TORONTO - Ontario residents should have "tremendous confidence" in the government's ability to respond to a possible swine flu pandemic because of what it learned from SARS, Health Minister David Caplan said Monday.

However, the opposition parties claimed that Ontario had not acted on the lessons learned from the 2003 outbreak that claimed 44 lives and was ill-prepared for any similar disease outbreak.

There were a total of six cases of swine flu in British Columbia and Nova Scotia on Monday, but no confirmed cases in Ontario, said Caplan, who admitted it was really just a matter of time before they started turning up.

"In a province this large, where people do have the kind of mobility (they have), it is highly likely that we will see cases in Ontario," he said. "We are ready if and when they do arrive, but I think that just given the numbers, it is a likely occurrence."

There were between 10 and 12 suspected cases of swine flu under investigation in Ontario, said Caplan, who insisted the province had improved its pandemic planning since SARS.

"Our ability to be able to respond, to identify, to contain and to be able to control these kinds of situations is increased because of our understanding of what happened during SARS," he said.

"Ontarians should have tremendous confidence in the ability of this province to be able to respond."

In addition to the 44 people who died, hundreds were made ill during outbreaks of SARS in the spring of 2003.

In its final report, a commission into the SARS outbreak suggested the first wave of infections starting in March of 2003 - known as SARS 1 - was unavoidable but likely could have been controlled more quickly if systems of public health and disease surveillance had been in better shape.

The report said it was impossible to know whether the second wave of infections in May and June could have been prevented, but found the devastating second phase could have been caught sooner.

Despite Caplan's assurances, the opposition parties claimed Ontario was not ready for a possible pandemic, noting that 13 of the 36 local health units still did not have a pandemic plan.

"It was quite shocking personally, particularly when it was pointed out in the auditor general's 2007 report, that one-third of the units did not have a local plan in place," said Conservative health critic Elizabeth Witmer.

"It's absolutely critical that you have not only a provincial plan but also a plan in each local health unit."

The New Democrats warned that the government still doesn't have a proper method to communicate the latest news on swine flu to the public, saying it did a very poor job of communications during the Listeria outbreak last summer that killed 21 people nationwide, the majority of them in Ontario.

"The government has on two occasions shown that it is not prepared, both with SARS and then with listeriosis," said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

"Three times and you're out, and I think this government is not doing what it needs to do to keep Ontarians informed, and not making sure that the things that need to be in place at public health units are in place."

Horwath said Caplan's responses on swine flu in the legislature Monday, including his admission that some local pandemic plans were not in place, were clear evidence "that we have not learned the lessons from SARS."

Witmer also complained that she did not get an adequate answer from Caplan on whether or not Ontario has enough isolation and quarantine facilities to deal with a possible pandemic.

"I wasn't reassured," she said.

The Health Ministry has warned doctors, hospitals and public health units across Ontario to be on the lookout for possible signs of the flu, and is in constant contact with federal authorities to get the latest updates, said Caplan.

The swine flu virus is suspected in up to 149 deaths in Mexico, and 1,995 people have been hospitalized with pneumonia but government does not yet know how many were swine flu.

The World Health Organization said Monday that there were 40 confirmed cases in the U.S., twice the number previously reported by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.