Business Leaders Express Confidence in Health of Canada’s Communities, Launch Review of Emergency Procedures

April 29, 2003

The Executive Committee of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives has issued a statement expressing full confidence in the measures taken by Canadian health authorities to handle the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus and vowing to help minimize the damage done by the outbreak to Canada’s economy.

The statement also announces the launch of a Council initiative to review emergency response procedures and to work with governments in determining how the private sector could most effectively contribute to the handling of future threats to the health and security of Canadians. The full text of the statement is attached.

The Council is composed of the chief executive officers of 150 leading Canadian corporations. Its members head companies that administer in excess of $2.1 trillion in assets and have annual revenues of more than $500 billion.

The members of the Executive Committee are: Chairman Richard L. George, President and Chief Executive Officer of Suncor Energy Inc.; Council President and Chief Executive Thomas d’Aquino; Honorary Chairman A. Charles Baillie, Chairman of TD Bank Financial Group; and Vice Chairmen Derek H. Burney, Dominic D’Alessandro, David L. Emerson, Gwyn Morgan, Gordon Nixon and Paul M. Tellier, the chief executives respectively of CAE, Manulife Financial, Canfor Corporation, EnCana Corporation, Royal Bank of Canada and Bombardier Inc.

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STATEMENT BY THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
CANADIAN COUNCIL OF CHIEF EXECUTIVES

RESTORING CANADIAN AND INTERNATIONAL CONFIDENCE
IN THE HEALTH OF CANADA’S COMMUNITIES

As leaders in Canada’s business community, we wish to express our full confidence in the measures that have been taken by Canadian health authorities to contain and eventually extinguish the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus in Canada’s communities.

The medical evidence suggests clearly that these measures have worked. While a considerable number of people who contracted or are suspected of having contracted SARS continue to be treated, there have been no imported cases of the disease since April 1, no cases of transmission in Canadian communities since April 14 and no cases of transmission in health care facilities since April 20.

Yesterday, David Heymann, chief of communicable diseases at the World Health Organization (WHO), agreed that the epidemic appears to have peaked in Canada as well as in Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam. Today, the WHO is reviewing its controversial decision last week to advise against travel to Toronto.

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had already stated that Americans can safely travel to anywhere in Canada provided that they avoid hospitals likely to be caring for SARS patients and take common-sense precautions like washing their hands.

Based on the available evidence, we accept without reservation the conclusion reached by Health Canada last week: “Health Canada advises Canadians that travel to any destination in Canada is safe and may be undertaken in the same manner as one usually would with respect to transport, accommodation, meals, entertainment, business and family engagements, whether arriving from overseas or travelling domestically.”

We extend our sympathies to those families in Canada and around the world who have been devastated by SARS. We also wish to pay tribute to the health care workers who have laboured unceasingly and heroically to save lives and who too often have paid the price of exposure to the effects of the virus.

The SARS outbreak also is taking a heavy economic toll in terms of lost income and jobs. As business leaders, we will do everything we can to ensure that the scourge of SARS does not destroy livelihoods as well as lives.

The outbreak of any new and deadly disease requires firm and decisive action, and in the short term, it is best to err on the side of caution. In recent weeks, many Canadian businesses have properly responded to uncertainty by adjusting their policies and procedures as seemed appropriate in rapidly changing circumstances.

As the sense of crisis fades, however, it will be important to consider carefully the lessons to be learned from the SARS outbreak. The Canadian Council of Chief Executives therefore will launch an initiative to review emergency response procedures in the private sector and to work with governments in determining how the private sector could most effectively contribute to the handling of future threats to the health and security of Canadians.

As business leaders, we also can and will do our part in the days and weeks ahead to minimize the economic damage caused by SARS and to restore confidence in Canada’s communities as superb places in which to live and to work as well as to visit, whether for business or pleasure.