The Speaker accidentally called out “quarrel questions” instead of oral questions, and that set the stage for the day. Erin O’Toole led off, script in hand, and tried to poke holes in differing statements that different ministers have made on vaccines. Justin Trudeau, appearing by video from home, reminded him that nothing has been approved to date, and that Canada has the most comprehensive portfolio of vaccines. O’Toole then tried to proffer his theory that the government was relying on the CanSino vaccine candidate, and Trudeau told him that he shouldn’t make stuff up. O’Toole pressed on the CanSino theory, and Trudeau repeated that this was not true. O’Toole switched to French to demand a vaccine plan, to which Trudeau stated that they were working with the provinces and experts. O’Toole then raised the CNN reports on China hiding early COVID data before returning to his CanSino theory, and Trudeau repeated that nobody has an approved vaccine to date. Yves-François Blanchet was up next for the Bloc, and he demanded increased health transfers for provinces, to which Trudeau reminded that they have been working with provinces throughout the pandemic and have transferred billions of dollars to them because of it, but he would be speaking with premiers and not the leaders of other parties. Blanchet raised the Quebec government’s objections to new federal programmes, for which Trudeau gave the well-worn line that there is no jurisdiction for the dignity and security of seniors. Jagmeet Singh then led off for the NDP, and he demanded to know which seniors would get the vaccine first, for which Trudeau said they were working with experts to determine who is prioritised on the rollout, with healthcare workers and the most vulnerable. Singh then raised a Manitoba First Nation dealing with a COVID outbreak, and that the Chief has asked for military assistance, to which Trudeau reminded him that they have been working with Indigenous leadership, and that they would continue to do so — but did not really answer the question.
Tag Archives: Public Health
Roundup: The greater danger of spending too little
Chrystia Freeland unveiled her first economic update yesterday, and much of it was predictable, from the size of the deficit (which every single news source focused on immediately, as though it were still 1995), to the lack of a fiscal anchor while we remain in the pandemic, to the promises for how to build back in a more inclusive and greener manner. One of Freeland’s major points was that there is a greater danger in not spending enough than there is in spending too much – particularly at a time of record low interest rates – and we saw this borne out in the last recession, where the Harper government withdrew stimulus too soon, and the Bank of Canada was forced to keep rates lower for longer and we had a consumer debt crisis as a result. There were “down payments” for the work of getting to national childcare, long-term care and the meeting climate targets, but those are also all areas where they need provincial buy-in, so that’s going to get interesting very fast, especially given the number of hostile premiers that are currently in office. There were also new programmes rolled out for tourism and live events, and plans to extend GST/HST to web giants.
Based on the latest from today's #FES2020, combined with my own model of govt finances from @FONCanada (https://t.co/dRRZTqncKj) here's a projection for long-term debt/GDP federally.
Despite fiscal pressure from COVID, federal finances remain strongly sustainable. #cdnecon pic.twitter.com/Yd5A1uPh9A
— Trevor Tombe (@trevortombe) November 30, 2020
Predictably, the opposition parties were unimpressed. Erin O’Toole spent his response speech lying about what has been done to date, set up a completely false revisionist history of the pandemic, and went on TV to moan that the government “overspent” on CERB – apparently not grasping that the point was to keep people at home so as not to spread the virus (ergo, the Conservative plan is apparently to force people back to work in unsafe conditions so that they can facilitate the spread of said virus). The NDP were also predictable in their demands for wealth and “excess profit” taxes, never mind that they are inchoate concepts that largely don’t work out in practice. This means that we get to go through yet another round of election speculation as people wonder if the opposition will gang up to bring the government down over the inevitable implementing legislation.
Turning to @swear_trek to deal with this O’Toole speech. I have lost track of the number of utter falsehoods that have been promulgated. pic.twitter.com/iklkDFDMsB
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) November 30, 2020
Meanwhile, Heather Scoffield remarks on the ambition in the fiscal update, and whether or not the government will have the ability to deliver on any of it. Kevin Carmichael bemoans the lack of a fiscal anchor, but does admit that Freeland is right in that there is a danger of spending too little, or withdrawing stimulus too early (like Stephen Harper did). Paul Wells is disquieted by the lack of details on big items in the update, as well as this government’s propensity to farm out tough decisions to people not in government – which is a problem.
https://twitter.com/LindsayTedds/status/1333534144752537600
https://twitter.com/LindsayTedds/status/1333535547239796737
https://twitter.com/LindsayTedds/status/1333536562450055169
https://twitter.com/LindsayTedds/status/1333537658740514819
QP: Deliberately mischaracterizing the vaccine plans
While both the prime minister and finance minister were in town and preparing for the fiscal update, neither were present for QP. Gérard Deltell led off, noting that the fiscal update was coming, but that no economic plan would be worth anything without a vaccine plan. Patty Hajdu responded that they have the best vaccine portfolio and that a fourth candidate has begun its regulatory approval process. Deltell then insisted that the government was too invested in the CanSino candidate and was late in other vaccine candidates, to which Navdeep Bains insisted that they supported Canadian vaccine candidates as part of their plan. Deltell then mischaracterised international vaccine plans to insist that Canada was behind, which Hajdu disputed. Peter Kent took over in English and worried about the plan for economic recovery, to which Sean Fraser reminded him that the federal government made the choice to incur the costs of courses rather than putting it on the backs of people. Kent then worried about the deficit — because apparently it’s still 1995 — and Fraser directed him to the statements by the head of the IMF around what Canada has done. Alain Therrien led for the Bloc and he demanded the vaccine plan, to which Hajdu repeated her lines about the portfolio and the fourth candidate seeking approval. On the follow-up, Hajdu read a statement in French about the doses acquired and working with partners. Jagmeet Singh was up next for the NDP, and in French, he regaled the House with the tale of a woman in Gatineau who works three jobs and needs a vaccine, for which Hajdu repeated her usual lines about the portfolio and the regulatory process. Singh switched to English to make the same demand for the plan, and Hajdu reminded him that provinces have the expertise on this.
Peter Kent seems to think it’s 1995 again. #QP
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) November 30, 2020
Roundup: Setting up the failure narrative
The Conservatives spent Sunday trying to pre-position the narratives for today’s fiscal update by setting it up to fail, saying it needs a testing and vaccine roll-out plan to be effective – which are both areas of provincial jurisdiction and he knows it. The provinces have been given millions of rapid tests, and it’s up to them to roll them out (which most haven’t been, preferring to sit on them and wait instead) – and no, rapid at-home testing is still pretty much a figment of the imagination because the technology to make them like a pregnancy test still doesn’t exist. Likewise, we are still at a point where there are too many unknown variables with vaccines to make any definitive plans, which again, O’Toole knows but is pretending otherwise. O’Toole also tried to make the case that the government put “all their eggs” in the CanSino vaccine candidate basket, which was never able to leave China for testing, but absolutely nothing bears that out, given the massive investments in other local vaccine candidates, and ensuring that Canada would be positioned for access for other vaccine candidates that we couldn’t produce domestically.
To that end, the chairman of Moderna says that Canada is actually near the front of the line with their vaccine – which doesn’t require the same cold-storage chain that the Pfizer drug does – because we pre-ordered early. Of course, they can only produce so many vaccines so fast, so of course early doses are going to be lower than everyone would like, but they’re getting there (once they get approval). But then comes along Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe, who demands that the federal government get more doses faster – somehow. Apparently, they can wave a magic wand, or send bribes, or something. In reality, this is just Moe’s rather transparent attempt at making the federal government’s efforts look insufficient, so that it can distract from his own poor attempt to control the spread of the virus in his own province (and expect to see more of this from other premiers, particularly conservative ones).
In other pandemic news, the Alberta government has started listed co-morbidities with their death counts, as a rhetorical way of trying to lessen the actual impact of COVID deaths, trying instead to show that the people died of other complications and not COVID itself – which is bullshit, and a way for Jason Kenney to absolve himself of responsibility for his lack of action. And make no mistake, this is classic Kenney behaviour – and there is no small amount of irony that the man who keeps preaching “personal responsibility” in this pandemic is the one who refuses to take any measure of responsibility for his decisions.
