The Public Health Emergencies Governance Review Panel, led by Preston Manning, delivered its final report to the Government of Alberta, which includes over 90 recommendations for consideration. 

The Panel was tasked by Premier Danielle Smith with undertaking a detailed review of the legislation and governance employed during the COVID-19 crisis, and to recommend changes and additional legislation to better prepare the province to meet future public emergencies. The mandate of the Panel was not to conduct an overall inquiry into the government’s response to COVID-19, but strictly to review the statutes that provided the legal basis for the government’s response to COVID-19.

Drawing upon the expertise and research of advisors and contractors commissioned for the study, the Panel arrived at a series of conclusions and recommendations for the Alberta Government to consider.

The recommendations of the Panel fall into three main categories, and included:

1. Improving the focus and performance of the administrative and regulatory framework used to respond to provincewide public emergencies, including:
   • Strengthen the Alberta Emergency Management Agency (AEMA) through legislative amendments and budgetary provisions to make it the lead government agency responding to and coordinating the response of the Alberta government to future provincewide public emergencies, including health emergencies.
   • Develop and maintain a broadly-based Inventory of Scientific Advice and Scientific Advisors that can be drawn upon in the event of a public emergency.
   • Mandate by legislation that preliminary, interim and post-emergency impact assessments be conducted in response to any future provincewide public emergencies.
   • Reject provincewide school closures as a policy option in responding to a provincewide public emergency, except in the most exceptional of circumstances, and then only for the shortest possible period of time.

2. Balancing the protection of Albertans from the harms caused by public emergencies with the protection of their basic rights and freedoms during an emergency period, including:
   • Amend the Alberta Bill of Rights and Alberta’s Employment Standards Code and Health Professions Act to protect the rights and freedoms of all Albertans, including workers and healthcare professionals, and the freedom of expression during public emergencies.

3. Increasing the overall capacity of Alberta’s healthcare system to respond to surges in demand caused by a public health emergency. Here, the Panel recognized that the government has already taken numerous incremental steps to increase the overall capacity of the healthcare system. The Panel commends those initiatives and recommends additional incremental steps, all compatible with the principles of universality and the Canada Health Act, including:
   • Expanding the use of nurse practitioners and licensed practical nurses.
   • Reducing or eliminating barriers to labour mobility for healthcare workers.
   • Exploring options for attracting more healthcare providers into medical training
   • Incentivizing medical graduates to serve in the most needed areas.
   • Utilizing pharmacists to their full scope of practice.
   • Expanding and improving the organization of home care services.
   • Expanding the capacity of the Alberta healthcare system to deal with mental health.
   • Expanding and supporting the use of virtual medicine and telemedicine.
   • Streamlining system administration.

The panelists include Michel Kelly-Gagnon (President Emeritus of the Montréal Economic Institute), The Honourable John C. (Jack) Major CC KC (Former Supreme Court of Canada Justice), Preston Manning, PC CC AOE (former MP for Calgary Southwest and Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons), Dr. Jack Mintz (president’s fellow of the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary and a distinguished senior fellow of the MacDonald-Laurier Institute), Dr. Martha Fulford (Infectious Disease Specialist and Retired Chief of Medicine, McMaster University), and Dr. Robert Tanguay, Psychiatrist and Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Surgery at the Cumming School of Medicine).

Quotes

“The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting global turmoil was unprecedented. Alberta, like the rest of the world, had to make decisions quickly and with limited, changing and even conflicting information. It is my hope that by adopting these recommendations, the Government will be better equipped to cope with future emergencies, and that the impacts on Albertans – their personal livelihoods, civil liberties, and mental health can be mitigated to the greatest extent possible.” – Preston Manning, Chair

“For the credibility of the study and our final recommendations, I felt it was important to select panelists and advisors with varied areas of expertise and perspectives on the key issues. For that reason, while there were certainly differences of opinion, I am thrilled that we were ultimately able to arrive at a consensus on the recommendations put forward.” – Preston Manning, Chair

Read the full report here.