Evidence of meeting #14 for Foreign Affairs and International Development in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was vaccines.
A video is available from Parliament.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
12:55 p.m.
Director, Policy and Advocacy, Results Canada
Yes. I can just chime in quickly and agree on an unfortunate failure in due diligence, but I understand that the 200 million doses committed to COVAX did not take into account any vaccines from Medicago.
It was dollars and then excess doses of the likes of AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna, which we had already purchased directly from pharmaceutical companies.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
You could check media reports, but the minister is on the record in the media saying that this is going to affect Canada's obligation to meet its COVAX commitments.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sven Spengemann
Mr. Morantz, thank you very much, and thank you to the witnesses.
Our final intervention with this panel this afternoon goes to Dr. Fry, for three minutes.
Please go ahead.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
Hedy Fry Liberal Vancouver Centre, BC
Thank you. I wanted to thank this panel for some very creative solutions to some of the problems that I was trying to get to.
You're absolutely right, Dr. Waite, that it's not just about getting vaccines; it's about getting them into people's arms. I think that's an important one.
I don't have a question. I thought that the top three recommendations made by Dr. Ali made sense, so I think that at the end of the day we all know the objective is to get as many people as possible vaccinated globally so that we can get rid of this pandemic. You're absolutely right that our ability to learn from the process, the mistakes and the first set of rapid things that we tried to do, will be important for future pandemics. However, I would hope that at the end of this all, we don't simply focus on COVAX but on preparations, both in terms of infrastructure in developing countries and also in terms of finding ways to educate in the interim with regard to cultural and religious objections, so that if there's another pandemic, we're ready to roll and are prepared, having learned from our mistakes.
I want to thank both of you for very comprehensive and non-ideological sets of responses. It showed the ability to think outside the box.
Thank you.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sven Spengemann
Thank you very much, Dr. Fry.
On behalf of all the members of the committee, I want to thank the witnesses who appeared this afternoon.
Professor Ali and Ms. Waite, thank you very much for your attendance and your testimony. We are very grateful.
Colleagues, with that, I have one very brief point of business, which is our proposed scheduled informal meeting with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, on Thursday morning at nine. Could you please flag with the clerk if you are planning to attend. There is a virtual option and an in-person option.
With that, I want to take a moment as always to thank our clerk, our analysts and our amazing House of Commons team for all the support they are giving us these days, not just for the regular meetings but also for a number of ad hoc extraordinary meetings as well. It really is very much appreciated.
Mr. Genuis.
1 p.m.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Could I just ask that when we have senior officials from international organizations, you offer us the opportunity of considering a formal meeting with them as well? We have done formal meetings on the record. Informal conversations are nice, but they don't have the same level of transparency that a public meeting has. We seem to be doing a lot of informal meetings, which is better than nothing at all, but I want to flag that as something that maybe should be considered when we have the opportunity.
1 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sven Spengemann
Mr. Genuis, it's noted and appreciated. In fact, a formal meeting in those instances is often the first option or the first consideration. In this case, because of House resources or the House order, it wasn't possible to land a formal meeting under the time frame available to the high commissioner, therefore we chose the informal option. Your point is well noted, though. It is always the priority to consider that option first.
1 p.m.
Conservative
1 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sven Spengemann
Colleagues, thank you very much.
With that, we stand adjourned. Please keep safe, and we'll see you at our next session.