QUESTION PERIOD — Health
COVID-19 Vaccine
December 3, 2020
Honourable senators, my question is for Senator Gold.
Following the declarations of our Prime Minister, many Canadians are decrying that our country does not have a major pharmaceutical company of its own developing a vaccine to fight COVID-19.
John Carrington, a retiree with 20 years at the University of Windsor, said that the former Harper government:
. . . drastically cut funding to research councils, which in turn gave out fewer and smaller grants to support graduate students and post-graduate fellows with heads full of knowledge and a drive to discover.
So some gave up on a career in research. Some went elsewhere. And where funds for labs and smart people were available and new knowledge was being published, companies set up their shops nearby.
That’s why we don’t have a vaccine being developed in Canada, a few years after austerity “medicine.”
I’m sorry, Senator Galvez, I have to interrupt you. We seem to be having more trouble with our translation. It appears now that the translations are reversed.
It seems to be better now. Please continue.
Senator Gold, how can the government reassure Canadians that it will negotiate this economic crisis without resorting to such austerity measures with fatal consequences for public health and ensure that Canadians have sustainable access to all essential materials for a resilient society, including vaccines?
Thank you for your question. This government, I’m advised, has invested over $1 million in research so that Canadian sciences can continue their work to find therapies, treatments and a possible vaccine for COVID-19. This includes scaling up investments in our manufacturing capability, as well as partnering with the most promising international partners.
Now, regrettably, Canada’s capacity to produce vaccines domestically has slipped away from us, and we need to rebuild that. However, I should add that through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, $180 million was used to support over 300 university-based research projects on the subject of COVID-19, and they include not only vaccines but projects focusing on limiting the health consequences of the vaccine on Canadians.
This government’s commitment to supporting science and the vital role it plays in the life of Canadians has been consistent. Indeed, since 2016, over $10 billion has been invested into science and research.
That doesn’t change the fact that we are still some time away from rebuilding that capacity you mentioned.
I want to emphasize this point. As you know, nearly 300 coronaviruses are zoonotic. Many of those have been identified as potentially transmissible to humans. We therefore need concrete measures to prepare for the next pandemic and ensure that we do not end up in the same situation where we are unable to develop and produce vaccines here in Canada.
The government completely agrees.
Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate, and it also relates to vaccines.
We know there are six National Research Council vaccines in development — one of them being in Calgary, Alberta — and we also know that others are receiving support through the Strategic Innovation Fund. The great news is that I am informed in conversations with industry that a Canadian COVID vaccine — what I would like to call the “maple leaf solution” — could be available in the millions by the fall of 2021. This is contingent on continual government support through the remaining clinical phases, and then vaccine production and distribution.
Senator Gold, can you please update the Senate on the government’s strategy to support a domestic COVID vaccine solution and to commit to aggressively funding a “maple leaf response?”
Thank you for your question and for the good news you’ve shared with the Senate.
I won’t repeat the points that I made in response to Senator Galvez. The government’s funding speaks for itself, and it is focused, among other things, on developing made-in-Canada solutions.
Although I cannot make a commitment with regard to the funding of any specific project, the funding I outlined has provided — and the government is committed to continuing to provide — support so that Canadian entrepreneurs, scientists and manufacturers can play their role in preparing us for the present and the future.
Senator Gold, thank you very much. That’s a very encouraging response.
I would like to turn quickly to the international supply of vaccines to Canada. Of course, we all know that everything anybody orders today comes with a delivery date. If you order a snow shovel, you know when it will be delivered to your door.
Therefore, Senator Gold, did Canada neglect to include delivery dates in its vaccine contracts? If not, can you inform us as to the specific delivery dates and quantities of vaccine to be delivered under each contract?
The answer to your first question is no, Canada did not neglect to include these in their contracts. The contracts that were entered into earlier in the year and which put Canada in a very enviable position, both with regard to the number of doses to which it contracted and, as it turns out, the quality and efficacy of the vaccines, at least so far as we know, included windows for delivery depending upon numerous factors.
I’m advised that the government is currently in discussions with each and every one of the vaccine producers that have reached a stage where the vaccine can be submitted for approval to Health Canada. It is negotiating those delivery dates. With respect to those specific dates, the negotiations are ongoing, and the government will release that information to its territorial and provincial partners, and to the public, as soon as they are available.
