Paying couriers to travel for COVID tests about equity, health minister says
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/02/2022 (1347 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
OTTAWA — The federal government has no qualms about paying $1,000 to pick up a single COVID-19 PCR test swab in rural Manitoba, arguing it’s a matter of equitable service.
“Everyone has a right to receive the same quality of services; it’s the foundation of the (entire) health-care agenda,” Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said Friday, in response to questions from the Free Press.
“That’s for (contracted companies) to decide the way in which that has to be done.”
Over the past month, a handful of Manitobans have stepped forward to question a program that randomly selects Canadians returning home from the United States by land for a take-home COVID-19 test.
Those selected swab their own noses during a supervised video call, and have the samples sent to a private lab such as Dynacare or LifeLabs, via courier.
People in rural areas of Manitoba’s parkland region, who lack access to Purolator or FedEx, have had couriers or even taxis from Winnipeg show up.
That has meant 10-hour return trips; a metered Unicity cab ride from Winnipeg likely cost around $1,075.
The federal government has refused to divulge how much it pays for the pickup-and-delivery trips.
Conservative MP Dan Mazier (Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa) has called the program a massive waste of funds, given that the program is for people who already had a PCR test 48 hours before reaching the border and experience no symptoms.
But Duclos had no problem with the expense.
“We have, obviously, a big country, where people live in very different places and sometimes quite far away from urban centres,” he said Friday.
“Our suppliers have been told that they need to do what is needed, to provide everyone with the level of service that they need and deserve.”
dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca