Government Operations Committee on April 14th, 2021

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Through you, Mr. Chair, would subsidies be needed if we just allowed for the TRIPS waiver to happen and allow countries to be able to take control of their own production? Would we have to do that?

It seems fairly dubious that we're touting our international reputation of contributing to this storage while simultaneously taking it and then also talking about the hundreds of millions of contracts that we have upcoming on vaccines.

I'll ask again. Will you, at your cabinet table, advocate the waiver of the TRIPS, the intellectual property, to allow for countries like India and Brazil and others to produce vaccines and increase the global supply of vaccines?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Hundreds of millions of vaccine contracts is a slight exaggeration, given that we have seven vaccine contracts—

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

It's Johnson & Johnson, 38 million; Medicago, 76 million; Novavax, 76 million; Sanofi, 72 million.

Through you, Mr. Chair, you can't go to the public bragging about how diverse your portfolio is while continuing to hoard vaccines and take from COVAX while blocking the TRIPS waiver. You can't do that. You can't have it all ways.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Mr. Green.

We'll now go—

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Am I allowed to reply, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Unfortunately, Minister, perhaps later you can—

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

There were a number of allegations in the question. It would be wonderful if I could—

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

I understand, Minister, but sometimes the questioner uses up his time with his speech, so we'll go to—

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

I will give her the first part of my next question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

We'll go to Mr. McCauley.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Through you, Mr. Chair, I'll give the minister my time because Canadians deserve answers, so when my round comes back, Minister, feel free to start where we left off.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you.

We'll now go to Mr. McCauley for five minutes.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Those are great questions from my colleague from the NDP.

Minister, you made the comment that the only instance when targets haven't been met was when we've exceeded targets. I realize we're at single shots. You're claiming we are third out of 20 at the G20, but for the double dose, the full dose needed, we're at around number 50.

Do you consider that to be exceeding targets, when we are that far down on the global number where it really counts, which is the double vaccination?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

From a procurement perspective, I'm focused on getting doses here as fast as possible, and the decisions in relation to whether it is a one-dose or a two-dose regimen are not made by me, with all due respect.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I realize that, but we're not able to give the second dose because your government has failed Canadians so miserably.

I want to put a bit of a human touch on this. There is a gentleman I have spoken about in the House before, a friend of mine, Fred Russell. He is a Canadian. He is a veteran. He served overseas almost the entire six years in the Second World War. He landed at Dieppe and got off alive. He's one of maybe the last 10 survivors of the Dieppe Raid. He landed at Normandy, marched into Dieppe with the Canadian troops to liberate it, and fought through Germany and Holland.

I want to read a note that his daughter sent me. It is so sad. He is 102. He's basically isolated. He told me he's been so very lonely; it made me cry. Three months in his room has cost him a fair amount of time in his life. He was so bad on Friday we had last rites given.

This gentleman has basically given up. We have deprived him of his final moments, a gentleman who has given everything to Canada, because your government put its eggs in the basket with the Chinese pharmaceuticals that robbed Canada of IP rights, instead of doing what England did or what Israel did or what apparently 50 other countries did, which was to ensure an adequate supply.

I don't agree with all your bragging that we've done a great job. We are in our third lockdown in Alberta. I turn on the TV and see stories of 25-year-olds being ventilated. Lives are being destroyed, and this idea that one dose, the first dose, puts us ahead of third world countries isn't cutting it.

Do you think that is acceptable? Do you think that's exceeding targets?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I feel very concerned when I hear stories such as the one you mentioned, of course I do, and anyone with compassion in their heart would as well.

I am not bragging. I am working hard every day—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

But you have been bragging. You sit in the House and you sit here saying that we're third out of the G20—

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

—to get the job done, Mr. McCauley.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Being ahead of a bunch of poorly performing countries is not any—

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Can I answer, Mr. Chair?

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

I have a point of order. I can't hear anything.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Can I answer the question?

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

That's enough interrupting, Francis.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

It's out of order to not let the minister respond to a question. I would ask the chair to allow the minister to respond—

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Order. I would ask that both the respondent and the questioner be respectful of each other to provide the answers and the questions they need. It is up to the questioner to recognize the time frame they have.

I do not recognize this as a point of order. I do believe that the minister can stand and answer for herself.

Minister, I will give the floor to you at this point in time and ask also that the questioner respect the opportunity to answer.

Thank you.