NEWS FILE PHOTO
MP Glen Motz is seen at a "Leadership Breakfast " sponsored by the Medicine Hat and District Chamber of Commerce at Chinook Village in November.
The local MP calls the slow supply of vaccine in Canada “an abysmal failure” on the part of the federal government.
“Canadians are feeling let down by the current pace of the vaccine,” said Glen Motz, MP for Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner. “Most Canadians believe that this (vaccine) supply is necessary to secure jobs, build our economy and secure the future.”
He says the delivery of vaccine is prolonging lockdowns and restrictions affecting the lives of everyone.
“My colleagues and I have repeatedly been calling out the government” about their response plan, vaccine plan, recovery plan and the data they are using to make decisions.
Motz believes the failure began when the pandemic was considered purely as a health emergency.
“They (the federal government) have not followed emergency management protocols,” said Motz. “Canada has at the ready … emergency management protocols and there is a pandemic response playbook – if you will.”
Handling it as a public emergency would have meant a broader perspective regarding the impact and how to handle it, says Motz, suggesting the first stage should have been the lockdown of long-term-care facilities to protect those at greatest risk.
“If the (federal) government had followed emergency management protocols we would not have had the volume of deaths … across this country,” said Motz.
Without an emergency management approach it fell to medical experts to handle the response and they have understandably focused only on the health implications, said Motz. An emergency management task force would have been advising the decision makers on all implications and on securing a supply of vaccine early on.
He feels there should have been more negotiation for Canada to manufacture some of the vaccines currently being used, like Pfizer and Moderna.
Motz also believes a greater investment in quality rapid testing could have made a difference, saying it could have made workplace testing simple to do with a quick result and identification of anyone who should isolate.
He fully supports the government’s spending to provide for all those who have lost their jobs or could not work due to restrictions or lockdowns.
“It can’t go on in perpetuity. People … would sooner work than receive handouts from the government,” said Motz.
He says the Conservative Party has been asking the government for its decision matrix for lifting restrictions.
“There was no answer,” he said.
Phone calls and complaints Motz’s constituency office has been receiving have been about the lockdowns, travel restrictions and a lack of planning for a recovery.
