Finger-pointing over costly rural COVID tests

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This article was published 31/01/2022 (1018 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The federal government has refused to divulge how much it pays Dynacare, a private lab, to have couriers drive for hours to locations in rural Manitoba to collect COVID-19 test swabs.

Instead, the Public Health Agency of Canada and Dynacare each insist the other is in charge of rules that govern the coronavirus border surveillance program.

Under the program, border guards give take-home tests to randomly selected people when they cross into Canada from the United States at a land crossing. People who are chosen must perform the tests during a video call and have their samples collected by a contracted lab. In Manitoba, that’s Dynacare.

Last week, the Free Press interviewed Curtis Cook of Swan River, located 500 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg. He was stunned when the courier who collected his sample disclosed that he’d driven from Winnipeg just to get the swabs from Cook and his wife — that’s a 1,000-kilometre return trip that takes 10 hours.

“When I see the blatant misuse of taxpayers’ dollars in this way, it just angers me,” Cook said last week, wondering how many of these journeys have been billed to taxpayers.

Dynacare told the Free Press to direct its questions to the federal government.

“As a service provider for the Public Health Agency of Canada, questions related to the scope of our work would best be directed directly to the agency’s communications team,” spokesman Mark Bernhardt wrote.

On Monday, the federal agency said it would respond Tuesday. But its statement dodged questions such as how many of these long-distance trips Ottawa has paid for, and whether it’s a prudent use of taxpayer funds to have a courier drive 10 hours to collect two lab samples.

“The Public Health Agency of Canada has put contracts in place for a certain number of tests with each testing provider,” wrote spokesman André Gagnon.

“It is the testing provider who determines, and co-ordinates, the method of shipping to their laboratories for these virtually observed test samples, within the area that a given laboratory services.”

The local Conservative MP, Dan Mazier, has called for a review of the program, arguing it has little value, and doesn’t meet the needs of rural residents.

The program only applies to vaccinated, asymptomatic people who had had a PCR test done before reaching the border, and they are asked to avoid vulnerable settings as they await results, but can otherwise go about their day normally.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca