Ontario Science Advisory Table gets new home, new mandate

CBC.ca
Sept. 2, 2022

Public Health Ontario released new rules Thursday for the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table which it’s absorbing into its bureaucracy.

“To enhance provincial capacity to respond to a spectrum of public health emergencies with the best available evidence OPHESAC will provide independent scientific advice to Public Health Ontario (PHO) and where appropriate through PHO to Ministry of Health (MOH) to inform the management of public health emergencies consistent with PHO’s mission, vision, mandate, and values,” the new mandate from PHO says.

The Science Table, which functioned throughout the pandemic separately from PHO, had a differently-worded mandate.

“The Science Advisory Table’s mandate is to provide summaries of relevant scientific evidence to public health and health care professionals, as well as the general public, by integrating information from existing scientific tables, Ontario’s universities and agencies, and the best global evidence,” the previous mandate read.

Premier Doug Ford has said the Science Table is just moving, not dissolving, and will continue to provide independent advice.

However, opposition critics say Ontarians have lost a strong independent scientific voice, one that was not shy about going public with information that raised doubts about some Ford government decisions during the pandemic.

The change comes as Ontario prepared for the fall respiratory illness season.

The province began offering a first booster of a COVID-19 vaccine to kids five-to-11 years old Thursday.