline for implementing these strategies
- A list of key drivers of pandemic risk and how Canadian activities, domestic and abroad, contribute to that risk
- How the federal government will collaborate with provincial governments and Indigenous communities to make sure everyone’s on the same page, and address any jurisdictional challenges such as the collection and sharing of data
- Training programs with other levels of government and relevant agencies
- The state of research in preventing/responding to diseases that could lead to pandemics
- Establish a surveillance system for diseases of concern, both in and out of Canada
- Supports for local public health and building primary care capacity
- Preparedness strategies for the protection of vulnerable and marginalized populations, working conditions of essential workers, the availability and management of relevant stockpiles (including testing equipment and PPE), the surge capacity of staff for testing and contact tracing, and the communication of risk to the public
- Measures, including training, to improve the ability of healthcare workers to manage sudden increases in patient volume
- Our capacity to manufacture anything relevant to a pandemic response, such as vaccines and safety equipment, and any measures needed to address supply chain gaps
- The capacity for electronic platforms and tools to be used in response to a pandemic, such as apps that enable contact tracing
- Regulating commercial activities that can contribute to the risk of a pandemic (such as industrial animal agriculture), promoting activities that reduce risk, and phasing out activities that disproportionately contribute to the risk (such as anything involving high-risk species)
- A summary of changes in land use that could contribute to pandemic risk (such as deforestation, encroachment on wildlife habitats, etc), the measures the Minister of the Environment will take to reduce the risk that the commercial wildlife trade will lead to a pandemic (such as regulating or phasing out live animal markets), and a summary of the measures that will be taken to protect global biodiversity
- A summary from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of measures that will be taken to support global health equity (vaccine distribution, public health capacity, etc)
- A summary of cooperative measures or agreements with foreign governments and international organizations (such as the WHO) regarding disease outbreak prevention
- The routes a disease that could lead to a pandemic could use to enter the country, the rate that it would spread through those routes, and any border-related measures that could reduce the risk
This plan will need to consider every potential aspect of pandemic spread, will use the best scientific information available, and will examine internationally developed metrics for pandemic prevention when applicable. The Minister of Health will have two years to put together the plan, and it will need to be updated at least once every three years, using any new information that might have come up since the previous update.
Second Reading Vote
C-293 went up for its Second Reading vote and passed, 176 to 142. It will now be sent to committee.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 148 | 0 | 0 |
| Conservative | 0 | 112 | 0 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 0 | 30 | 0 |
| NDP | 24 | 0 | 0 |
| Green Party | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Independent | 2 | 0 | 0 |
The Conservatives are against C-293 because of its potential impacts to agriculture. It calls out phasing out commercial activities that involve “high-risk species” but doesn’t mention what those species are, and are also worried that it’ll limit land use.
The Bloc Quebecois would rather see a national public inquiry into the COVID response.