Evidence of meeting #95 for Health in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was medicago.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:50 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Medicago Inc.
No. I don't know. I have no idea whether we did or did not tell the Canadian government about PMI's existence, but we know it was public information that PMI owned a minority share of Medicago.
12:50 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
It could have been a deal breaker. That's a concern.
Did you intentionally fail to warn the government about the likely effects of your company's involvement with PMI? Do you think that such an omission is okay, or should disclosures like that be mandatory?
12:50 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Medicago Inc.
I have no knowledge. I don't know whether we communicated or didn't communicate.
12:50 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Medicago Inc.
I don't know. I can't comment.
12:50 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
I think so.
The Government of Canada tabled the Public Accounts of Canada 2023 on October 24, 2023, which disclosed the loss by the Public Health Agency of Canada of $150 million due to an unfulfilled contract by a vendor. According to the document, none of these funds were expected to be recovered, despite inquiries from parliamentarians and the media. The government initially refused to provide any details about this loss, stating the information could not be divulged because of confidentiality agreements with the contractor.
Can you confirm whether Medicago asked the Government of Canada to withhold information about this $150-million loss from Parliament?
12:55 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Medicago Inc.
No, we didn't.
We understand the government and Medicago had confidential obligations, but we discussed.... We can't disclose the details without prior consent from the other party. We discussed with PSPC to what extent we or they could disclose. We have never requested to hold back that information.
There's one more thing. The $150-million advance payment was paid. We used it for the at-risk manufacturing and we could not deliver the dosages, but the WHO's rejection of PMI's existence has nothing to do with those situations.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Ellis Conservative Cumberland—Colchester, NS
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Tada, it's good to see you again. We met at the public accounts committee.
Sir, at that time, when I questioned you on March 23, 2023, you agreed that Medicago had received $773 million from the Government of Canada and that you owned the IP and the business assets in Canada.
Is that true, sir?
12:55 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Medicago Inc.
Yes, sir. As of 2020, we made a SIF agreement with ISED.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
12:55 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Medicago Inc.
No, $173 million was the amount contracted then.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Ellis Conservative Cumberland—Colchester, NS
I'm sorry, sir. At that time, in that committee, you said “$773 million”. That number, of course, came from the number of doses the Government of Canada agreed to buy. Is that number not correct, sir?
12:55 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Medicago Inc.
No, it's not correct. I'm not aware of it.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Ellis Conservative Cumberland—Colchester, NS
Okay. I would encourage you to go back and read those transcripts. Certainly that is in the transcripts from March 23, 2023.
Oddly enough, sir, are we to believe that Mitsubishi—which is, of course, the parent company, and an incredibly successful multinational corporation....
Out of the goodness of your heart, did you give up $40 million in IP and business assets in Canada?
12:55 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Medicago Inc.
We discussed it, along with our shareholders, with ISED intensively. We agreed, after good-faith negotiations, that we would repay the amount owing to the Canadian government, which included $40 million cash and our transfer of key R and D assets, including intellectual property.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Ellis Conservative Cumberland—Colchester, NS
I guess if I owned Mitsubishi, I would say, “Why did we do that?” They had already given you $150 million. Why would you give up IP assets and $40 million? Did they have something over your head?
12:55 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Medicago Inc.
The contribution from ISED was for COVID-19 vaccine development and the establishment of the manufacturing facility. We developed a COVID-19 vaccine and got it approved by Health Canada. We spent our contribution from the government for that developmental work.
In order to settle the agreement, given where we were, we agreed to the settlement, which included the repayment of $40 million and transfer of the assets.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Ellis Conservative Cumberland—Colchester, NS
I'm sorry, sir—through you, Mr. Chair—could you be a little more transparent about settling the contract? That doesn't make any sense to me.
12:55 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Medicago Inc.
I'm not able to disclose further details of the settlement.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Ellis Conservative Cumberland—Colchester, NS
If the Government of Canada agreed, in an advance purchase agreement, to give you $150 million.... You, sir, have made it clear, I think, that you held up your part of the bargain, so why would you give them back $40 million in assets and IP? That makes no sense.
12:55 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Medicago Inc.
We have to be very clear that you are talking about a $150-million advance payment under the APA with PSPC. The other contract is a SIF agreement with ISED.
The two agreements are different, sir.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Ellis Conservative Cumberland—Colchester, NS
That's still going to leave Canadian taxpayers in the dark as to what happened.
Sir, are there any other people who could testify here who could shed more light on this?
12:55 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Medicago Inc.
I want to be clear that we had two agreements with the Canadian government. We acted in good faith to fulfill both of the agreements where possible. If we could not, we followed the termination clause of the agreement, or we discussed the situation in good faith. For this agreement, we agreed, as I said, to terminate or settle the agreement by repaying cash and transferring the assets.
1 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Ellis Conservative Cumberland—Colchester, NS
I guess, sir, through you, Chair, it still leaves the Canadian taxpayer confused as to how all this happened.
I'm sitting here and I've been following this meeting and this story for the entire time, and I'm confused. I think all of our jobs, as we sit around this table, are to come to a better idea of what happened to the Canadian taxpayers' money. I don't feel like that's forthcoming, and that's a shame.
With that being said, sir, I hate to do this to the committee, but I do have to table a motion. That motion, Chair, will say:
Given that the Liberal government's carbon tax has had a detrimental impact on the health and livelihood of Canadians, driving two million of them to use food banks in March of 2023 alone, the chair report to the House that the committee call on the government to immediately cancel the carbon tax.
Thank you, Chair.
