Streaming around the world on the CBS app and on CBC News. Ca. As we await the Prime Minister’sdaily briefing after taking a couple of days off, we are expecting Justin Trudeau to react to remarks made by Andrew Scheer ahead of a potential return to the house. Scheer says that an accountability session needs to happen and it can’t happen virtually. Scheer is defending his choice to fly his family to Ottawa on government jet. Some questions about whether that flies in the face of public health directives. We’re also expecting him to talk little bit more about procurement of personal protective equipment and to see of what he makes with some of his ongoing discussions with theprovinces. Let me bring in My colleagues, the host of “power & politics,” Vassy kapelos, and David Cochrane. I do want to get to the announcement today, but let’s start with the provinces and what may be a bit of pulling apart at a time we thought everyone was getting along well. Vassy, I’ll go to you because this happened in your interview with the premier of Alberta where he had some frustration.

Vassy:

He said he was looking to consider the use of tests that were not yet approved by health Canada, if they were approved by another regulator in another country, he was open to consider their use. I asked him about that tweet and asked him if he was expressing distrust in health Canada as a regulator. That led to a series of responses in which he said basically that he was not expressing a mistrust in them, but that they were playing catchup. There was some concerns from health Canada about the validity of such a test, that there has to be a vetting process in place and that’s why it was working its way through the approval process. Mr. Kenny went on to criticize Dr. Tam more specifically and accused her of repeating talking points from the people’s republic of china when she earlier in, her and other public health officials, in January andfebruary insisted that the evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus was very low. Some very pointed words for Dr. Tam, Fr health Canada from jason kenney. Raises a whole host of questionsthat I think the Prime Minister will address, the jurisdictionalissue. Can the provinces actually employ a test or use a test thathas yet to be approved by the federal regulator and also a more direct response to the accusations that premier kenney is levelling where Dr. Tam is concerned and her integrity in all of this. Very interested to see what the Prime Minister and/or Dr. Tam has tr say about that.

Rosemary:

I will say, just so people understand, but health Canada regulates the approval process of testing, medicine, other things that are needed. The provinces don’t. So they have to wait for health Canada to sign off on that. Sometimes we have seen over the course of this pandemic that Canada will look to other agencies, like the f. D.a. Or thec. D.c. In the United States, to say, okay, you’ve approved it. We can move a little faster because we know an ally. Jason kenney did allude to that, but there is no ability for a province to approve a medicine or a drug or a test or anything like that. It does seem to me that he’s trying to put pressure on the federal government or health Canada. I don’t know if you got that impression, Vassy.

Vassy:

Specifically where the testing is concerned, I imagine he’s talking about the serological tests that the f. D.a. Has approved quicker thanhealth Canada. Health Canada does have specificconcerns where the validity and the accuracy of those tests are concerned. I think everyone understands theneed for speed right now. When it comes to any kind of treatment, any kind of test, anykind of vaccine. But there is also a concern about the accuracy of those results because a test is only as good as it is accurate. I think the concerns around the speed at which things happen, our colleagues have covered that, there is concerns about the information being given about human-to-human transmission and closing the borders. Where Dr. Tam and these tests are concerned, clearly health Canada has some issues with the validity of them. They’re trying to vet them. The whole jurisdictional part ofthis and whether the province can do that are definitely worthfollow up.

Rosemary:

Thank you for that, Vassy. David, I’ll go to you as we wait for the Prime Minister to emerge. He’s back at Rideau after a couple of days with his family. What are we expecting today?

David:

We’re going to hear about procurement. Speaking of tests. He’s going to highlight the spartan bio science tests that were developed in Ottawa and the ramp up to try to make Canada as efficient as possible in the world of medical supplies and also an update on some of the deliveries they’ve been getting. a cargo jet plane touched down in Hamilton bringing supplies back from china and there’s air Canada flights scheduled to make return trips into shanghai where the government is building a stockpile in a warehouse there, depending on some diplomatic staff and management consultants to build a supply chain in china to cut through the chaos. An update on what’s happening there. Also some explanation on the widening of businesses and individuals to qualify for the various aid programs, the CERB, the ceba, the Canada emergency benefit response and the relief. The criteria to qualify for this has been widening each and everyday. It seems as a new round of complaints come up, a new round of criteria is put in place. They’re going to talk about the widening of the broader things. What I understand, Rosie, is we’ll get a menu or a table of contents from the Prime Minister. Here’s where we are on procurement, here’s what we’re doing on the global benefit, andhere’s where we’re going to go with the sector of specific packages. The oil patch, restaurants, hospitality, airlines, all looking to a package that goes above and beyond what has already been introduced. The priority has been to do the global ones as broadly as they can bf they move on to sector-specific plans.

Rosemary:

I will come back to both of you in a moment. One of the things we’ve been hearing over the last number of deaths is the number of deaths that have occurred in long-term care homes. It is raising concerns. Dr. Tam said more than half of the 800 deaths in this country are connected to nursing homes or long-term care centres. That is felt extremely acutely in dorval, quÉbec, where 31 people have died. Health workers were called in there and they described the deplorable conditions. The police and the coroners are all investigating. We spoke to a man who lost his father to COVID-19 complicationsand his mother is in hospital with mild symptoms. Peter will join me from montreal. I’m not sure if we’ve got a shotof you yet, peter, but we’ll punch you up when we have you. First of all, peter, My condolences about your father.

