QUESTION PERIOD — Health
COVID-19 Vaccine Contracts
March 15, 2021
Delays are being experienced across the country, leader. My question also concerns the recommendation to delay the second dose of the two-dose COVID-19 vaccines by four months. Pfizer has said they were not consulted on this change and they don’t have evidence to support it.
In January, Minister Anand told CTV that some vaccine providers had raised concerns with her at the negotiating table about Canada not following their recommendations and delaying the second shot. So, leader, what do the vaccine contracts, which Canadians aren’t allowed to see, say about the spacing between doses for the two-shot COVID-19 vaccines? Is Canada in violation of its contracts by delaying the second dose to four months?
I’m not in a position to answer the question regarding what the contracts say, but I am — and I believe this chamber and all Canadians should be — assured that the Minister of Procurement and the Government of Canada are doing everything they can based on sound decision making and policy to protect as many Canadians as quickly as possible.
The problem is that there have been different messages and changes in the messaging, so Canadians are confused. We need clarity.
We’re already far behind other countries in vaccinating our citizens. This week, Canada will receive just under 450,000 doses for our entire country, while the United States vaccinated that many people yesterday morning alone.
Leader, the recommendation to delay four months between doses is based on your government’s inadequate vaccine procurement. Is this failure the main reason why the Trudeau government won’t let Canadians see the contracts with the vaccine manufacturers?
The short answer is no. As the Prime Minister announced recently, and the Minister of Procurement as well, Canada is on track to receive some millions more doses than initially announced. As time unfolds, the wisdom of this government’s multipronged strategy to have a variety of sources of vaccines is proving with every passing week to have been the right decision.