Here are the 9 new lives lost to COVID-19 in Alberta. #yeg #yyc #ableg #covid19ab pic.twitter.com/aSA3VzMBHn
— Courtney Theriault (@cspotweet) November 27, 2020
Roundup: Bringing in a general as a prop
To finish out what was unofficially Vaccine Week™, prime minister Justin Trudeau announced that he had tasked Major General Dany Fortin, the country’s former NATO commander in Iraq, to head up the vaccine distribution response – because apparently, we have decided that if the Americans have a military response, we need one too. Also, Doug Ford went and hired former Chief of Defence Staff, General Rick Hillier, at great expense to head up Ontario’s vaccine roll-out, so Trudeau apparently felt the need to compete there too.
Paul Wells correctly noted on Power & Politics yesterday that this is mostly theatre, because the real work is being done by anonymous bureaucrats in public health offices in each province, who do the work of immunization on a constant basis. Nevertheless, the impulse to follow the American lead is so strong in Canadian politics, even when it makes no sense. In particular, the Americans needed their military to coordinate vaccine roll-out because they don’t have anything that resembles centralised healthcare delivery in any way. It’s more of a need than we have here, but hey, it looks like we’re being super serious that we have generals coordinating this. And it’s not to say that there wasn’t already coordination between the Public Health Agency and the Canadian Forces for any logistics help they might provide, which could mean transport or medical personnel (because remember that our complement of doctors and nurses are already being overloaded with COVID hospitalisations), but it wasn’t going to be a big Thing with the military in charge. Now Trudeau has pulled that trigger, and I’m not sure exactly what value he hopes to add to the equation from it.
Trudeau also stated yesterday that he estimates that most Canadians will be vaccinated by September of next year, but of course, this remains a bit of a moving target based on the number of vaccines available. If another candidate becomes viable and goes into production, that could cut the time down as well (assuming no logistics bottlenecks along the way). But as with anything, it’s a bit of a moving target, and there are still too many unknown variables to say anything definitive, despite the constant demands to, but that’s where we are. We’ll see if this fixation continues next week, or if the fiscal update will become the prevailing narrative instead.
Roundup: Approvals sooner than we think
The day in vaccine news was marked by the first in what was promised to be a weekly series of briefings about the progress of the planned vaccine rollout, wherein we learned that Health Canada’s close work with the FDA and the European Medicines Agency in the rolling application process, so that means that the Canadian approval for the vaccines should happen around the same time as their do – something that will relieve some of the anxiety. We are also expecting some six million doses (so, vaccinations for three million people) between approval and the end of March, with more doses to start ramping up considerably faster afterward. So there’s that.
Meanwhile, for all of the yelling and pleading for at-home tests, no manufacturer has applied to Health Canada (and Health Canada has proactively asked them to apply), and most companies haven’t even perfected their technologies yet, so this remains something of a pipe dream that we should stop hoping will be the panacea to ending lockdowns.
Over in Alberta, a number of recordings of meetings that their Chief Medical Officer of Health had were leaked to media, showing how her advice was being overruled by Cabinet, which confirms what was pretty much a no-brainer, but because it leaked, there is going to be damage to the way our system of government operates. Dr. Hinshaw called the leaks a betrayal of trust – and she’s right – but it really puts her in an impossible situation. (I have more about this in my weekend column, so keep an eye out for it).
In every gov't decision-making process, there is likely someone involved who fundamentally disagrees with what you'd like to see happen. Would you want that person to be able to strategically leak information from high-level meetings or analysis in order to shape policy?
— Andrew Leach (@andrew_leach) November 26, 2020
In that case, it was a run that isolated the tax, while assuming the tax revenue disappeared, so we were just looking at substitution effects from the carbon price. The macro impact in that run is the equivalent of taking the tax revenue out of the economy entirely. 3/
— Andrew Leach (@andrew_leach) November 26, 2020
We put a massive amount of trust in officials and outside experts who are brought into these rooms to advise on decisions. The outcome of today damages that system, will mean less open advice, and less informed decision making. And that too has consequences. 5/5
— Andrew Leach (@andrew_leach) November 26, 2020
Don't worry, all. I'm sure the response of the *checks notes* Jason Kenney government to people secretly recording meetings on gov't policy will be bring in more expertise and have a more open and transparent process where even cabinet meetings are broadcast live on the internet.
— Andrew Leach (@andrew_leach) November 26, 2020
QP: Chauvinism and confusion over vaccines
While the prime minister was around, neither he nor his deputy were in QP today, unfortunately. Erin O’Toole led off, script on mini-lectern, and he demanded to know if the government acquired the rights to manufacture the leading vaccine candidates — never mind that we have no capacity to manufacture them. William Amos replied, pointing out that the capacity to manufacture these vaccines had been lost in this country over decades, and that the government had reinvested that capacity. O’Toole then started — falsely — that the NRC facility in Montreal could produce millions of doses, which ignores that the facility has not yet been built and no Canadian facility has the technology to manufacture the two leading candidates. Patty Hajdu stated that Canada is one of the best placed for vaccines, and is the only country reviewing all three leading candidates. O’Toole tried again, and this time Hajdu pointed out that he was trying to confuse Canadians. O’Toole switched to French to repeat the question and Hajdu gave him much the same response. O’Toole then tried to point to letters from the premiers of Ontario and Quebec to say they have no idea about the federal government’s vaccine plans, and this time Pablo Rodriguez stood up to punch back at O’Toole’s assertions in French. Alain Therrien led off for the Bloc, and he called the vaccine plan chaos, which Hajdu rejected and stated that she was working with her provincial counterpart. Therrien went further, listing what he perceived as federal failures, to which Rodriguez got up to state that the premiers were meeting with the prime minister later in the day. Jagmeet Singh got up for the NDP, and concern trolled that the government hadn’t invested in the ability to produce vaccines over the past five years, to which Amos got back up to remind him that the government has been investing in biomanufacturing. Singh switched to French to demand the vaccine plan, to which Hajdu again reminded him that the provinces are the experts in immunisation and that the federal government was there to support them.
Roundup: The necessary context on vaccines
Vaccines was once again the talk of the day yesterday, and while there was a whole lot of caterwauling about demanding dates for vaccine arrivals and rollout specifics – something that is impossible to determine at this point considering that a) no vaccine has been approved in any country yet, and b) distribution is a provincial responsibility in Canada, and some of those provinces have not got their plans in place, such as Ontario, which just hired former Chief of Defence Staff, General Rick Hillier, to help them plan their logistics. So yeah – it’s pretty hard for Justin Trudeau to give any solid timelines with those particular factors in mind.
With this in mind, Maclean’s has a must-read interview with Dr. Supriya Sharma, Health Canada’s chief medical advisor, about the vaccine approval process – because a lot of people have been talking out of their asses about said approval process. And when you’ve finished reading that, here is a deeper dive into the vaccine manufacturing availability in this country – the delays at the planned National Research Council facility because they decided to upgrade it to be a fully-compliant Good Manufacturing Practice-compliant facility that will be more versatile and able to produce more vaccines once it’s up and running (probably later next year). As well, the two early promising vaccines, from Pfizer and Moderna, are both mRNA technology vaccines, and there are no facilities in this country that can produce them – because not all vaccine production is the same, and different vaccines require different technologies to produce them, and nobody seems to understand this basic fact as they demand to know why we’re not producing it here, or why we haven’t acquired the rights to produce it, given that we have nowhere that can produce it even if we did.
In other pandemic news across the country, Doug Ford’s government got raked over the coals by the province’s Auditor General when she examined the province’s early pandemic response (and while I have some issues with the fact that she seems to be straying outside of her lane, it is nevertheless reassuring to see that she has called out a lot of Ford’s lies about his actions or lack thereof). Ford also started the process of telling Ontarians that Christmas isn’t going to be one with large family gatherings, so at least he’s not trying for the same kind of “social contract” nonsense that Quebec is pushing in spite of the fact that it’s likely to cause more spread of the virus. (Then again, people seem to want to obstinately get together anyway, if Thanksgiving is any indication, so it may not matter). Meanwhile in Alberta, experts are calling out the half-measures of Jason Kenney’s “mockdown,” which is only going to lead to more deaths, and longer and deeper shutdowns to get the virus under control.