Interview:

Thank you.

Rosemary:

How are you doing?

Interview:

We’re doing prettywell, actually, because My mother is out of herron. She’s in hospital and being well taken care of. They think she has COVID-19, but it seems to be a mild case. We’re hoping she will recover quickly and we can give her a hug in person very soon.

Rosemary:

Tell me, what was your experience like for your parents at the long-term care homes?

Interview:

My parents had been there for about two years. We moved My father out a couple of weeks ago because of problems with the care and the prices they wanted to charge for his care. We moved him into another public seniors facility that, unfortunately, was also a hot bed of COVID-19 cases. So My father died on the Th of COVID-19-related complications. We went from that – the frying pan into the fire in a certain sense, because then we started following the care of My mother and worried about what was goingon in herron. Then we heard that about the problems with care. We got My mother out. Then we heard the next day that 31 people had died in a period of 26 days there.

Rosemary:

What were the problems of care? we’ve heard some of the stories, graphic stories, but what were the problems of care that you observed with your parents?

Interview:

Well, take My father, for example. Like, he had been in and out of hospital from November, December, January, he spent about nine weeks in hospital. When he was brought back to herron, there was some problems with his care. He went from someone who looked good and hardy to someone who couldn’t get out of bed and feedhimself. The amount of care went up and they wanted to increase the price from $40, 000 to $60, 000 a year to take care of him. They weren’t taking good care ofhim. When he came back from hospital he had some minor bed wounds and they got significantly worse at hereon for a three or four-week period before going back to hospital. When he came back from hospital, there was instructions how to treat the bed sores, he needed to be moved every two hours. There was a chart on the wall when to move him and they assured us that would happen. One day My brother was there forsix hours and no one had come inand when he came back the next day there was a tick in each of the boxes and My brother saw no one. That’s an indication that there was fog going on – once My father had gone to the other residence, she was left alone. We were able to talk to her on the phone. The level of care would go up and down each day, even though the regional health authority had come in rescued all the residents there, there was stillproblems. She was left in her wheelchair for three hours last Tuesday with a full diaper and got to assistance for three hours whilemy sisters were calling frantically and leaving messagesand texts and everything trying to get someone in to change My mother’s diapers. It was horrible. But My mother would be the firstone to say that her case was minor compared to the people whodidn’t have anyone to advocate for themselves, who couldn’t getout of bed for themselves, who couldn’t feed themselves, who couldn’t complain about the way they were treated. It’s horrifying thinking what they felt like laying in their beds not being cared for or ableto talk to anybody.

Rosemary:

It’s all horrifying, frankly. If anything, this pandemic has shown us that the way we are treating older Canadians is obviously not what – not how they should be treated. So you moved your mother. Did you move her because she hadcovid or you suspected she had COVID-19 or did you move her because of the ongoing concerns around the conditions at herron?

Interview:

It was both things. We’d been trying to get hereon to test her for at least a week now. They kept telling us they weren’t going to test her and she didn’t have all the right symptoms, basically, she didn’t have low blood oxygen or a fever. She had diarrhea and a sore throat. Every time we talked to her, we were less and less able to hear her. Her voice was disappearing. There is a range of COVID-19, not just fever, but they refused to test. That was a huge thing right there. We’re going to get her tested. We got her to the hospital and she was tested immediately and they’re pretty sure that she does have COVID-19. She wasn’t getting care and theyweren’t addressing her concerns at all.

Rosemary:

So what happens when she gets out of hospital? presumably, as you say, her symptoms are not too severe. We would hope she would get out okay. Where will she go of that? have you thought about that?

Interview:

We’d been planning on moving My father and My mother before the whole coronavirus quarantine situation came up. My mother is going to be going to Ottawa eventually once they open up their public homes there, we’re already on a waiting list for that. My sister lives in Ottawa. My sister who has My mother’s primary – power of attorney will be taking care of her. She’s not going back to herron, that’s for sure.

Rosemary:

Peter, I’m waiting for the Prime Minister. He’ll be out in about a minute. What would you say to governmentofficials, provincial or federal, about long-term care centres after this experience with your parents and what couldbe needed to help them?

Interview:

You know, I think the big mistake at the beginning was to stop family members from being able to go into these institutions. The metaphor I keep using is we tried to protect them from the lion that was in the cage before realizing the lion was there and nobody was able to get in. The family members that were struggling would love to spend all day with them taking care of their needs. We weren’t allowed in the building. You lost a huge resource when you shut the building down. Then you created a new workload for the workers who remained who never had to do this before because the families would take care of them. Their workload exploded and they got sick and are told fog home and quarantine. Then you have this loss of manpower in the building. The people left there, no wonderthey’re going crazy. The work they’re being asked to do for lousy wages in a short period of time, it’s a nightmare.

Rosemary:

Peter, the Prime Minister has come out of his home. My condolences for your father and I’m wishing My best to your mother and your whole family. Here is the Prime Minister of Canada now.