Manitoba outlines COVID-19 vaccine task force structure, but names only 2 of more than 70 members

Manitoba government officials presented the governance structure of the COVID-19 vaccine implementation task force during a technical briefing Tuesday afternoon but aside from identifying the task force's co-leads, no other key memberswere specifically named.

"We know that there have been many questions with regards to the structure of the task force, so we wanted to give an opportunity to present some information about how the task force is set up and how we do what we do," said one of the senior government officials who spokeon background during Tuesday's briefing.

Physicians and other health experts have raisedconcerns recently about a lack of transparency with the task force in charge of Manitoba'simmunization program.In an opinion piece for CBC Manitoba, Dr. Jillian Horton said the factthe publicdoesn't know who is actually in charge of makingdecisionsmay erode public trust.

The presentation delivered to reportersat Tuesday's technical briefing showsthe task force's hierarchy of command andthe number of people involved, andexplainsthe roles and operations of the task force anditssubgroups.

More than 70public servants from various provincial ministries and workers from Crown corporationsare assigned to the vaccine task force. There are over 1,700 other people in place to "support the immunization campaign," the presentation says, including 1,100 new hires in the province's five health regions, and 600 assigned from regional health authorities.

Those workers fall into one ofeight teams, such as planning, logistics, orworkforce and operations. Helping those eight teams are someexternal supporters, such as the Canadian Armed Forces, who provide expertise in logistics, transportation, human resources management, data and scheduling appointments, the presentation says.

The teams report totask force medical lead Dr. Joss Reimerand operations leadJohanu Botha, Manitoba's assistant deputy manager of emergency management.

There is also an advisory boardthe Vaccine Medical Advisory Tablewhich providesmedical and clinical guidance on safely administering vaccines to Manitobans. There are 35 physicians, five pharmacists and three nurses involved with that board, which reports to Reimer.

Another body, referred toas Collaboration Tables,reports to Botha, but that body's role was notdefined in the presentation.

Reimer and Botha both report to the Clerk's COVID-19 Co-ordinating Committee, whichincludes the clerk of the executive council Manitoba's top civil servant as well as associate clerks, the chief provincial public health officer and chief provincial nursing officer, and variousdeputy ministers, among others, according to the briefing report.

Reimer,as medical lead, would also report to the minister of health.

That operational hierarchy is similar to that followed byDr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba's chief provincial public health officer, and Lanette Siragusa, chief nursing officer of Manitoba Shared Health, according to the presentation.

Aside from Reimer and Botha, however, no other key players of the task force were specifically named.

In contrast, the Ontario governmenthaspublicly named who wasappointed to its vaccination task force.

Generally, the Manitoba governmenthasn't been specific because it's "a large and varied group" made up of mostly civil servants, one of thegovernment officials at Tuesday's briefing said.