BC Today – Daily Report April 8, 2020
Quotation of the day
“We need to double down now.”
After several days of encouraging case numbers, Health Minister Adrian Dix urges British Columbians to redouble their efforts to flatten the COVID-19 curve.
Today in B.C.
On the schedule Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix will provide an update on B.C.’s COVID-19 cases at 3 p.m. The briefing will be livestreamed.
Essential services, test kits and government aid: lobbying in the time of COVID-19 With the COVID-19 pandemic set to dominate the province’s attention for the foreseeable future, lobbyists and firms are seeking the government’s ear.
The provincial lobbyist portal counts 35 new and recently amended registrations that include the key word “COVID-19.”
Priorities include selling products and technology to aid the province’s efforts to battle the coronavirus, securing essential service designations, and keeping government officials up to speed on the impacts the pandemic is having on industries.
Some company’s interests are more specific than others. Last week, Western Policy Consultants lobbyist Michael Bailey — who served as executive director to former premier Bill Bennett — registered to lobby the health ministry on behalf of the Lynn Valley Care Centre. The facility was the first long-term care centre to confirm COVID-19 cases and remains an active outbreak, accounting for a significant percentage of the province’s coronavirus fatalities.
Bailey registered to brief health ministry officials “on the need for government assistance for long-term care homes through the COVID-19 pandemic” and discuss the future of the facility’s contract and funding agreement with the province.
The aptly named Wuhan Easy Diagnosis Biomedicine Co. Ltd. has hired Earnscliffe Strategy to lobby the health ministry about its COVID-19 testing kits, noting they “have been deployed in other jurisdictions.”
According to its lobbying goals, the company is a “leading in vitro diagnostic manufacturer” that specializes in “point of care testing, rapid diagnostic reagents and related equipment” and works out of the National Biological Industry Base in Wuhan, China — homebase of the coronavirus.
Securing essential service designations Many of B.C.’s industries and businesses are making the case that their products and services are essential in hopes of being able to keep operating.
Toyota Canada, Rio Tinto, Shoppers Drug Mart and the Canadian Home Builders’ Association registered to weigh in on the criteria the province is using to determine what businesses remain essential.
Whirlpool Canada wants the B.C. government to take “a needs-based approach” to the designation, noting that British Columbians might need their fridges or washing machines repaired or replaced over the coming weeks and months.
“The loss of use of appliances may compromise the ability to store, preserve and prepare food and maintain effective hygiene and infection control,” the company’s registration says.
Restaurant Brands International — the owner of Tim Hortons and Burger King — wants to “clarify issues related to the franchise industry” with government officials and discuss the “measures the government is taking to mitigate” economic impacts on the restaurant industry.
Meanwhile, 7-Eleven has registered a lobbyist to ensure the premier, health minister and provincial health officer know about “the policies and procedures” it has “put in place to protect customers and staff from COVID-19, while ensuring continued access to essential products.”
An organization called Factors Group of Nutritional Companies has hired lobbyist Jeffrey Ferrier to “convey the importance” of the sale of dietary supplements as an essential service to the health and public safety ministries.
The Building Owners and Managers Association of BC is keen to support the province's emergency preparedness efforts, offering their own “emergency communications programs” to augment the provincial response.
The Centre For Israel and Jewish Affairs registered a lobbyist to reach out to the ministry of education about coordinating the closure of Jewish day schools in B.C.
Securing government aid and informing economic recovery efforts The BC Federation of Labour has updated its undertaking in a bid to lobby government officials on financial support for renters, as well as economic support for vulnerable British Columbians.
Tides Canada is “requesting [a] temporary increase in government assistance programs” from the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction during the COVID-19 pandemic, while First West Credit Union, a financial institution, wants to “discuss regulatory, economic and fiscal measures related to the B.C. government's response to health crisis including COVID-19.”
Paper Excellence Canada Holdings Corporation, which owns a pulp mill in Richmond, is interested in “government support in response to COVID-19.”
Airbnb has had regular contact with the NDP government since the province’s speculation and vacancy tax were introduced, but recently amended its registration in response to the impacts of COVID-19 on the short-term rental industry.
The firm is now seeking “regulatory reform” and tax relief for its hosts who have been hard hit by travel restrictions.
