N.B.'s top doctor at bottom of COVID-19 decision-making hierarchy, auditor general finds

The Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health was at the bottom of New Brunswick's COVID-19 pandemic decision-making hierarchy, a new report by the auditor general shows, while third from the top, after cabinet and the cabinet committee on COVID-19, was a group that several MLAs say they knew nothing about.

The roles and responsibilities of executive committees were not always clearly defined or documented, and no records were maintained to support meetings of the "COVID core," Paul Martin said in his performance audit, presented Thursday to the legislature's standing committee on public accounts.

He described the COVID core as "the group of senior officials who supported the cabinet committee on COVID-19."

Tory MLA Trevor Holder said he didn't recall any such group and questioned what its purpose was.

Martin said, "a process was created whereby the Department of Health would bring forward advice to COVID core who would then review, challenge and provide strategic thought around the information."

Department of Health advice would then proceed to the cabinet committee on COVID-19 and on to cabinet, he said. The minister of Justice and Public Safety would then issue mandatory orders under the Emergency Measures Act "informed by advice from the Department of Health."

The provincial government made "difficult decisions, which significantly impacted the lives of New Brunswickers," such as restrictions on gatherings, mask mandates and closures of schools and business, Martin noted in his 99-page report.

Overall, the government reacted quickly to the COVID-19 pandemic with unprecedented measures aimed at saving lives, including the province's first state of emergency, he said.

But he criticized the government's level of preparedness. For example, New Brunswick did not have an updated pandemic plan, based on lessons learned from the H1N1 flu experience, he said.

He also found problems with the government's decision-making process, record keeping and communications.

"We found six instances out of 14 sampled restrictions in mandatory orders where public health measures were supported by verbal updates only," the report says.

One mandatory order from June 2020, that everyone who enters any building open to the general public must wear a face mask covering their mouth and nose, was revised the next day, "after decision-makers asserted that it did not reflect the intended decision."

Holder said this "pointed out a significant gap."

"That wasn't leaving out a comma or a colon somewhere. That was a pretty significant oversight that changes what cabinet actually decided. That's a pretty big breakdown."