Health Committee on Feb. 5th, 2021

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

It was the tabling a motion, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

We do not have time to deal with this at this time. We have two minutes left. We have technical issues with the room, and the technical staff have given us a hard stop.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

I was just tabling the motion, Mr. Chair.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Point of order, Chair.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

It's not up for debate. I wasn't moving the motion. I just tabled the motion.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

He's giving notice of motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

I'll accept it as a notice of motion.

Unfortunately we now have only two minutes left. We're going to have to go over by a couple of minutes to allow the other parties their one minute.

I believe it's Dr. Powlowski for the Liberals.

Please go ahead for one minute.

[Marcus Powlowski, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

A lot of Canadians are genuinely concerned about the possibility of having to deal with the South African variant. My understanding is that it's going to be fairly easy to adapt the current vaccines in order for them to be effective against the South African variant. Some companies, I think of both Moderna and Novavax, are already in the process of doing that in testing these tweaks.

With these tweaks, will the vaccines have to go through the whole regulatory process again, i.e. phase one, phase two and phase three trials to be approved, or will it be quicker?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

That is probably a good question for Deputy Lucas or Dr. Tam.

[Dr. Stephen Lucas, Deputy Minister, Department of Health]

I would say that Health Canada is working with vaccine suppliers in the case of the two approved vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna, to have them look at the impact of the variants and any considerations on a change in design that could result in, for example, a booster shot, and that research and regulatory requirement work continues.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Thank you, Dr. Powlowski. We'll go now to Monsieur Thériault.

Mr. Thériault, it's over to you for one minute.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Mr. Chair, I'd like to draw the health minister's attention to the fact that the side effects of the pandemic will continue to grow and grow until her unrealistic vaccination timetable is met.

Quebec and the provinces are in the midst of planning and making budget decisions. Health care workers are under tremendous pressure to anticipate needs and organize the delivery of care.

As I see it, the government absolutely needs to increase funding immediately, as opposed to waiting until after the pandemic, as the Prime Minister wants. We can't afford to wait. We have learned too much, as we cope with this new public health reality. Now is when Quebec and the provinces need the additional funding. It seems straightforward to me: public health comes first.

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

We've been there for Quebeckers every step of the way, and we have paid the full price of PPE, expertise, long-term care supports, infection prevention control expertise, the vaccines, the $19 billion for a safe restart, the CERB money for Canadians who are unemployed, the small and medium-sized business supports and the wage subsidies.

We have been there for Quebec and will continue to be there. The Prime Minister has indicated that—

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Minister, the key word is predictability. The provinces and territories are making plans based on their funding. Predictability is the key to rebuilding health care capacity.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Mr. Thériault, that's all your time.

We'll go now to Mr. Davies for one minute.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Dr. Tam, Canada is set to receive 1.9 million vaccine doses from COVAX. That's a bigger allocation than dozens of other countries are going to receive, including Haiti, Mali, Nicaragua, South Sudan, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Papua New Guinea and Namibia, and the list goes on.

To you as an international public health officer, this is a globally mobile virus, and given that equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines is key to ending the global pandemic and preventing the emergence of vaccine-resistant variants, isn't it in Canada's interest to leave these doses for high-risk populations in low-income countries? Are we going to be unaffected by high-risk populations being unvaccinated in the world while we vaccinate low-risk people here?

[Dr. Theresa Tam]

I think at this point in Canada we are still trying to cover the high-risk populations, so we are in a very difficult situation right now.

My bottom line is that no one is protected until everyone is protected. This is why it is important for Canada to contribute to the international vaccine supply as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Thank you, Mr. Davies.

Thank you once again to the ministers and all the officials for sharing your time with us today and for all of your expertise, and thank you for what you're doing on a day-to-day basis to help us work through this pandemic.

Thank you to the members, of course, for being here and asking great questions.

With that, the meeting is adjourned.