People walk by the B.C. Legislature in Victoria on Wednesday, June 10, 2020. The provincial government effectively took over management of care homes in the province where there were COVID-19 outbreaks.CHAD HIPOLITO/The Canadian Press
Essential-service providers in British Columbia may be granted protection from civil lawsuits related to COVID-19 exposure under new legislation introduced by the provincial government. But long-term care homes, where more than half of the province’s deaths due to COVID-19 had taken place, are unlikely to be offered such protection, Attorney-General David Eby said Monday.
The COVID-19 Related Measures Act, introduced Monday by Mr. Eby, allows for the creation of regulations that provide protections from civil liability – so long as those who seek protection have operated “responsibly and in accordance with public health orders and guidelines,” the Attorney-General said.
Emergency orders are already in place that provide legal immunity for child-care operators, and amateur sport organizations.
“This [new legislation] will create power to add additional groups if there are issues – concerns that they might get sued for COVID exposure if they restarted, and that is stopping them from reopening. So we could immunize them, or protect them, from being sued by adding them to this regulation,” Mr. Eby said in an interview.
Seniors in care homes have proved to be exceptionally vulnerable to COVID-19, but the scale of the deaths in British Columbia is nowhere near that in Ontario and Quebec, where thousands of seniors in care homes have died from COVID-19, the disease cause by the coronavirus.
The Ontario government is also looking at granting immunity from civil lawsuits related to COVID-19 to those who acted in good faith, a proposal that has been decried by families of people who have died in long-term care facilities in that province.
A military report into five of Ontario’s long-term care homes amid the pandemic brought to light abuse and neglect. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has said any legal immunity his province offers will not prevent “bad actors” from being held accountable.
Mr. Eby said he is unlikely to open the door to offering immunity to the long-term care sector at all. “It’s possible after we pass this legislation, we might hear from operators of long-term care facilities, asking for that kind of [immunity]. That’s the group that I can think that might be asking for it and might actually not get it,” Mr. Eby said. “There are already threats of class actions in Ontario and in many parts of the United States. We haven’t included them and we probably won’t.”
In B.C., 116 residents in long-term care homes have died from COVID-19, out of a total of 169 COVID-19 deaths across the province. The provincial government effectively took over management of care homes where there were outbreaks, and implemented a “single site” rule so that care workers could not work in more than one facility. The province is topping up wages so that care-home workers won’t lose income under the new policy.
Monday was the first sitting of the B.C. Legislature since an extraordinary one-day session in March when when legislators unanimously approved a $5-billion COVID-19 response package.
The summer session is unlike any regular session in the legislature’s history, with a majority of MLAs participating through video conferencing.
Unlike the brief sitting in March, this session began with a more familiar partisan tone. The minority NDP government of Premier John Horgan has enjoyed remarkable support for its COVID-19 response measures, which have been led by the Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, but now his government faces mounting criticism of its handling of the province’s economic recovery.
Liberal Opposition Leader Andrew Wilkinson, who is a medical doctor, said the health measures designed to combat the virus are non-partisan, but the government’s restart plan is not.
“Public health is a public interest; we all need to work together on that,” he said in an interview. “But we are in the middle of the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression, and we now see the NDP have no economic plan for recovery.”
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Justine Hunter