No choice but scramble on COVID-19: AG

The federal auditor general says the government moved as fast as it could to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, but had no other choice because it wasn't prepared for one in the first place.

Auditor general Karen Hogan's report on the government's public health response found the Public Health Agency of Canada spent years letting elements of pandemic preparedness slide and COVID-19 left it scrambling.

She also found the government's financial support programs rolled out well, but now extensive efforts will be needed to ensure the money went where it was supposed to.

Hogan says Canadians will never know whether things could have been different, but the pandemic has made it clear: the government cannot just ignore long-standing problem, because they'll never go away.

She says among those issues is weakness in pan-Canadian co-ordination.

She's now calling for an independent review to get the country as a whole on better footing for the next national emergency.

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