As COVID-19 emergency fades, Thunder Bay officials begin post-mortem on pandemic response

As COVID-19 doesn't seem like the emergency it once was, officials with the City of Thunder Bay are debriefing and looking for feedback on how it responded to the global pandemic. 

The city has launched an online survey and will host in-person focus groups next month.

"It's really about continuous improvement for us," said fire Chief Greg Hankkio, also a member of the city's pandemic debrief committee. "We want to hear back from the public, we want to hear back from our staff, we want to hear back from those that were involved with the response or emergency response team, just to really get an objective view on how, as a municipality, we did."

The survey will be available until Oct. 31 on the Get Involved Thunder Bay website. People can also sign up for focus group sessions there.

Responses will be compiled into a report that Hankkio said will help inform the city's response to future emergencies.

"We will look at the feedback that we got, and where appropriate, we'll make changes to our emergency plan as an example, or our emergency response team structure, should we need to continue on dealing with the pandemic or another emergency," he said.

"It's really looking at the information we get back, how it impacts the public, our employees, and then really trying to make improvements going forward."

While health officials caution there could be recurring waves of COVID-19, especially as Canadians head indoors for the fall and winter months, most restrictions have lifted and many have resumed their normal lives. It's prompted other levels of government to consider whether it's time to begin a post-mortem on the pandemic response. 

This fall, MPs in the House of Commons will consider at least one proposal to launch a review of the national pandemic response. 

In Thunder Bay, former mayor Bill Mauro, who is not running for re-election, previously said he was proud of the city's early response to COVID-19.

Early conversations around how to best prepare for the global pandemic began in January, he said, months before it dominated nearly all aspects of life in the spring of 2020. 

"Certainly as mayor, the four years has unfortunately been dominated by COVID. It dominated our energy and dominated our time for at least two of the four years," he said. "I got involved very early, even before the province made the declaration of an emergency I met with the local officer of heath, I dropped in on her to find out what I needed to do to prepare the city.

"I think we managed the COVID situation pretty well from a service level and a financial level," he said.