Page - 24 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

VULNERABLE24 very limited in when it can be invoked and the powers it contains, making it largely inadequate in the context of COVID-19. There is a possibility the federal government could declare an emergency with special legislation passed under the Peace Order and Good Government power of the Canadian Constitution, but our contribu- tors differ in their views on the necessity of this.99 One option to be considered going forward is an amendment to the Public Health Agency  of  Canada  Act100 that could provide a mechanism to declare a Public Health Emergency of National Concern. Second, harkening back to SARS, the federal government still does not receive the public health data from the provinces required for epidemiological modelling to forecast the optimal containment and recovery strategies. PHAC has no authority to compel data from provincial, territorial, and private sector partners, even where national public health is compromised. Its ability to produce timely national surveillance on the health status of Canadians is severely limited by the lack of strong federal public health legislation.101 Third, there is both strength and vulnerability in the various approaches taken by governments across Canada. Variation can be a strength, as it may allow governments to respond to differences in needs and contexts. So, for example, our contributors discuss the quite different risks for Indigenous Peoples, and how Indigenous govern- ments are taking greater precautionary measures than other govern- ments. However, we also need to ask whether vastly different death rates per capita across the country can be attributed to factors beyond the immediate control of decision makers or instead to poor policy choices or policy implementation. For example, as of June 28, 2020, COVID-19 death rates per 100,000 population are 63.9 in Quebec, 18.4 in Ontario, and 3.4 in British Columbia.102 One, of course, must account for differences in risk factors such as age and obesity, or factors such as the early spring break in Quebec (and the return of infected travel- lers), but we do not yet know whether these factors explain a more than 18-fold differences in per capita deaths as between, for example, 99. See Colleen M Flood & Bryan Thomas, this volume, Chapter A-6; Carissima Mathen, this volume, Chapter A-7. 100. Public  Health  Agency  of  Canada  Act, SC 2006, c 5. 101. On the problems of not having the means to collect country-wide public health data, see Amir Attaran & Adam R Houston, this volume, Chapter A-5. 102. As of June 28, 2020, the number of deaths reported from COVID-19 were 5,448 in Quebec, 2,701 in Ontario, and 174 in British Columbia. See Canada Open Data Working Group, supra note 4. See also Pearson, supra note 29.