Question Period Note: OAG Audit Report on the Enforcement of Quarantine and COVID-19 Testing Orders

The Office of the Auditor General is tabling the Audit of Enforcement of Quarantine and COVID-19 Testing Orders report on December 9, 2021.

Key Messages
• Protecting the health and safety of Canadians is the Government of Canada’s top priority.
• The Public Health Agency of Canada accepts the two recommendations from the Office of the Auditor General from this audit. Work is already underway to address them.
• The Agency appreciates the Auditor General’s recognition of the significant work that has been undertaken and continues to evolve to help meet the need for testing and quarantine compliance.
• The Agency will continue to consider findings and recommendations from this audit report—along with other audits, evaluations and further lessons learned from the response to COVID-19—to inform planning and better position Canada to respond to future global health events.
• The Agency’s approach to border measures, like its guidance and advice, has evolved during the pandemic and will continue to be informed by the latest available scientific evidence, epidemiology and expert opinion, which can change as new information becomes available. We have seen this most recently in the changing border measures we have introduced to respond to the evidence around the Omicron variant of concern.
If pressed
• The Agency is working on improving its automated tracking and data quality so it can better follow up with travellers who are subject to border measures, and is implementing GBA+ considerations to mitigate any potential adverse impacts of existing and future programs on diverse and vulnerable groups.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has directed the implementation of border restrictions and border control measures to help prevent travellers from spreading the virus that causes COVID-19 in Canada.
On March 25, 2020, the first series of emergency orders imposing a nationwide mandatory quarantine under the Quarantine Act came into effect.
This audit follows up on some of the findings of the Audit of Pandemic Preparedness, Surveillance, and Border Control Measures, which covered the period from January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2020, and which was tabled on March 25, 2021.

The objective of this audit was to determine whether PHAC implemented testing and quarantine requirements for incoming travellers to limit the introduction and spread of the COVID‑19 virus and its variants in Canada.
The Office of the Auditor General made two recommendations to the Agency:
• That the Agency improve its enforcement of emergency orders imposed to limit the spread of COVID-19 by:
• improving its automated tracking and data quality so it can better follow up with travellers who are subject to border measures
• implementing GBA+ considerations to mitigate any potential adverse impacts of existing and future programs on diverse and vulnerable groups.
• That the Agency should:
• better use information on the outcomes of its referral for follow-up, to assess whether its enforcement approach is working to limit the introduction of COVID-19 and its variants.
• Improve its capability to achieve a consistent enforcement approach to border measures nationwide, including exploring other tools that could be used in all Canadian jurisdictions.
Work is already underway to address these recommendations.
The agency plans to implement the following actions to address the recommendations from this audit:
• It will review its IT systems and broad requirements to improve data and address issues related to the consistency and quality of data used for matching test results to traveller records.
• It will improve and streamline methods for assessing data quality internally.
• It will identify requirements for an automated tracking process as border measures evolve.
• It will provide specialized training on gender and diversity considerations to frontline staff at the border and at designated quarantine facilities, including training on bias (launched in September 2021), security awareness and de escalation.
• It will update its GBA+ analysis and incorporate results in the implementation of future border measures.
• It will renew its efforts (started in November 2021) to engage law enforcement partners with a particular focus on seeking information regarding referral outcomes for priority cases and utilize this information in its risk-based approach to compliance and enforcement.
• It will assess additional mechanisms to enforce the Quarantine Act more consistently nationally.
• It will continue to engage with its provincial and territorial counterparts to ensure maximum collaboration in following up with travellers, particularly those who have tested positive or are in quarantine.

Key Facts
• The Audit of Enforcement of Quarantine and COVID-19 Testing Orders, which covered the period from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, focused on whether the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) improved its administration of mandatory orders to limit the introduction of the COVID-19 virus and its variants in Canada.
• It also focused on whether PHAC implemented and enforced additional border measures introduced in early 2021 (such as COVID-19 testing for travellers entering Canada and quarantine of air travellers at government-authorized hotels pending the results of their on-arrival COVID-19 tests.)
• This audit follows the Audit of Pandemic Preparedness, Surveillance, and Border Control Measures which was tabled on March 25, 2021.