Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, the federal government's plan to vaccinate all Canadians who want the vaccine against COVID-19 by September is unrealistic. That will probably not happen before 2022. Moreover, we found out yesterday that Canada is the only G7 country to have accessed COVAX vaccines. When will the Prime Minister stop being dishonest with Canadians and tell…
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Prime Minister said that vaccine production in Canada would begin in September. His Minister of Industry contradicted him, saying that he thought it would be more toward the end of 2021. Later, on the evening news, he was even talking about mid-2022. At the beginning of this crisis, the Prime Minister signed a vaccine production agreement with China instead of Canadian c…
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Mr. Speaker, people need to understand that this new building will not be ready until 2022. There will be no vaccines for this pandemic. However, companies like PnuVax in Montreal raised their hand last year and said that they could quickly get facilities up and running and produce vaccines if asked to do so. They did not even get a call back. There are also other companies, such as Providence The…
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Mr. Speaker, I understand what the parliamentary secretary is saying, but facts are facts. Europe is trying to block exports, and Canada is not listed as one of the 120 exempted countries. If the Prime Minister spoke to the President of the European Commission, did he ask her to put Canada on the list of exempted countries, yes or no?
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Mr. Speaker, on January 29, the European Union announced a transparency and authorization mechanism for exports of the COVID-19 vaccine from Europe. The minister knows very well that those measures could be used to block the delivery of vaccines to Canada. Nearly 120 countries have been exempted from these measures, but guess what? Canada is not one of them, despite this government's claims that w…
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Mr. Speaker, we are familiar with the refrain that we have the largest vaccine portfolio in the world, and that we will be able to give every Canadian 10 doses. What we learned today is that Pfizer will only be sending us 79,000 doses next week. We are not even close. It would seem that one plus one does not equal two for the Liberals. I would like to know why the minister cancelled an order for 1…
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Mr. Speaker, the government's objective is to vaccinate every Canadian who wants to be by September. To do that, we need 60 million doses, or two per person. We need to get two million doses a week. What will the shortage be this week? It will be two million. What will the shortage be next week? It will be 1.9 million. Who will be left behind because of this failure?
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I understand the meaning of my colleague's question. At the same time, it should be noted that a report was drafted, and my former colleague, Tony Clement, gave us some advice on it. We can criticize every year, every criticism, but at some point we just want to get out of this. The advice we were given at the start was to screen passengers at the airport. That was the foundation. W…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask my colleague whether she has heard anything recently about what happened to the investment that was made in Montreal's Institut national de la recherche scientifique last August. The former minister of innovation, science and industry proudly made a wonderful announcement about how we could produce 250,000 vaccines a month in Canada. Has the member heard anything a…
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As I was saying, Madam Speaker, since the start of the pandemic, we have been working to bring forward solutions and proposals in order to help, but instead the government dismissed them out of hand. Therefore, it is difficult for us to accept—
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Thank you, Madam Speaker. The first mistake was the agreement with CanSino, which the Chinese Communist regime did not honour. Canada fell behind after that. We have talked about this since the start, but every time we reminded the government that we are several weeks behind our international partners, they laughed at us instead of saying it was true and trying to work together. The Liberal govern…
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Mr. Speaker, this morning, we learned in the media that the European Union has threatened to block exports of coronavirus vaccines to countries outside the EU, including Canada, after AstraZeneca announced a significant reduction in the doses promised to member countries. Can the Prime Minister confirm that he picked up the phone this morning to call the President of the European Commission, Ursul…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honour the life of Corporal François Dupéré, a veteran of the Royal 22nd Regiment who is a model of courage. After miraculously surviving a suicide bombing in Afghanistan, Corporal Dupéré showed exemplary resilience by continuing to live his life with the same vim and vigour. He paid a heavy price for his decision to step up and face our enemies in Afghanistan. He lost…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question. It is clear today, one year in, that we have no intention of going on like this. At the same time, we realize that from a public health perspective, we have no choice. In Quebec, there is a curfew starting at 8 p.m. People are in lockdown. We have to stop the virus from spreading. The only way to get out of this is to get a vaccine as quickly a…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. As I mentioned in my speech, we can see a list of all the agreements the U.S. government has signed with the various companies. It is quite clear. We can really see everything that is planned and understand why 6% of the American population has already been vaccinated. Quebeckers can get vaccinated in Florida because the United States was able …
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Mr. Speaker, from the beginning, we have not been able to believe what this government is telling us. The information we get is always different. My question is for the Prime Minister. Has he, himself, picked up the phone to call the President of the European Commission to get answers, yes or no?
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Madam Speaker, I was talking about consistency and transparency. The problem with the vaccines is that there is a lack of transparency. I have heard my Liberal colleagues say that they cannot disclose what is in the agreements. How do they explain that the Americans have disclosed this information? I have here eight pages of information from the U.S. Department of Health. These documents contain t…
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Madam Speaker, I want to mention that I will be sharing my time with the member for Foothills. Today's debate has to do with vaccines and how hard it is to get vaccines, but I want to take this opportunity to say the following. This evening, I heard many of my Liberal colleagues talk about a lack of co-operation on the part of the opposition parties, particularly the Conservative Party. I would li…
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Mr. Speaker, Maccabi Healthcare Services, an Israeli health care provider, reported a 60% reduction in COVID-19 infections three weeks after the first vaccine was administered. Here in Canada, our economy is suffocating and people are in lockdown and suffering pointlessly just because this Prime Minister screwed up negotiations with vaccine manufacturers. No fewer than 20 countries, including Engl…
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Mr. Speaker, the minister is providing examples of countries that are doing worse than Canada, but why not look at those that are doing better? We currently rank 24th in the world among large countries in terms of vaccinations per capita. We have been saying all along that the contracts have been mismanaged, and now the facts are clear. When will the Prime Minister come clean to Canadians and admi…
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Mr. Speaker, we may rank fifth in the G20, but we rank 24th when compared to countries like the Seychelles, which is ahead of Canada. That is not normal. We have been pointing out problems with the contracts since November and December. These problems are now playing out, as we learn that no vaccines will be distributed in Canada this week. That is not normal for a country that claims to have the …
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