Duclos appeared before the Commons health committee on Monday, and Conservative MPs were repeatedly asking him on when mandates will be lifted. MP Michael Barrett asked Duclos why the federal government couldn’t come up with a plan to phase out the mandates even though the provinces have and most of the world is now opening up.
“What different information does the federal government have that is causing it to not provide dates, or a plan that will see federal COVID mandates lifted?” Barrett asked.
However the Provincial governments do hold jurisdiction over most COVID rules while most have been relaxed and lifted in all the provinces. Lockdowns are over and mask mandates have been phased out while vaccine passports have ended or have a end date committed.
Duclos said the virus was still out there and he pointed out dozens of people were still dying every day. However he contently left out they’re mostly old or vulnerable people at the median age of life and there is a 99.9% survival rate.
“The truth is that COVID-19 is still here in Canada and certainly outside of Canada. And that’s what I think we should be mindful of,” he said.
That is true COVID-19 is still out there but hospitalizations and death counts have been plummeting daily. We also learned months ago slash the numbers in half to get the real number of incidental COVID numbers. the so call dozen then becomes maybe 6 people. Canadas population is about 38 million people.
The federal government faked easing of COVID restrictions by only lifting the mandate for travel of providing a negative test and quarantine rules. The vaccine passport segregation ID is still in effect and same wit mask mandates for travel. All of the Covid-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates apply to federal employees, contractors and federally regulated industries.
His logic behind this is because the vaccines are the so-called best way to prevent the spread of the virus. Conveniently leaving out the fact vaccinated and unvaccinated have the same chance to spreading the virus but that means they have to be infected to begin with. If it was about preventing the spread why is testing removed instead of the vaccine passport?
“These measures are focused on vaccination and because vaccination is the key to the least disruptive possible measures to protect the health and safety of Canadians and their loved ones,” he said.
Barrett requested a set of criteria based on new cases or hospital capacity that could be used to determine when the federal government’s bans would be lifted. He stated that his constituents had completed the tasks assigned to them, but that they wanted to know when the process would be completed.
“Canadians just want a plan,” he said. “All they’re asking for, every single day, is what is it going to take for us to see the mandates end.”
Duclos dodged the question with the same blanket statement the government is reviewing the policies but it is apparently complicated and we must move in super slow motion.
“To be responsible means that you need to follow the evidence, the science and the precautionary principle and adjust and analyze the policies as things evolve,” he said.
He tries to draw attention to hospital capacity acknowledging it is getting better but then throws a bad spin on it claiming thousands of so called people are still occupying beds preventing a return to normal.
“I’ll give you one number; 700,000. That’s the estimate of the number of surgeries that have been either cancelled or delayed because of COVID 19,” he said. “We’re not yet in a position, with the ability in current hospital capacity, to catch up with that backlog.”
It has been 2 years and Duclos is still using capacity levels as an excuse. Where did the money go to hire more staff and add more beds? As reported by The Globe and Mail in December 2021, Liberals still have not accounted for $600-billion in public spending for pandemic response.
