Alberta’s COVID-19 review has potential to change future pandemic responses, say experts

Alberta’s upcoming review of its COVID-19 pandemic response is essential to better protect the public from future epidemics and pandemics, experts say.

Premier Jason Kenney mentioned the review briefly on his regular radio talk show on Aug. 13, saying Health Minister Jason Copping will be making an announcement about it soon.

However, the review will not be a judicial nor public inquiry. Instead, it will be an independent review done by a third party.

“Often these judicial inquiries turn into multi-year projects where lawyers make a fortune,” Kenney said. “Tens of millions of dollars are spent and the focus is on the process, and people often forget what they were supposed to do when it’s all over.”

Dr. David Naylor, former chair of the National Advisory Committee on SARS, told Global News provinces and territories must review their COVID-19 pandemic policies to develop better protocols and responses for future diseases.

“The idea is to figure out where missteps happened, but most importantly, why they happened from a systemic standpoint… how did the system fail? How do we change the system so we respond better in the future?” Naylor said.

“For citizens of each province and territory, they need comfort that if there’s another major epidemic or a pandemic on this scale, that the machinery is better tuned.”

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But Naylor said reviews and inquiries aren’t a place for government officials to point fingers or mislead the public.

Alberta must take a broad perspective by including local and international experts to get an accurate analysis, according to Naylor.

“Ideally, you want someone who has local and provincial knowledge but is dispassionate in terms of political investment or any conflicts of interest… You also want someone of international standing from, for example, the U.K. or the U.S. or Australia,” Naylor said.

“Unless you have people who are at arm’s length, it’s very hard to get a clear and comprehensive review that doesn’t have a certain amount of bowing to political preferences and priorities of those commissioning the review.

University of Calgary assistant law professor Lorian Hardcastle also raised similar concerns, saying independent reviews often aren’t as critical as judicial or public inquiries.

“We saw that with the government’s first review into the first wave of COVID, where the review really wasn’t that critical,” Hardcastle told Rob Breakenridge on 770 CHQR on Aug. 18.

“When you pay a company to ‘independently review’ you, you are their customer and they want you back as a customer. I think the tendency there is to not be as critical.”

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Hardcastle also said the independent review has a political element that may skew the results and analyses.

“That’s why with a public inquiry, you often have a member of the judiciary or a former member of the judiciary who does have that legislated independence from the government,” Hardcastle said.

“The focus tends to be less on who was responsible for what and more on the public health order that was made and how it compares to other provinces.”

The upcoming United Conservative Party leadership election might also affect the outcome of the independent review.

“There is a risk that we may get a premier that takes a different approach and we’re going to be running all over the place and not get any straight answers,” Hardcastle said.

“But I do think if a premier, whoever it may be, calls a public inquiry, there would be pretty significant public pressure to see that through… I think there would be a lot of pressure for that person to carry on that public inquiry because of the attention they tend to attract.”

As of Aug. 26, the Alberta government has not made a formal announcement about an independent review of its COVID-19 pandemic response.

770 CHQR reached out to the Ministry of Health with a request for comment but did not receive one in time for publication. The story will be updated once one is received.