The Fed has never 'needed' a pandemic to pass a shit brick off to the provinces.

They have done it numerous times and will most likely do it again.

for example, The Trudeau liberals create a billion dollar immigration problem with a tweet about 'everyone is welcome in Canada'.

The border gets over-run and the fed gives NO extra money to cover the ensuing chaos. Toronto is drowning in migrants living in tents. I know 'the homeless' problem is a provincial issue, so Trudeau gets to wash his hands of it, and pose for the cameras being a 'saviour' while those people just suffer.

My point is that, the fed has many ways of screwing over the people in a province and making it look like it's not their fault.