Liberal Health Minister Patty Hajdu claimed yesterday that she was fully briefed on COVID-19 as early as December 2019, three months before making policy changes.
You can watch Minister Hajdu's statement here.
My colleague Michelle Rempel Garner, the Shadow Minister for Health, issued the statement below following Liberal Minister Hajdu's revelation:
“Yesterday, Trudeau’s Health Minister claimed that she was fully briefed on COVID-19 in December and that the Liberals knew the risk that it posed to Canadians.
“If the Health Minister knew and was fully briefed, Canadians who lost family members want to know: why did she do nothing? Business owners who had to close down their shops, some permanently, want to know: why did she do nothing? If Minister Hajdu hadn’t waited until March to make policy changes, would lives have been saved and would workers still have jobs?
“A choice was made, and it changed and ended lives. Minister Hajdu was fully briefed. But she didn’t advise her colleagues to close our borders. Minister Hajdu was fully briefed. But she didn’t recommend a state of emergency. Minister Hajdu was fully briefed. But she didn’t advise Canadians to wear masks or implement strict traveller screening. If action had been taken three months earlier, would things be different? Minister Hajdu has demonstrated dangerous incompetence. So why is she still in charge of Canadians’ health and safety?
“At a time when parents are trusting the government to manage COVID-19 as they send their kids back to school, the Trudeau government still has no plan to deal with a second wave other than another costly economic shutdown. This is unacceptable. The Trudeau government has a track record of being slow to react to this pandemic. They shut down our public health early warning system, they allowed millions of masks to be thrown away and not replaced, they dragged their feet on closing our borders, they gave conflicting advice on wearing a mask, and they still have no real plan to deal with a second wave."