Over the weekend, Ontario banned Airbnb’s ability to provide vacation rentals during the pandemic.
Today’s events
April 8 at 7:10 p.m.
BC Liberal Party Leader Andrew Wilkinson will host a telephone town hall to “provide an update on the COVID-19 epidemic” and take questions and feedback from attendees.
Topics of conversation
● Dr. Bonnie Henry confirmed a total of 25 new COVID-19 cases yesterday, bringing B.C.’s total cases to 1,291. The number of hospitalized COVID-19 cases dropped to 138. The province recorded another four deaths due to the coronavirus, bringing the total to 43. Over 800 people are now considered fully recovered. ○ B.C. hospitals are operating at roughly 58 per cent capacity with more than 4,540 hospital beds currently available; critical care beds are at just over 50 per cent capacity. ○ B.C. has now recruited 56 doctors and 880 nurses to re-register to practice in the province. ○ Yesterday morning, Dr. Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix joined Premier John Horgan for a teleconference with 130 faith leaders from around the province to discuss the importance of continuing to observe physical distancing during upcoming religious holidays.
● A Coquitlam pillow and dog-bed producer could soon be Canada’s first N95 respirator manufacturer, the Vancouver Sun reports. Novo Textiles has been retooling its operations to be able to make both surgical masks and N95 respirators. Production of surgical masks was set to begin yesterday, and the machinery needed to make N95s is expected to arrive in the next two weeks. ○ Owner Jason Zanatta expects to be able to produce 100,000 medical-grade surgical masks and another 100,000 N95s per day once manufacturing begins. ○ Yesterday, a firm in Toronto manufactured and donated its first round of N96 masks — which are similar — to the provincial government.
● Canadian Tire continues to sell protective equipment — including masks, eye goggles and disposal surgical gowns — that could be used by frontline health-care workers to avoid becoming infected with COVID-19, according to reporting from CTV News. ○ Some of the company’s Vancouver stores also appear to have inflated their prices — $50 for a box of 50 surgical masks — in response to demand. Price gouging is illegal under B.C.’s current state of emergency. ○ The province has set up a hub to coordinate donations of useful supplies from businesses and local governments. “If people have medical-grade supplies that we can use in the health-care system, it’s critical that those are donated — given to the health-care system,” BC Nurses’ Union president Christine Sorensen told CTV.
● BC Liberal Education critic Dan Davies says the NDP government needs to provide “more direction” to school districts trying to provide online instruction for students during the COVID-19 pandemic. ○ “There is a lot of uncertainty across the education system as government continues its efforts to battle this global pandemic,” Davies wrote in an op-ed published in the Alaska Highway News. “School districts want more direction and support on how to effectively deliver learning in this new normal. Teachers are also reaching out to me saying some districts are allowing certain things that other districts are not, or why are we doing this and no one else is.” ○ Davies says there has been a lack of consistency and clarity in the government’s policies for educators during the pandemic — on everything from learning plans to amended graduation requirements for Grade 12 students — leaving “entire schools struggling to adapt.”
News briefs
Province securing spaces for homeless people to self-isolate
● Hotel rooms and community centres are being used to give British Columbians without homes a safe space to self-isolate during the COVID-19 pandemic. About 900 rooms at 23 sites across the province have been secured so far, according to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, which is working with local governments, non-profit organizations and the hospitality industry. ○ BC Housing is working with local health authorities to identify people who need to self-isolate and referring them to available hotel rooms or community centres. ○ This includes patients being discharged from hospitals as the facilities try to free up space for a possible surge in COVID-19 cases. ○ Additional rooms — beyond the 900 — have been identified and will be utilized if necessary, per the ministry. ○ Vancouver city Councillor Jean Swanson has called on the province to move more quickly, saying securing hundreds of hotel rooms should be just the first step in supporting homeless Vancouverites, of which there are over 2,000. ○ Once the crisis has passed, Swanson hopes the provincial and federal governments take the opportunity to transition people from hotel rooms to modular housing.
Most open burning banned in B.C. as of April 16
● Effective April 16, most open burning will be banned across B.C. in an effort to “reduce the likelihood of human-caused wildfires,” according to the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development. ○ Campfires will still be allowed, but fireworks, sky lanterns, burn barrels and Category 2 and 3 fires will all be banned.