The SARS outbreak is an “epidemic” and a “national emergency” that demands the federal government pay 90 per cent of the costs associated with the deadly respiratory illness, Liberal Leadership hopeful Sheila Copps said Tuesday.
But Health Minister Anne McLellan quickly dismissed her cabinet colleague’s remarks, saying there is no national emergency and that to suggest such would be a “huge over-reaction” and “send all the wrong signals.”
“At this point, there’s no information that would lead us to declare this a national emergency.” McLellan also took a poke at Copps’ motives. She noted that, unlike Copps, she is “not running for anything right now.”
Copps, the federal heritage minister, went much further when asked about the SARS outbreak during an appearance at a diversity conference in Gatineau, Que.
She compared the outbreak to the floods in Manitoba and Saguenay, Que., and the ice storm that crippled large parts of Eastern and Central Canada in 1998.
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