COVID-19 related real property activities: Standing Committee on Health—April 15, 2020
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Response to COVID-19
In this section
Surge preparedness
Issue
Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) is preparing to support requests from departments, agencies, provinces, municipalities and non-profit organizations for additional accommodation space required for COVID-19 related activities or emergencies.
Key messages
- PSPC is leveraging its real property expertise and holdings to ensure Canada has access to facilities and accommodation for a range of eventualitiesIn particular, PSPC is proactively looking at how best to accommodate temporary hospitals as well as provide housing for vulnerable populations to allow for self-isolation and quarantine
- Depending on what is needed in a given situation, the department will determine whether requirements can be fulfilled by leveraging government assets or private sector options
Background
To ensure preparedness, PSPC has developed a web map application allowing end users to locate:
- federal crown owned buildings
- lease warehouses and housing (residences)
- hospitals
- homeless shelters
- universities and colleges
- COVID-19 testing centers (nationwide by province)
- hotels
Current activities
Over the past weeks, PSPC has supported ad-hoc requests, from various jurisdictions to provide temporary lodging to vulnerable people.
Below is a summary of lodging and space requests.
Northwest Territories
In response to the Northwest Territories Government (GNWT) request to provide shelter in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories (NT) as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, PSPC, in collaboration with Crown Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada temporarily transferred a 36-unit vacant residential apartment building to the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation to enable members of the community’s homeless population to self-isolate. These residential housing units are made available to the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation at no cost to support and protect these vulnerable members of the community.
Similarly, PSPC is currently working with GNWT to make 4 vacant housing units in Hay River, and 2 vacant housing units in Norman Wells, available for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation to house the homeless or other vulnerable populations. GNWT could potentially request access to 60 additional vacant housing units for a similar purpose in the communities of Fort Simpson, Fort Smith, Hay River, Inuvik, Norman Wells and Yellowknife, NT.
Remote Indigenous communities in Alberta and Saskatchewan
Public Services and Procurement Canada is working closely with Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) to ensure that needs identified for Indigenous Peoples and communities are identified and addressed. For example, PSPC has contracted for temporary shelters in preparation for COVID-19 outbreak in remote Indigenous communities in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
City of Montreal
The City of Montreal made a request to PSPC to make use of the former YMCA facility that located at the Guy-Favreau building to temporarily house homeless people that had to be relocated from the former Royal-Victoria hospital.
On March 20, 2020, PSPC entered-into a lease with the City of Montreal for a period of one month with an option to renew for an additional month to provide shelter for at-risk vulnerable populations including the homeless. On April 9, the City of Montreal asked for a renewal on a monthly basis, until approximately end of August.
Bon Courage charitable organization
This charitable organization has seen the number of families requiring support quadruple over the last weeks; from 50 to more than 200 families. This organization was looking for a bigger facility that would meet its needs while providing the ability to enforce social distancing between volunteers.
Given that the former headquarter facility for the National Film Board has been vacant since last fall, the Bon Courage organization reached out to PSPC to enquire about making use of facility to facilitate food distribution. The department is planning to sign a lease agreement with the Bon Courage organization by April 14, 2020. The agreement will be renewed on a monthly basis until approximately end of August.
Mobile units
The department has also been working with National Defence, Indigenous Services Canada and others to source up to 10 easily storable and transportable respiratory care units. These would be intended for use by provincial and territorial public health authorities to treat acute respiratory disease and distress. The competition for these units closed April 6.
Each unit would provide a 100-bed facility, including 20 intensive care unit (ICU) beds, that could be set up in any community facility (for example arena or convention centre) where it could tap into local utilities. It could also operate independently in austere conditions with its own generators. This self-sufficiency makes the mobile care units extremely flexible, and they can be deployed where the need is greatest.
Considerations
To date, PSPC has been able to leverage its own inventory to meet the needs and provided access to each jurisdiction at no additional cost. Depending on the needs and volume of the demand for lodging, PSPC may need to turn to the private sector (including universities and colleges) to secure space. A source of fund will be needed to enable PSPC to secure lodging solutions and ancillary services (food, security, etc).
Next steps
Public Services and Procurement Canada will continue its engagement with federal and community stakeholders to gain an understanding of possible lodging needs for vulnerable populations and put in place solutions as needed.
Keeping buildings safe amidst the COVID-19 pandemic
Issue
With global efforts focused on the containment of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak and the prevention of further spread, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) has implemented measures in the national real property portfolio to aid in these efforts.
