Auditor’s weak criticism missed target
Lysyk’s report one-dimensional in its approach
Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk’s new report on Ontario’s pandemic response doesn’t exactly give the provincial government top marks for the swiftness and precision of its reaction. This will come as no news to anyone living in Ontario.
What’s more surprising about Wednesday’s report is the weakness of the usually astute auditor general’s critique. She takes a one- dimensional view of the pandemic, diving deep, deep into the bureaucratic weeds to argue about the appropriate roles for the many parts of the vast health bureaucracy. Hey, shouldn’t Public Health Ontario have done some of the things that were done by Ontario Health? Really, who cares?
A key observation is that the province’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. David Williams, should have stepped up and taken charge of the pandemic response. The group that believes David Williams was the guy to run the pandemic fight is so small that it doesn’t even include David Williams.
Williams told the auditor he did not want to issue orders without consulting with others, including the deputy minister of health and the health command table. Williams could have acted unilaterally, but instead he chose to consult with his boss and the panel of experts put together to advise him. It’s difficult to see the problem there.
A case can be made that Williams should be replaced by a more visibly competent individual, but Lysyk is unique in saying he should have been asked to do more. In somewhat limiting his role, Premier Doug Ford wasn’t keeping a superstar on the bench.
One suspects that Williams is also astute enough to realize his own limitations. Nothing about his appearance, demeanour or ability to communicate screams leadership. Williams is due to retire in February, but Ford wants to extend his term to next September, saying “I just do not ever believe in changing a dance partner in the middle of a dance, especially when he’s an incredible dancer, like Dr. Williams.”
Williams might be an incredible dancer, but there is no doubt that Ford is the partner who leads. That’s exactly as it should be. While complaining that the pandemic wasn’t left in the hands of Williams and other public health officials, Lysyk notes that the whole pandemic response is ultimately the responsibility of the health minister and the rest of cabinet. That simple fact undermines her contention about the chief medical officer not doing enough.
She makes a similar point about local medical officers of health. They weren’t the leaders on the various advisory committees, Lysyk says. OK, but they are the leaders in their own communities where it counts. Medical officers of health have the power to impose restrictions beyond what the province demands, and they’ve used it. They don’t report to Williams or the province, either, but to their local boards of health.
Lysyk makes a better point when she wonders why the so- called health command table had 90 people participating, and that doesn’t include the 25 subtables that report to the command table. Sadly, she offers no insight into why everyone now calls these committees tables.
Lysyk does find some examples where “expert” advice was not followed by the government. One was the government’s decision to test asymptomatic people throughout the summer. Many will remember that the public was clamouring for most testing, with some people even saying everyone should be tested.
That never made any sense, but the government had the testing capacity, so it used it. Notably, the testing of asymptomatic people showed that no more than 0.2 per cent of them actually had COVID. Remember all those stories of vast armies of asymptomatic spreaders. Not so, apparently.
The auditor was also unimpressed by a decision to require all visitors to longterm care to confirm they had received a negative COVID test. Given what was happening in Ontario care homes that seemed, and still seems, like a modest precaution.
Lysyk also fails to acknowledge that the pandemic is quite different in different parts of Ontario and requires responses appropriate to local conditions. She fusses that the province should have overridden local public health officers to force everyone to wear masks far earlier “to ensure consistency.”
She also wanted a consistent response on foreign farm workers, perhaps not noticing that farm work is not predominant in many parts of the province.
One has to wonder why Bonnie Lysyk felt compelled to offer such a weak analysis of the pandemic response so far.
It’s not like the government is short of critics and she has no particular expertise in the field. Her report won’t have much impact, nor should it.