Right now, the top story, or perhaps, the only story, people are discussing is the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The science, case numbers, job losses, economic costs, quarantine measures, and daily life in this “new normal” are the subject of countless news articles, videos, chat shows and even memes. Its everywhere. Its serious. It’s also a bit exhausting. People are eating it up but also looking to consume something totally different. No wonder Tiger King is the top show on Netflix right now.
Nevertheless, I thought it would be appropriate to write something related to it. But instead of discussing the COVID-19 emergency specifically, I want to introduce you to a government program that dates back almost 70 years and was made for such largescale emergencies: Canada’s National Emergency Strategic Stockpile.
Frozen Origins
Its 1952. The Cold War is heating up and the Soviet Union has an extensive nuclear weapons program. In Canada, the fear of a potential nuclear attack in the future is alarming. Soviet rockets could travel across the barren Arctic Circle to strike Canada’s highly populated southern regions. Later, the NORAD missile defense system would be developed to prevent this situation. But in 1952, it was known that any nuclear attack would cripple the infrastructure surrounding our major cities.
If such an attack occurred, the significant wait times in manufacturing and the limited transportation options meant that emergency supplies would be slow to get where they were desperately needed. To address this, a system of warehouses was strategically located across Canada. They mostly stored health care supplies but also included things like beds, blankets and electrical generators. Supplies could be deployed where needed within 24 hours. Our American neighbours also developed a similar strategic stockpile. The hope was that the stockpile would never have to be used. In the words of President Eisenhower: “hope for the best, plan for the worst.”
Peacetime Rethink
The national stockpile started as part of the overall civil defense plan for responding to Soviet threats. In 1965, the use of the stockpile was opened for any peacetime emergency, and as the wartime threats decreased, the program was changed to focus on responding to natural disasters such as forest fires and floods.
Since 9/11, most of the stocked supplies are pharmaceuticals. The threat of terrorist attacks featuring chemical, biological, or radioactive compounds stressed the need for easy large-scale access to antibiotics, antivirals, and numerous chemical antidotes. Stockpiles of vaccines for smallpox, botulism and anthrax are included, and many of these antidotes are the result of Canada’s Cold War biological weapons research programs. Indeed, if a smallpox epidemic were to strike Canada, such as through a bio-terrorist event, the vaccine stockpiles could be quickly administered to the public.
Learning from the 2003 SARS crisis, the program also stockpiles “pandemic response supplies” such as syringes, ventilators, oxygen supply equipment, PPE such as gloves and masks, pillows, bandages, and operating room tables. Sadly, but proactively, the emergency supplies also include large numbers of body bags.
A System of Warehouses
Today, Canada’s National Emergency Strategic Stockpile is made up of 11 warehouses scattered across the country. Two of these are larger depots in the Ottawa area. They include 66% of all the supplies, including all those that expire and require regular replacement. There are also approximately 1300 pre-positioned sites at locations determined by the provinces and territories. You can see a description of the stockpile’s contents here.
The system is meant to address threats posed by emerging and re-emerging diseases; the increasing severity of natural disasters due to climate change; and exposure of the public to chemical, biological or nuclear attacks. In the past 25 years, almost half of stockpile uses were due to extreme weather events, such as floods and ice storms.
The provinces and territories can access the stockpile upon request to the federal government. Typically, a local emergency overwhelms a municipality which then contacts the provincial authorities for additional resources. If they cannot supply, they request further help from the national stockpile. Recent uses of the stockpile occurred during the 2009 flu outbreak, Alberta floods (2013), Alberta wildfires (2016), the resettling of Syrian refugees (2015), and the Tuberculosis outbreak in northern Quebec (2018). Additionally, supplies were relocated in advance of the Vancouver Olympics and deployed internationally to aid in humanitarian crises.
Future Updates
The coronavirus pandemic has shown the need to have adequate amounts of medical supplies and equipment readily available and easily transportable. Currently, the shortages of some supplies show two things. One, that the magnitude of the current pandemic is greater than what people expected future emergencies would look like. Two, the stockpile must be enhanced going forward, to be prepared for similar emergencies.
Regular audits of the stockpile after past major emergencies provided recommendations for improvement. For example, one deals with the mix of stockpiled supplies and suggests focusing more on medical supplies and thus reducing the social service supplies such as blankets. It argues that the antidotes and medical equipment are more difficult to procure and thus more important to store. This is now especially apparent with the demand for ventilators for coronavirus patients. The National Emergency Strategic Stockpile is an important tool in preparing for future emergencies. However, during the Cold War it was only a component of the larger national defense plan. Similarly, for coronavirus and any future pandemics or biological emergencies, it must be part of larger comprehensive preparations. These plans must be improved and followed by successive governments.
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