Proposed changes could give N.B. medical officers more power during health emergency

The New Brunswick government is proposing changes to its public Health Act that would see the chief medical officer of health and regional health officers have more power to halt the spread of an infectious disease or virus.

The amendments were read for a first time Tuesday in the legislature.

Health Minister Dorothy Shephard says, had they been in place prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the mandatory order through the Emergency Measures Act may not have been necessary for the entire two years.

“The Emergency Measures Act was used, therefore it falls under public safety, and they didn’t have the ability but to only target individuals. They couldn’t say to a building owner, ‘We need your building to isolate for a period of a week or two weeks or 10 days,’ or whatever that would be,” she said.

“Each individual in that building had to be made aware. So this will give a broader range, making it much more efficient for not only public health to deal with, but public safety.”

Shephard expects more recommendations on how the province can be better ready, should there be a next time, to come out of the auditor general’s review of how New Brunswick responded to the pandemic.

But she says they feel it’s OK to proceed with this legislation now, in the case of a sixth wave or “anything else.”

“With this legislation, a chief medical officer of health and the regional officers of health will be able to have a more targeted approach. So instead of locking down a zone or targeting a zone or a province, we’re going to be able to focus it a little more narrowly, to perhaps a building or a city block,” she said. “And knowing where those outbreaks are, we’ll be able to manage the spread. That’s the goal.”

The medical officer could also focus on a business or a sport organization — and not implicate an entire province or zone if they don’t have to.

Shephard did acknowledge there will be questions on giving this power to an unelected official, rather than elected ones.

She says there is a stipulation in the amendments that would require both the chief medical officer of health and the minister of health to sign off on a decision, “and the minister of health is not going to sign off without input from cabinet.”

New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador are the only provinces that do not have this type of legislation in place.

Lyle Skinner, a constitutional lawyer whose focus is on parliamentary and emergency management law, commends the move.

He says it clarifies a lot of the role held by the chief medical officer of health, but also allows “for direct political intervention by the minister of health for serious (group I) diseases like COVID.”

“This means that in any future pandemic wave, New Brunswick will no longer be the sole province relying on a state of emergency as the primary means to respond to COVID. Government actions will now occur under a clear legal framework,” he said.

The amendments will have to go through the scrutiny of committee, but New Brunswick's Liberal and Green Party leaders both expressed support for the proposed changes.