Yukon did good job rolling out COVID-19 vaccines, but made some mistakes, report finds

Overall, the Yukon government did a good job getting COVID-19 vaccines in arms during the pandemic, a new report from the office of the auditor general finds.

But, the report says, the government tripped up on some of the details, including communication.

The report found that the territorial government was quick to set up a vaccination program — aided in part by the federal government's decision to give the territories priority access to vaccines.

"This finding matters because without vaccinating as many residents as possible in the shortest amount of time, there was an elevated risk of the spread of the coronavirus and susceptibility to serious illnesses and possible deaths," reads the report, released Tuesday.

"Carrying out an effective COVID‑19 vaccination campaign was critical to minimizing disruption and protecting infrastructure essential to keep society functioning." 

The report also says the Yukon rollout followed federal guidelines set out by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization. And it found that territorial health officials were able to adjust on the fly when they encountered problems with vaccine distribution.

But, the report also found the government could have prevented some of those problems in the first place through better planning and communication.

For one thing, the territory's emergency and pandemic plans were as much as a decade out of date. The auditor general found that the government made only superficial updates to some of those plans.  

In one case, the report found government officials simply changed a 2010 plan by deleting references to the H1N1 virus and updating the appendix. But it also found the government recovered by quickly adapting its flu vaccine plans to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"In some cases we saw that the lack of understanding of roles and responsibilities and [which] stakeholders to consult led to information being provided late, for example to First Nations groups," said Andrew Hayes, Canada's deputy auditor general, at a news conference Tuesday.

"And also we saw that there was an inconsistency in the way some frontline workers had been prioritized to receive the vaccinations."

Meanwhile, the report says the government did a poor job coordinating response with First Nations, who did not get the chance to offer much input on vaccine planning.

That's despite having months to plan for the arrival of the vaccines and several chances, including nine meetings of the Yukon Forum which brings together territorial and First Nations leaders, to discuss the rollout. And it's despite a major push by the Council of Yukon First Nations to urge its members to get vaccinated.

And the report found that while vaccine clinics were adequately staffed, they lacked cultural sensitivity for First Nations. 

The government's communications also came in for criticism, with the report finding the government was slow to share information with communities and First Nation governments about local vaccination data. 

"The Government of Yukon needs to put actions behind its words and work in partnership early, often and meaningfully with First Nations, not just in emergencies but across the spectrum of programs and services it provides," Hayes said.

"This means engaging with First Nations at the outset and meeting with them regularly to reflect their feedback and government decisions."

The auditor general's report makes seven recommendations to improve any future pandemic responses. They include calls to update emergency plans, provide more cultural competency training for healthcare workers, and better consultation with First Nation governments. 

The government agreed with all of them.