Key messages
- PSPC is committed to providing its clients with healthy and productive work environments
- We continue to liaise with Health Canada to determine appropriate cleaning and maintenance protocols for our buildings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Should additional measures be recommended, PSPC is ready to implement them
Background
Although occupancy levels are currently reduced, PSPC buildings remain operational and all mandatory maintenance and life safety system testing continue on our regular schedule ensuring that essential government functions can be delivered in a safe environment. Additional measures taken include:
- Amendment to national cleaning specifications to augment cleaning/disinfection of high-touch points to twice daily—cleaning contractor capacity remains adequate to fulfill this new demand. Should resource constraints arise, PSPC will work with client departments to reprioritize the number of serviceable locations
- Incident reporting and specialized disinfection protocols are in place for suspected and confirmed cases of COVID-19—as of April 10, 2020, PSPC has actioned 394 requests for specialized disinfection within 265 buildings, affecting 53 departments nationally
- Hand sanitizer stations are being installed at building entrances
- Direction has been provided to reinforce maintenance measures taken to operate buildings in a reduced occupancy state (for example, management of building water systems)
- Posters have been placed in elevators, washrooms and common areas to raise awareness of proper handwashing practices and factual information on COVID-19
- Dissemination of various communiques to clients and contractors promoting personal protective practices as well as targeted messaging to the cleaning community to emphasize the need for additional diligence in cleaning/disinfecting methods
- Support for client community enhanced service requirements (for example, cleaning/disinfection for shared work environments, installation of plexiglass shields in border service interfaces)
- Ongoing engagement with service providers and industry (BGIS and the National Building Owners and Managers Association) will ensure that PSPC measures remain current with evolving best practices
Next steps
While social-distancing and telework provisions are reducing general occupancy rates in our buildings at this time, we recognize that, in the future, occupancy levels will begin to increase.
In anticipation of this, PSPC is developing procedures to ensure healthy and productive work environments for the eventual return to full occupancy in our buildings. Examples include reinforcing protocols with client departments on social distancing awareness in high traffic areas, responding to special cleaning requests, ensuring adequate performance of water and ventilation systems in line with up to date industry recommendations, and ensuring elevators and other alternative circulation pathways (stairwells) are well serviced.
Engineering assets
Current status
For all Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) engineering assets, including bridges, dams, Alaska Highway, and Esquimalt Graving Dock, the following measures have been implemented:
- reduction of onsite staff to keep operations going following social distancing guidelines as much as possible
- daily monitoring of staff health (anyone with cold or flu-like symptoms are asked to stay home)
- extra cleaning and disinfection services for the office
- hand liquid sanitizer and Lysol wipes are provided for staff and careful monitoring of regional health issues
So far, there is enough staff to maintain services at all sites requiring operators, for example, dams, Burlington Lift Bridge, Lasalle-Causeway, Esquimalt Graving Dock, and Alaska Highway.
We are monitoring the situation very closely and working with stakeholders on contingency plans.
Construction service maintenance and health and safety of workers
Current status
- The health and safety of Canadians is the Government of Canada’s number one priority. On our worksites, we are communicating regularly with our industry partners to ensure that work is carried out in a way that respects the advice of public health officials and aligns with provincial and territorial government direction
- PSPC has aligned with provincial health and safety measures for construction sites
- Construction work in Quebec has shut down, and we have aligned with the approach taken by the Ontario government, work is continuing for critical health and safety infrastructure, major public institutions, and research and security installations
- We continue to work with our industry partners, and each individual provinces and territories, based on their guidelines, to ensure that proper health and safety protocols are in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on construction sites
Parliamentary Precinct
- In the Parliamentary Precinct, construction activities are continuing on the Centre Block and the East Block, as well as all maintenance projects needed to ensure health of safety in all buildings. This approach is aligned with the Government of Ontario’s direction and continued construction on key public infrastructure, such as provincial courts
- Projects not aligned with provincial directives have paused. Approximately 85 projects in the precinct have therefore been temporarily demobilized. This includes all projects taking place in occupied spaces, interior fit-ups and building improvements
- Health and safety is our number one consideration. We worked directly with industry to develop strict health and safety protocols to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on construction sites across Canada, and continue to do so to ensure workers feel
- The Centre Block is a good illustration of how robust protocols to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 transfer can be put in place on a construction site. Its size and the types of work undertaken on it (for example, asbestos abatement and excavation), facilitate appropriate social distancing and compartmentalization of the work site
- PSPC will continue to monitor the situation to ensure that any decision regarding construction sites respects the advice of public health officials
- The Canadian Construction Association has voiced its support for keeping federal construction sites open and their workforce employed on project sites that can meet a high standard of health and safety measures
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