https://twitter.com/LagassePhilippe/status/1331654772282298369
https://twitter.com/LagassePhilippe/status/1331657172137238529
QP: Magical vaccine production facilities
Things got off to a slightly late start, as new MPs Marci Ien and Ya’sra Saks took their seats for the first time, led in by Justin Trudeau as their party leader. When QP got started, Erin O’Toole led off with his script on his mini-lectern, where he returned to yesterday’s same panic about vaccine delivery. Trudeau read some talking points about the vaccine portfolio, and stated that they were working with experts on the roll-out plan. O’Toole was not mollified and tried again, and got much the same response. O’Toole then worried that Trudeau wouldn’t ensure that a vaccine would be approved in short order, but Trudeau didn’t bite, and merely noted that three candidates were under review by Health Canada. O’Toole then switched to French to demand the vaccine plan be made public, to which Trudeau again praised the vaccine portfolio before noting that they are working with the provinces to deliver them. O’Toole then pivoted to official languages, to which Trudeau attacked him for not committing to only appointing bilingual Supreme Court judges. Yves-François Blanchet was up next for the Bloc, and he insisted that Quebec could have somehow produced the vaccine before we get doses from abroad, to which Trudeau returned to his points about the vaccine portfolio. Blanchet then demanded harmonised approval for the vaccine with other jurisdictions, to which Trudeau spoke about investing in science after years of neglect. Jagmeet Singh was up next for the NDP, and he asked why the National Research Council couldn’t make the vaccines, to which Trudeau reminded him that they won’t be able to get up and running until next summer. Singh started to repeat the question and then, knowing he got an answer, started to veer into demanding the plan, to which Trudeau thanked him for reading the press release but noted that he didn’t read the whole thing, and that the facility was still under construction.
Roundup: Our loss of vaccine manufacturing capacity
The talk of the day was vaccines, and when Canada might see them – which might be later than some other countries because we lack domestic manufacturing capacity in this country – and this made everyone go crazy. That, and the fact that they are howling that the Americans may start getting vaccinations immediately after the FDA is set to decide on vaccine trials on December 10th – which is a pretty big assumption that they will get approval on that day. (We’ll see about how much longer it takes Health Canada to complete their own authorisation process, though they are currently engaged in a “rolling authorisation” process on the three main candidates). And they are still negotiating final rollout with the provinces, who also don’t seem to have their distribution plans finalised either.
And to be a bit more clear, we have some vaccine manufacturing capability in this country, but not the kind for the kind of vaccines that Pfizer and Moderna are set to produce – and yes, this government has invested in boosting that capacity in Canada, including building a new facility at the University of Saskatchewan, but those take time to get built and up to speed. But as this was being discussed, I was reminded that well over a decade ago, Canada had proposed to build a new vaccine pilot lot production facility as part of the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. And then there was political interference in the Harper Cabinet, in particular from Vic Toews, who wanted a Level-5 Lab built in Winnipeg instead, and then neither happened, and all of the Gates Foundation money got pissed away funding small projects here and there that didn’t amount to any meaningful contribution overall. (My reporting on Toews’ interference here, as well as the refusal by Toews and two other ministers to appear at committee to answer questions on what happened with the killing the CHVI, while officials gave contradictory evidence here). And this kind of facility would definitely have been of use for the kind of situation that we find ourselves in, but lo, the Conservatives killed it (and the Gates Foundation covered for them after they did). And here we are, building this capacity over a decade too late.
In other COVID news around the country, after sitting on their new rapid testing kits for weeks, the Ford government in Ontario has finally decided how they’re going to roll them out, which you would think they should have thought of beforehand. Over in Alberta, Jason Kenney announced – after a long preamble about how hard it was to make this decision – a state of public health emergency and some tougher restrictions in the province which are not a full lockdown, and which doctors are already saying won’t do enough to curb the exponential growth of new infections. In other words, Lockdown Lite™ or Mockdown (credit to Lindsay Tedds for that one). Because Kenney insists the consequences of a lockdown are worse than all of the deaths that are happening, and a bogus reading of the Charter implications (which clearly allow for these kinds of restrictions in a time like this). That means that Alberta’s infections will keep rising because Kenney refused to take appropriate action, and he’ll blame Ottawa, and everyone else for his inaction, because that’s what Jason Kenney does.
https://twitter.com/LindsayTedds/status/1331385270529269762
Smart thoughts here from Eric. Get to the last tweet. For context, here's the SCC decision from R v Oakes that forms the test for section 1 of the Charter. https://t.co/Jfm0o9FfB2 pic.twitter.com/sLHpHBjlZ8
— Andrew Leach (@andrew_leach) November 25, 2020