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A new report from the Parkland Institute says Alberta's handling of the 2020 Cargill beef plant COVID-19 outbreak was a catastrophic failure that put industry before worker safety. The outbreak infected more than 950 workers and killed two.
Alberta's response to Canada's largest single outbreak of COVID-19 was a catastrophic failure that prioritized industry needs over workers' lives, according to a new report.
The Parkland Institute, a research centre at the University of Alberta, published the report on Monday examining how Alberta handled the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak at the Cargill beef-packing plant in High River, south of Calgary. The centre says it is the first public, independent review of what became North America's largest single-site outbreak during the pandemic.
High River Plant Outbreak Toll
More than 950 workers at the plant, which was nearly half of the work force, were infected with the virus in the spring of 2020. Eighteen workers had to be hospitalized and two died - 67-year-old Bui Thi Hiep and 51-year-old Benito Quesada. Both lost their lives to COVID-19 and, ultimately, to Alberta's catastrophic failure to place worker safety above industry interests, the report says. Secondary spread in the community led to hundreds more infections and four additional deaths.
The Cargill cases were later linked to at least 22 other outbreaks, according to the report. The report was authored by Jason Foster, director of the Parkland Institute, and Sean Tucker, a professor of occupational health and safety at the University of Regina. Even though six years have passed, it is still important to provide an accurate account of the outbreak and push for accountability, Prof. Tucker said in an interview.
COVID will not be the last pandemic, and we can always learn from our mistakes, he said. It will probably open old wounds but maybe this will eventually lead to some closure. A 2020 Globe and Mail investigation into the outbreak found that Cargill was slow to implement measures to protect its workers from COVID-19.
Some employees, many of whom were immigrants and temporary foreign workers, said they were pressed and even incentivized to continue working as infections grew at the facility. Meat-processing plants were deemed an essential service during the pandemic, which exempted them from public-health restrictions, such as physical distancing and the sizes of gatherings. The second-largest outbreak in Canada was at another meat-packing plant - the JBS Foods Canada facility in Brooks, Alta.
- and there were other outbreaks in similar sites elsewhere in Alberta and across Canada. These facilities were ripe for outbreaks because of crowding, low temperatures that helped the virus survive longer, insufficient ventilation and socioeconomic vulnerabilities in the work force. Many workers lacked alternative sources of income and supported families in Canada or in their home countries. Cargill implemented a one-time $500 attendance bonus and a $2 hourly wage top-up to workers during the early months of the pandemic.
Systemic Regulatory Failure Identified
The authors of the report said the Cargill outbreak is a story of systemic regulatory failure by the Alberta government and Alberta Health Services (AHS), the single provincial health authority at the time. They said Alberta was unprepared, overconfident and deliberately side-stepped available enforcement measures. The evidence shows that there was nothing inevitable about the scale of the outbreak.
The tragedy occurred in a political environment that openly and enthusiastically prioritized economic growth over the health and safety of a largely invisible and vulnerable group of workers, they concluded. The Alberta government and Cargill did not respond to requests for comment from The Globe. The report is based on the analysis of publicly available documents, such as media reports and legal decisions, documents obtained through freedom of information requests and select interviews, including with experts in public health.
Cargill workers were not interviewed. On April 3, 2020, AHS was made aware of the first Cargill worker testing positive for COVID-19. It then spread quickly among workers. About a week after the initial infection, the union representing workers demanded the site be closed immediately; it wasn't.
Internal government e-mails referenced in the report show AHS managers expressed concern about rising case counts, worker complaints and symptomatic employees still at work. Sarah Nunn, an AHS manager who was the lead for Cargill, wrote on April 10, 2020, that more drastic action may need to be taken, but there was no action, according to the report. Operations were eventually halted by Cargill on April 20, 2020, which lasted for two weeks, but the damage was already done.
The report said there were compounding issues at play, including an insufficient supply of masks and inconsistent masking guidance; a poor surveillance system by AHS to track the outbreak; disregard of workers' rights; and no compliance orders by AHS or Alberta Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) to Cargill. The authors say OHS abdicated its responsibilities to keep workers safe and that AHS and the government did not have the required expertise to properly handle the outbreak.
Recommendations For Future Accountability
Additionally, they stressed that AHS made incorrect assumptions on virus spread without epidemiological evidence. Workers were led to believe that the workplace was safe, that public health had based their assessment on evidence, and clearly that wasn't the case, said Prof. Tucker. Thirty-six recommendations are included in the report to improve accountability in regulatory enforcement, enhance protection of vulnerable workers and strengthen the independence of operational health and safety and public health regulators in Alberta.
A public apology to Cargill workers is one of the main recommendations. Additionally, the authors urge Alberta to amend its legislation to make clear that OHS leads the workplace response during a public-health emergency, undertake a review of existing OHS policies and create a standing list of essential services.
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CTVNews:New report calls Alberta’s response to Cargill plant COVID-19 outbreak a ‘catastrophic failure’This story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
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