Thread by @SkinnerLyle

Now let's look at what the government could do using the Public Health Act. 1st is closing down businesses and also placing capacity restrictions. In fact they did exactly that when the original "modern" public Health Act was passed in 1918 to address the Spanish Flu. #nbpoli

The powers under the Public Health Act re notifiable diseases in humans are divided into two areas. Medical Officers of Health have powers (currently being used) & Cabinet has a more general power to make regulations to control of covid or the vaccination of residents"

I am not going to speculate exactly what form this could take as cabinet can make formal regulations "regulations respecting covid-19" to clarify powers of the Chief Medical Officer of Health or there could be a more or subsidiary policy instrument like an Order

Any medical officer of Health can issue an order to do several powers re isolation. However the extent isn't fully defined but look at the triggering provision "requirements necessary to prevent, decrease or eliminate the risk to health presented by the notifiable disease

Mask wearing mandate is also allowed as it is clearly linked to Public Health to reduce transmission. It doesn't make sense that Public Health has the power to close businesses but not impose less severe measures like indoor mask wearing.

Any vaccination certificate (not a passport) program would likely be better implementated by Cabinet given the different policy interactions where it has incidental impacts on other aspects of society and governance. Better as a stand alone reg for clarity

Whether it falls under an indirect means to encourage the vaccination of residents or to control covid-19, one policy flag is cabinet needs to look at the policy rationale & considers when it won't be needed. I.E if vaccination targets are reached then policy is no longer needed

Where things get interesting are the controls at the borders (technically boundaries) AG Flemming is quite clear that preventing people from entering NB is unlawful. "there is no legal authority whatsoever to tell Canadians that they cannot travel in
Canada."

Since the pandemic began I have looked at the interprovincial quarantine (self isolation) power and what level of government has that power. At best it appears to be concurrent as the feds did enact federal quarantine over PEI to deal with Cholera / Smallpox outbreaks from NB

Again the historical precedents are really really interesting but also complicated. So for this thread lets just assume provinces have jurisdiction re interprovincial quarantine.

So could NB put up a Quarantine requirement for all people entering NB under the Public Health Act? The answer is a qualified yes. They cannot deny entry if you simply want to enter for any reason but can order to quarantine. But a general quarantine requirement is not feasible

For all intents and purposes the idea of separating NB residents / Atlantic Canadians / and those from the other parts of the Country no longer makes sense given the stage of Covid. There still has to be a justification for the restrictions

A more targeted approach would be quarantine (self isolation) for individuals who are currently unvaccinated with exceptions. It may not be popular for some but it is better than a general isolation order. The issue becomes enforcement & notice (public safety doesn't have lead)

Having people at interprovincial checkpoints is very resource intensive. There are more ways to enter NB than the other Maritime Provinces. Does NB have the capacity to do it, does it need to? Quebec does not have isolation restrictions but a vaccination certificate program