Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, let me begin by saying that 20% of Canadians have received at least one dose of vaccine. Canada now stands eighth in the G20 in terms of doses administered per 100 people. We have received 10.5 million doses in this country to date. We are on track to receive 44 million doses by the end of June and 110 million doses by the end of September. I would ask the opposition to co-operate and…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to start by mentioning that NACI is an independent organization, and I also want to go on to say that we are receiving eight million doses of vaccine this quarter alone, 36.5 million in the next quarter and prior to the end of September, 118 million vaccines, so that all Canadians will have access to a vaccine before the end of the summer. We have a plan. It is called a diversi…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. I also thank the Parliamentary Budget Officer for his report. As part of our defence policy, “Strong, Secure, Engaged”, our government undertook to build 15 surface combatants that are fully funded. We are contributing $1.54 billion a year to the economy. We will be prudent and adapt to the strategy. Davie is a fantastic partner. We are working w…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Newmarket—Aurora for his hard work over the past year. For nearly a year, our government's top priority has been to assemble the most comprehensive and diverse vaccine portfolio possible, with a goal of 6 million doses of vaccine to be delivered to Canadians by the end of this month. Canadians will be pleased to know that we are going to beat that target. By the…
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Mr. Speaker, as a person born and bred in Nova Scotia, I believe in Nova Scotia industry and its hard-working people. I want to also thank the member for Cumberland—Colchester for her hard work and advocacy on behalf of her constituents and all Nova Scotians throughout the pandemic. Since day one, our government has focused on efforts on expanding domestic manufacturing of PPE, including investing…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Vimy for her question and for her hard work. Thanks to our government's aggressive procurement strategy, we have enough vaccines to vaccinate every Canadian who wants to be by the end of September, if not earlier. We will be getting a total of eight million vaccines by the end of March, which is two million more than expected. Since our agreements came into f…
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Mr. Speaker, domestic manufacturing capacity has been a core element of our government's plan throughout the pandemic, with PPE produced locally being used to protect frontline workers throughout Canada. I find it interesting that the opposition raises this now simply because the facts are that our government has invested over $27.9 million in Stanfield's Truro plant. Again, on this side of the Ho…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. All Canadian shipyards responded to the request for information that concluded on May 13, 2020. The responses received and the information gathered in the process will enable the Government of Canada to determine how best to proceed. No decisions have been made. We are still working with all of the shipyards, including Davie.
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Mr. Speaker, I wish the hon. member a very happy International Women's Day. I would like to correct the record. We were able to accelerate vaccine deliveries because of our strong relationship with Pfizer. Indeed, it was because of that relationship that it has committed to another 1.5 million doses in March, with an additional three million doses, to bring us up to 36.5 million doses for Canadian…
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Mr. Speaker, is the opposition upset that our government was able to accelerate vaccine deliveries? We received doses sooner and were among the first countries to begin vaccinations in December. Will we hear next that they are upset we are receiving an additional 1.5 million doses in March, earlier than planned, to bring us to 8 million doses for this quarter? We will keep bringing vaccines into t…
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Mr. Speaker, 643,000 doses of vaccines are arriving in Canada this week, the majority of which have been delivered. This is our largest shipment to date. By the end of the week, 2.5 million doses will have been delivered and another 3.5 million are arriving in the month of March. We will see six million doses cumulative this trimester. We will see 29 million doses cumulative in the second quarter,…
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Mr. Speaker, as I just mentioned, we are engaged with suppliers on this issue, and many of the suppliers we spoke with said that the science is not there yet in terms of their production of boosters. We are, therefore, engaged with them to ensure that Canada is prioritized when that science is ready and when they are offering boosters in terms of contractual negotiations. As usual, we are placing …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for her question. However, it is riddled with inaccuracies. To begin, Canada was one of the first countries to sign with Moderna and Pfizer, one of the first countries to get vaccines into the country and one of the first countries to secure the largest number of doses per capita in the world. In terms of contracts for boosters, we have been in direct contact w…
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Mr. Speaker, I take issue with the initial part of that question, which suggests that the Liberals do not have a plan. On the contrary, the plan has been in place for months. We have negotiated seven agreements with leading vaccine suppliers for a total of up to 400 million doses from approved suppliers alone. Canadians are all going to have access to a vaccine prior to the end of September, if no…
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Mr. Speaker, I will mention again that we have a plan and we are executing that plan: six million vaccines prior to the end of March, 29 million vaccines prior to the end of June and 84 million vaccines of approved suppliers alone prior to the end of September. As I said, additional vaccines, from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax, may come online during this time with approval from Healt…
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Mr. Speaker, this plan does not change by the moment. This plan has been in place for many months. I am happy to announce to the House of Commons today that we will be receiving half a million-plus vaccines in this country just this week alone. We are on a very steep ramp-up toward millions and millions of vaccines coming into this country, and I hope that all Canadians, including all members of t…
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Mr. Speaker, our vaccine procurement strategy is on track for the delivery of six million vaccines prior to the end of March, a cumulative total of 29 million prior to the end of June and 84 million vaccines prior to the end of September of approved suppliers alone. We may have additional vaccines coming online, and all Canadians who wish to be vaccinated prior to the end of September will have ac…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to reiterate that Canada was one of the first countries to begin inoculations, one of the first countries to sign with Pfizer and Moderna and that in this week alone, we will receive well over half-a-million doses, at 643,000. This is the beginning of a continued steep ramp up, with over 400,000 doses arriving per week prior to the end of March and then millions and millions of…
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Mr. Speaker, I will tell members what we were enamoured with. We were enamoured with ensuring that we acted on the advice of the vaccine task force in order to execute those seven agreements in very short order. I would like to thank all the public servants at PSPC who worked throughout the summer and on the weekends to ensure they got that job done. In addition, we are well on track to have six m…
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Mr. Speaker, we received the advice of the vaccine task force to proceed with seven vaccine manufacturers. That is exactly what we did. We put in place the largest, most diverse portfolio of vaccines of any country in the world. We began inoculations as one of the first countries in the world to do so, and we continue to ensure that Canadians have access to vaccines. Indeed, 14.5 million Canadians…
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Mr. Speaker, the Davie shipyard is a strong and reliable partner that is going to great effort to help our government deliver results for Canadians. While the Davie shipyard was shut out of all major works by the previous government, we have awarded contracts totalling more than $2.4 billion to that Quebec company. We support the shipbuilding industry and its workers from coast to coast to coast.
