Government Operations Committee on June 2nd, 2021

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

The CBSA states really clearly what is required. It's not self-attestation.

[Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Point of order, Mr. Chair.

This is an exceptional discussion. I'm trying my best to listen to the minister's response to my colleague's questions.

May we please allow the minister time to respond to those questions?

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Mr. Kusmierczyk.

I would ask that everybody be respectful of time commitments, giving quality answers as well as questions, and allowing for that discussion to continue.

Thank you.

Minister, perhaps you could answer.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Sorry, there were so many questions being thrown at me. I appreciate having the question that he would like answered repeated. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Mr. McCauley, you still have 35 seconds.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

The question is that CBSA sets out, and the Government of Canada therefore sets out, very specific requirements to ensure we're not bringing in goods made with slave labour. Parliament has stated that what's happening over in Xinjiang province is genocide.

PSPC only seems to be using self-attestation. Why are we not following what's laid out by the CBSA?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Mr. McCauley, I believe it is an assumption that you are making in your question relating to the practices at the border. In fact, we are working very hard with our colleagues at CBSA as well as with labour to made sure that the goods that come into this country are not produced by forced labour.

Finally, I am not certain where you are getting the figure of—

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Minister.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

—57%. It's not in the document, to my knowledge.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Minister. Thank you, Mr. McCauley.

We will now go to Mr. Jowhari for six minutes.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Once again, Minister, and welcome to our committee. I'd like to thank you and your team for your tireless effort over the last year and a half.

Minister, I'd like to get a couple of things on the record, if I may. Can you tell us how many committees over the last year or so you have testified at?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thank you so much for the question.

I have testified at five committees over the past year. That has been a total of 14-plus hours at these committees. It's always a pleasure to be here.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you, that's great.

As I said, we appreciate all the time that you and your team have made for us over the last year.

Minister, as I'm sure you've seen for yourself, when talking about vaccines, there is no shortage of opinions, whether informed or otherwise. We've heard random questions and baseless speculation thrown in an often desperate search for conspiracy, without considering the knock-on effect that these doubts may raise. We've all seen reporting of vaccine hesitancy, vaccine shopping and many—without credentials, I might add—questioning the science and how we secure our data. When we look for medical advice from politicians rather than licensed and expert medical officials, I'd say we're heading down a dangerous road.

Minister, if Canadians have questions regarding vaccines and what's right for their loved ones and themselves, whom should they speak to and which data should we use as a base?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Of course, this isn't an issue particular to PSPC, but as a general matter, I believe they should speak to their local regional authority or health authority, as well as to their physician.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Let's talk about availability of supply. Can you provide us an update on the status of vaccine procurement and whether Canadians should be concerned about vaccine supply?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I most definitely can.

To date, 28.4 million doses of vaccine have been distributed to the provinces and territories; 24.1 million doses have been administered and two-thirds, or 66%, of eligible Canadians have received at least one dose. As of today, Canada is first among G20 countries for the percentage of the population that has received at least one dose of vaccine.

You'll recall when I appeared before the committee before, I mentioned that we would see a rapid increase in the importation of vaccine to this country, and that has in fact happened. Through our negotiations, we have accelerated 28 million doses of vaccines to earlier periods in this year. This now allows us to accelerate the distribution of doses to provinces and territories.

Our work is not done. By the end of June, there will be enough vaccine for all Canadians who wish to receive it to have at least one dose, with second doses under way. By the end of September, if not sooner, all Canadians who wish to have two doses of the vaccine will certainly be able to.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

I recall the last time you appeared at this committee, I asked you a question about how many doses we would have available in September. We were talking about roughly 118 million. Has that number changed?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

The number of vaccines that are coming into this country continues to accelerate. At the current time, we do expect to have more than 100 million vaccines in this country prior to the end of September.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

What challenges do you feel have been overcome? Do you foresee in the coming weeks, months or years that we won't be facing any of those challenges and we'll be confident about our [Technical difficulty—Editor]?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Obviously, we are working in an extremely strained environment where all countries are seeking access to vaccines as one way through the pandemic. The environment is incredibly competitive and supply chains are ramping up, so we are watching supply chains on a daily basis to make sure that we are able to get product, vaccines, into the country as soon as possible.

One way that we've managed the unpredictability of supply chains in a competitive environment is by working with our suppliers, Pfizer, for example, to move the supply chain from Europe to the United States. As of the beginning of May, we have started to bring Pfizer doses in from Kalamazoo, Michigan, as opposed to Europe. We are in discussions with Moderna at the current time to ensure that we can make a similar shift and move the supply chain from Europe to the United States so that we can increase the stability, especially in transportation, of doses of vaccine coming into Canada.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Minister.

We will now go to Ms. Vignola for six minutes.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister and senior officials, for being with us today.

I sense that you can guess that my questions relate to Canada's National Shipbuilding Strategy. As part of that strategy, you expect to accept delivery of the second Arctic offshore patrol ship, or AOPS, in 2021‑2022. The first AOPS was delivered in July 2020 and is expected to be commissioned this summer, in 2021.

You expect to sign a strategic partnership agreement with a third shipyard in the spring of 2021, which should be the Davie shipyard, in theory. Spring normally ends around June 21. How are the negotiations to include Davie as a third partner going?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thank you very much for your question.

Negotiations regarding the third yard RFP continue to evolve. Recently, Davie requested an extension of the process, which the Government of Canada agreed to.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you.

I'm going to go back to the AOPS. Are you satisfied with the operational testing on the first AOPS?

What problems were identified during the testing?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I'll ask my deputy minister to answer that question.