O'Toole accuses Trudeau of 'normalizing lockdowns' by failing to provide enough rapid tests, PPE

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole today blamed the return of pandemic lockdowns across the country on what he called the federal government's failure to provide adequate supplies of rapid tests and personal protective equipment.

"The federal government has not delivered on key tools to help Canadians manage the risks of a pandemic in a population that is now largely fully vaccinated," O'Toole told a press conference.

"In fact, the action and inaction by the Trudeau government is normalizing lockdowns and restrictions as the primary tool to fight the latest COVID-19 variant."

The Conservative leader said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised Canadians at the outset of the pandemic nearly two years ago that he would ensure adequate supplies of critical equipment to fight the pandemic.

Despite a series of early supply shortages of personal protective equipment such as masks and face shields, lessons have not been learned, he added.

The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU), representing 200,000 nurses and student nurses across the country, said Thursday that many front line health care workers still haven't been provided with a "fit-tested" N95 mask. 

"It's maddening that we are still fighting for N95s at this stage of the pandemic," CFNU president Linda Silas said in a media statement. "Nurses are still going into work not knowing whether they'll be denied the PPE they need to stay safe, the PPE they need to keep their patients safe.

"Nurses don't come to work to be martyrs. They come to work to care for patients. Governments can and must provide them with the tools and equipment they need to care for patients while also caring for themselves."

O'Toole said he will take steps to reconvene the House of Commons health committee to discuss shortages of PPE and rapid tests.

Earlier this week, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said the federal government delivered 85 million rapid tests to the provinces and territories in the months leading up to December and pushed out another 35 million tests to the regions last month.

The federal government said it is shipping an additional 140 million rapid tests to the provinces and territories this month.

The push for rapid tests comes as many regions scale back polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing — the gold standard of COVID testing — due to an inability to keep up with the record number of new cases brought on by the Omricon variant.

PCR tests are mostly offered through assessment centres, hospitals and other health care settings and require lab analysis, while rapid tests can be done in just a few minutes from home. 

The situation has changed dramatically since early last year, when CBC News reported that millions of rapid tests were sitting unused and gathering dust in provincial storerooms.