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Mr. Speaker, that is not the case whatsoever. The government has awarded contracts worth $838 million to Davie shipyard for the acquisition of three medium commercial icebreakers and conversion work. The first ship began its operations in December 2018. The conversion work on the Jean Goodwill is going well and the first Royal Canadian Navy frigate has arrived at Davie shipyard for repairs and mai…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to assure the hon. member and all members of the House that while we have the most diverse portfolio of vaccines in the world and the most doses per capita of any country in the world, we are also very committed to multilateral alliances, including the Gavi alliance of the WHO and the COVAX facility, of which we are a part. Once we have vaccines in this country to vaccinate Can…
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Mr. Speaker, when Canadians needed PPE, we procured over two billion items. When Canadians needed rapid tests, we procured over 40 million rapid tests. When Canadians needed vaccines, we procured the largest number of doses per capita from seven different suppliers. Vaccines are arriving in this country, and every Canadian who wants one will be able to get one by the end of September. We always ha…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to be clear with Canadians as their concerns are completely valid. There is no situation more pressing for our government than ensuring that all Canadians have access to vaccines against COVID-19. The production of these vaccines remains in early stages and as factories ramp up their production lines, so too will our government be always prepared for the receipt of vaccinations…
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Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to speak with the member directly and get more information about the contract to which he is referring. If it is a PSPC matter, I will take it under advisement. If not, I will ensure our government gets back to him.
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Mr. Speaker, we share Canadians' sense of urgency around securing access to these essential vaccines as quickly as possible. Our government is operating with this sense of urgency every single day. More than 1.1 million vaccines have been distributed across the country to date. With just the approved vaccines, Canada is on track to receive six million doses by the end of March, 20 million doses be…
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Mr. Speaker, as I said, we share the concern of all Canadians to ensure that vaccines come into the country. That is why we are pleased to announce that the Pfizer vaccines destined for Canada are, indeed, en route and will be deployed across the country during the course of this week. From here on in our vaccine receipts will continue to ramp up so we can ensure that all Canadians who wish to be …
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Mr. Speaker, as today is the first day of Black History Month in Canada, I would like to take a moment to recognize the outstanding achievements of the Black community in Canada and around the world and to remind the House that I, as procurement minister, remain committed to diversity in procurement, including by reaching out to the Black community. In terms of the question being answered, I am pl…
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Mr. Speaker, I do not believe “shortfall” is the accurate term to use. Indeed, we have the most diverse portfolio in the world and we are assuring Canadians that of approved vaccines alone, there will be sufficient numbers to vaccinate all Canadians prior to the end of September. There is a significant ramp-up that is required in the global supply chain and we need to acknowledge the global enviro…
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Mr. Speaker, the reality is that this is a global environment that is extremely competitive as all companies ramp up their supply chains. We will receive six million doses of vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna prior to the end of the quarter and 20 million from approved vaccine suppliers prior to the end of Q2, and prior to the end of the third quarter all Canadians will have access to a vaccine sho…
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Mr. Speaker, it is inaccurate to say that we cancelled a contract with Moderna. On the contrary, Moderna is providing two million vaccine doses to Canada this quarter alone, and we have secured 40 million vaccine doses from Moderna in total. In addition, I would like to say that Susan Athey, a professor at the University of Stratford, a leader in vaccine strategies, says that “Canada is a role mod…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by saying that we have a very solid plan in place with seven vaccine manufacturers, and our strategy from the very beginning was to ensure that Canadians have access to a vaccine by the end of September. We have four million vaccines coming into this country prior to the end of the quarter, 20 million from approved vaccine suppliers by the end of the second quart…
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Mr. Speaker, we ran a limited competition after seeking expressions of interest from the market. We heard from various suppliers prior to signing a contract with FedEx. In fact, FedEx put forward a proposal to partner with Innomar Strategies, a Canadian distributor for vaccines, so we actually do have some Canadian content in that distribution package. The role is very complex and we are very plea…
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Mr. Speaker, we share Canadians' sense of urgency around securing access to these essential vaccines as quickly as possible. More than 1.1 million vaccines have been distributed across the country to date, which means Canada is on track for the first quarter. Our government is responsible for vaccine distribution, and we will not stop until the job is done.
