There was an interesting piece in the Globe and Mail yesterday where a couple of former top doctors enumerated some of the problems at the Public Health Agency of Canada that have been festering for years in spite of repeated warnings, which started creeping in with the budget cuts that started in 2011, and which were compounded with the loss of scientific capacity to the point where the president who just resigned had no scientific background at all. Which isn’t to say that you necessarily need someone with a science background in an administrative position like that (as opposed to the Chief Public Health Officer, which is a different kettle of fish entirely), but it points to some of the ways in which the civil service in this country has been losing capacity for a while. Suffice to say, it would appear to point to the fact that the current government wasn’t paying enough attention to what was going on at PHAC, though to be fair, there has been a fair bit on their plates, as they were dealing with medically assisted dying, legalised cannabis, and completely restructuring First Nations and Inuit healthcare delivery, which were all health-related files. The fact that emergency stockpiles weren’t being properly managed has come up repeatedly, but this does start with the cuts made under the Harper government.

Meanwhile in Queen’s Park (where premier Doug Ford made cuts to public health before the pandemic began), there is a piece in the Star that starts to ascertain just who is as the premier’s “health command table,” and ascertains that it’s Ford pulling all the strings and making all of the decisions. Which is as it should be – any “command table” should be merely advisory, because in our system of government, Cabinet makes the decisions, and Cabinet gets to wear them. I worry that trying to expose who is at this table will try to blame them for the advice they’re giving to Ford, rather than Ford making decisions on that advice – particularly when we’ve seen him ignore advice on things like school re-openings. There is a debate to be had about the transparency around the advice being given, so that we can ascertain whether or not Ford is actually following it, which I get, but I also wonder if there isn’t also a need for that table to be a place of frank discussion without it all coming out in the press – like why we have Cabinet confidentiality. And it’s a fair debate to be had, but again, let me reiterate that this is 100 percent on Ford, no matter what advice he may or may not be getting. That’s how Responsible Government works, and we need to quit finding ways to give Ford a pass, or an out on his shite decision-making.

Good reads:

• Some 240,000 applications for the new Canada Recovery Benefit were received over the long weekend, in spite of problems with the CRA website.
• François-Philippe Champagne says that Canada is willing to plan an “honest broker” role in de-escalating tensions between Greece and Turkey.
• An independent review of CSIS shows a culture that sees the work necessary to obtain warrants as “burdensome,” there is confusion around the duty of candour.
• The “lottery” for parent and grandparent immigration sponsorship has opened up for three weeks before the spots are randomly selected.
• Erin O’Toole is resuming in-person fundraising events, including some in Alberta this week, despite having already contracted COVID. I’m sure it’s all fine.
• The Alberta government plans to replace 11,000 jobs in its healthcare system with private sector outsourcing, claiming it will save millions of dollars. (It won’t).
• Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column sorts out the Conservative and NDP proposals for special committees to delve into the WE Imbroglio and other matters.
• Kevin Carmichael profiles a Montreal firm whose special immersive technology has been filming aboard the International Space Station.
• Susan Delacourt suggests that Erin O’Toole is not reading the room with his decision to keep going on with his fundraising tour in the middle of the second wave.
• My column looks at some of the activities MPs have been reporting they’ve been up to since the pandemic began, and finds some of them to be concerning long-term.

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