The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), which led the country’s COVID-19 response, approved $120,000 in funding for specially designed commemorative coins to be given to pandemic health-care workers, according to a report.
Titled the “COVID coin” initiative and approved by PHAC’s president, Harpreet S. Kochhar, in June 2022, the coins are meant to be given to all PHAC employees that worked during the pandemic over the past three years, according to Global News, who obtained documents regarding the initiative through Access to Information.
PHAC said the coins are meant to be “an everlasting expression of gratitude” to its employees “for their contributions under unprecedented circumstances.”
The gift was initially estimated to cost about $16 each for the 7,500 PHAC employees the agency anticipated would be included, bringing the estimated total price tag up to around $120,000.
According to their planned design, the coins are nickel-plated with French and English inscriptions and impressed with an image of the spiked-ball COVID virus. They will also be presented in a blue velvet box.
“Since 2020, PHAC employees have made exceptional contributions to pandemic relief efforts, performing their duties efficiently and effectively under challenging circumstances, while upholding the core values of Canada’s public service,” reads a June 2022 briefing document prepared for Kochhar.
At the time of the briefing document’s preparation, the coins were scheduled to be publicly announced in October 2022 and distributed shortly after.
PHAC told Global News that while it estimated a price tag of over $100,000, it has only spent about $31,000 on the coins to date.
In 2018, the agency had about 2,150 employees, according to Statistics Canada. That number grew to over 2,300 by 2020—the year COVID lockdowns hit Canada—before jumping to over 3,280 in 2021.
As of 2022, PHAC had over 4,250 employees.