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Mr. Speaker, as I have said all along, we will be getting four million doses from Pfizer this quarter. I am in constant personal contact with Pfizer to confirm the numbers. Those are the facts, and we will keep working hard for Canadians.
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Mr. Speaker, as supply chains and manufacturing for these vaccine suppliers ramp up, we are going to see increasing numbers of vaccines rolling into this country, beginning with hundreds of thousands of vaccines in February and into March, and then millions in the following quarters. Indeed, we expect four million Pfizer vaccines and two million Moderna vaccines this quarter, and 20 million vaccin…
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Mr. Speaker, while the opposition sows doubt among Canadians, we are working tirelessly to get vaccines to Canadians. Our aggressive approach is being noticed. Industry experts and researchers are recognizing that Canada is indeed a role model in vaccine procurement. Professor Susan Athey from Stanford University, a leader in vaccine strategy, has referred to Canada as a role model around the worl…
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians have endured so much since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Extended families have been separated, unable to see each other or travel because of the stringent restrictions that we need to follow to curb the spread of the virus. Many are feeling isolated and alone. While we have seen some positive signs over the last few days that the spread is slowing, these past few mont…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. Pfizer informed me of this reduction in supply on Thursday evening. Friday morning, the next day, 12 hours after I was informed by Pfizer, I told Canadians the news. It was just 12 hours after Pfizer told me of this news that I told Canadians, because I believe that, whether news is positive or negative, I have an obligation to tell Canadians wha…
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Mr. Speaker, we put in place a very complex and deliberate mechanism and logistics system to ensure there would be a smooth rollout of vaccines across the country. Indeed, we had to assure Pfizer and Moderna that we had a smooth logistics system in place before they would provide us with the early deliveries we received in December. Once Major-General Dany Fortin did a dry run with the provinces a…
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Mr. Speaker, I would first like to say that my father is 70 years old, and he too would like to get the vaccine. I want him to be vaccinated as well. This is an issue for all seniors across the country. That is why I am working hard for Canadians. I want to make sure that there are vaccines here in Canada for everyone as soon as possible. That is my priority and the priority for our government.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to state very firmly that the only thing I have discussed with Pfizer is the delivery schedule for the vaccines, the contractual obligations for the vaccines and the dates of arrival of vaccines in this country. It is something I do every single day with our vaccine suppliers, and I will not personally rest until all Canadians have access to a vaccine, which we expect to …
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Mr. Speaker, we are forthcoming with information about our delivery schedules. As soon as we have those, we provide those to the provinces and territories and the public at large. No other country, to my knowledge, puts out week-to-week delivery schedules. The reason we put those delivery schedules out is because we believe that the provinces, territories and Canadians at large need to be able to …
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Mr. Speaker, I should add that, as a matter of contract law, any contractual party can sue another party if there is a breach of contract, but the reality is that we believe that the most effective course of action is to continue to negotiate with our suppliers to ensure that they are obliging and abiding by their contractual commitments. That is exactly what we have been able to secure from Pfize…
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Mr. Speaker, I share the concern about our long-term care residents. My own father is 90 years old and is also waiting for a vaccine. I am working with my department and the Government of Canada extremely hard every single day to ensure that all Canadians will have access to a vaccine as soon as possible. That is why we are assured that we will receive over 300,000 vaccines next week, and those wi…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by saying this: This is a completely temporary situation, as we are working hard to ensure that every Canadian who wants a vaccine gets one. Canada remains well positioned, since we rank in the top five of G20 countries when it comes to per capita vaccination. We plan to vaccinate three million people by the end of March and at least 13 million people by the end of the…
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Mr. Speaker, the retooling is temporary. Canada is in a good position. Retooling is not causing us to lose a single dose. Canada received vaccines in December before many other countries, and we are on track to vaccinate at least three million people by the end of March. Let us not forget that some countries, such as Japan, New Zealand, Australia and South Korea, have not even started vaccinating …
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Mr. Speaker, it is inaccurate to say that we do not have a plan. On the contrary, we have secured more vaccines per capita than any other country in the world. We will see 20 million vaccines coming in from Pfizer and Moderna alone in Q2. We will see 70 million vaccines coming in from these companies prior to the end of September. That is the plan, and we are on track.
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Mr. Speaker, on the contrary, we secured, under seven APAs, the largest number of doses per capita of any country in the world. We also made sure not to put all our eggs in one basket so that in case there are interruptions in the supply chain, we will be able to draw on other companies' deliveries. To that end, we will be receiving over 300,000 doses from both Pfizer and Moderna next week alone. …
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