Thank you.
Good afternoon.
Mr. Chair, thank you for the opportunity to appear before this committee alongside my colleague and Minister of Health, the Honourable Patty Hajdu.
I would like to acknowledge that I am meeting you from the territory of many first nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinabe, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples.
Joining me today is my deputy minister, Mr. Bill Matthews.
Before I begin, I would also like to extend a thank you to all of the people working behind the scenes who continue to make these virtual meetings possible—particularly our interpreters and translators, who play an essential role in ensuring Canadians have the most pertinent information in this time of crisis.
Globally, we have been living with COVID-19 for more than a year now.
From the beginning, my department, Public Services and Procurement Canada, PSPC, has worked tirelessly to procure the necessary supplies needed to get Canada through this crisis.
To date we have secured more than 2.5 billion individual items of personal protective equipment. We have delivered tens of millions of COVID tests, supplies and therapeutics, including 19 million rapid tests, to our provincial and territorial counterparts.
We know that the fastest way out of this pandemic is by getting vaccines to Canadians as quickly as possible. This is why we signed a number of agreements, as early as July of last year, for more doses than we would need. Our efforts were guided by, first, the vaccine task force, and second, the Public Health Agency of Canada. Our procurements proceeded after we received that advice. Our goal from early on was to build up a diverse portfolio of vaccines so that Canada would be ready once they were authorized and indeed discovered. As a result, we now have doses of authorized vaccines under contract to be delivered this year—enough to inoculate every single eligible Canadian.
As Minister Hajdu has noted, vaccines are now arriving and more are on the way.
Yet, while we are making significant progress, we have also known there could be bumps along the way, and we have always been upfront with Canadians about that fact.
As their products are proving safe and effective, vaccine manufacturers are significantly ramping up production to fill orders from around the world. Given this unprecedented reality, it is not surprising that vaccine supply chains have been volatile.
The whole world is operating in this environment, and all countries are facing the same challenges. This is precisely why we took the approach of putting in place a number of agreements and building up a diverse portfolio with flexibility built into our contracts.
When Pfizer and Moderna informed Canada and other countries that deliveries would be lower than predicted in the short term, it was disappointing news. I want to assure members and all Canadians that these delays are only temporary.
I can tell you that I and my officials have been in touch with suppliers every day to ensure that they meet their contractual obligations, and deliveries to Canada did resume this week. Last Friday a shipment of Pfizer vaccines left Europe. This Wednesday a shipment of Moderna vaccines left. Both have arrived in Canada for distribution to the provinces and territories this week.
In addition, through the COVAX initiative, Canada will also receive approximately 1.9 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. This will be in addition to the six million doses of Moderna and Pfizer that arrive this quarter.
Mr. Chair, the AstraZeneca deliveries are, of course, dependent upon Health Canada approval, and these deliveries are in addition to the 20 million does of AstraZeneca that Canada has secured through an advance purchase agreement directly with AstraZeneca.
I can assure this committee that I work closely with all vaccine suppliers to accelerate their delivery timelines into Canada. We continue to work closely especially with the four other manufacturers with which we also have bilateral agreements: Sanofi-GSK, Medicago, J&J and Novavax.
Our diversification strategy is working. We have two approved vaccine candidates, three in regulatory approval and two in clinical trials. Once regulatory authorization is given, we will take action to get more vaccines into Canada as soon as possible.
We need to remember that we are in the early stages of a massive undertaking. As supply chains stabilize, we will see more predictable and more significant progress.
With the action taken so far, by the end September every eligible Canadian who wishes to have a vaccine will be able to have one. I can tell you that we are continuing to press our suppliers to make sure we get advance deliveries for doses even earlier. No stone is being left unturned.
While vaccines are critically important, my department has also worked hard to secure the syringes needed to administer vaccinations.
We have secured more than 170 million syringes of varying sizes from a range of suppliers. This includes 64 million of the low-dead volume syringes, which are in extremely limited supply around the world.
The first delivery of approximately one million of those specialized syringes is arriving in Canada this week, with another million on the way for next week and deliveries continuing through to May.
Mr. Chair, there is no greater priority than protecting Canadians from COVID-19. We are fighting every day to get PPE, rapid tests and vaccines for Canadians. This is what we will continue to do.
I am committed to this effort. I look forward to working with this committee and my parliamentary colleagues to put this pandemic behind us, once and for all. Together, we will get through this.
I appreciate being here with you today, and I look forward to taking your questions.
Thank you so much. Merci beaucoup. Meegwetch.