Industry Committee on Feb. 4th, 2021

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thank you for the question.

Our vaccine contracts specify quarterly deliveries only, and the reason for that is—and I need to take you back to the month of August, early August, when we were concluding these contracts—that there was no sense of the timeline for the discovery of a vaccine. Indeed, in speaking with one of our suppliers this week, he said to me, “We didn't know when a vaccine would be produced, and as a result, we could only commit to quarterly deliveries at the time of contracting.”

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you. Fair enough.

Minister Champagne, you have said repeatedly that we expect to have the Novavax production before the end of this year. I must point out that this is not the first time we've heard this.

On August 31, 2020, the Prime Minister's Office issued a press release promising “production of 250,000 doses of vaccine per month” starting last November, with “up to two million doses per month” by the end of last year. Of course, on November 24, he stated that Canada couldn't meet that because we had no domestic production capacity for vaccines.

With respect, Minister Champagne, why should Canadians have any more confidence in this latest assurance, when the last one proved to be completely wrong?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Davies.

For the benefit of Canadians watching, you have two different things going on at Royalmount. You have the $44 million for the clinical trials, and the issue that you mentioned. There was some issue with the certification, but now what we're talking about is a plant that will be able to produce two million vaccines per month.

I would say, Mr. Davies, when you have a partner like Novavax, which every country in the world would like to have, and they chose Canada and they chose Royalmount, I think that should give confidence that we will be able to produce in accordance with the timelines that have been provided.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Well, when Prime Minister Trudeau said—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

MP Davies, unfortunately you're out of time.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

We will now go to our next round of questions.

Mr. Paul-Hus, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Good morning, Minister Champagne and Minister Anand.

My first question is for Minister Anand.

Your colleague Minister McKenna was once filmed in a bar saying that, when you repeat the same thing in oral question period, people end up believing it.

Your strategy is to say that Canada has reserved the largest batch of vaccines, with 400 million potential doses from seven companies. These are really just political answers. There are actually agreements in place with only two manufacturers so far: Pfizer and Moderna.

You, and the Prime Minister in particular, are all hammering home that every Canadian who wants the vaccine will receive it by early or late September. We find that hard to believe. How can you say that when there are currently delivery delays?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

To be clear, the reductions that you refer to were temporary. We had doses leaving Europe from Pfizer on Friday. We have doses leaving from Moderna this week, and Pfizer doses have been cleared for this week's deliveries, moving into next week also. So it was a temporary and unfortunate and very disappointing reduction in doses for Canada, but as we go—

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

I'm not talking about reductions, Minister Anand. I want to know how you can say that the vaccinations will be completed in September, when there are delivery delays and when vaccines from only two companies have been approved.

According to Agathe Demarais from the Economist Intelligence Unit, the announced date is unrealistic. The issue is that Canada didn't place itself at the top of the priority list when the contracts were being negotiated. She believes that Canada has mismanaged its contracts.

Do you agree with her?

Once again, how can you say that all Canadians will be vaccinated by September?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

My goal is to eliminate the rhetoric and to provide the facts. The facts are that with our diversified approach to vaccine procurement, what we are seeing is that two vaccine candidates are providing vaccines, and when additional vaccines come online, we will see those vaccines being incorporated into the supply chain for vaccines. Indeed, we are providing information relating to the delivery dates for approved vaccines right now so that the provinces and territories can be prepared for what is to come, which is going to be millions and millions of vaccines, especially in Q2. That is extremely important to note for our planning purposes for each province and territory.

Thank you.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Of course, the provinces need accurate information. Right now, things are a bit of a mess.

According to the current figures, we'll obtain 40 million doses from Moderna and up to 76 million doses from Pfizer. We don't know the exact terms of the contracts with these two companies, but we're relying on your statements. Theoretically, if the contracts are adhered to, the doses received from Moderna and Pfizer would be enough to vaccinate all willing Canadians by September, without the need to involve other companies. Is that right?

Mr. Matthews is nodding.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Yes, that's right.

It's very important to remember that two vaccines have been approved so far, and that our country will have the vaccines in the second quarter, from April to June. That's very important.

However, if other vaccine candidates are approved, our country will have more doses before that time.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Thank you, Minister, but what do you say to the Economist Intelligence Unit, according which it is unrealistic to think we will receive vaccines according to the schedule you are talking about? The EIU says it is impossible for us to receive the vaccines on time and for immunization to be completed by September.

Do you agree or are you still convinced we will receive all of our vaccines on time?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thank you. While I usually do take The Economist at face value, I don't believe that was accurate at all. I do believe that we are on track for the end of September or I wouldn't be saying so repeatedly. I believe that we will have enough vaccines to vaccinate all Canadians by the end of September based on approved vaccines alone. As soon as additional vaccines come online—for example, we have AstraZeneca and J&J in regulatory review—we will have additional vaccines for Canadians.

Once again, this is an example of our diversified procurement approach so that we will have multiple options for vaccines on the table for Canadians. Professor Susan Athey from Stanford University and many others have lauded Canada's vaccine procurement approach as being one that is excellent. Indeed, the CEO of Novavax himself has said that Canada has it right on procurement.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you very much, Minister.

We now turn to MP Jaczek.

You have the floor for five minutes.

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Thank you to both ministers for your very clear and I would say frank testimony here today.

My first question is for Minister Anand.

Minister Anand, I want to get a sense of the scale of what your ministry was required to do. If we could turn to the beginning of the pandemic, when procurement of personal protective equipment was probably on everyone's mind, could you go through...? You gave us a few numbers, but give us a sense of the scale of what was required—how many different product lines—and also the type of investment that was required to be made in those early days.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thank you for the question.

At the outset, we, at PSPC, were faced with a challenge to procure a number of items of PPE on behalf of the Public Health Agency of Canada in March. This was required on an urgent basis when the country needed these items. We moved very quickly to implement long-term contracts so that we could prepare for any eventuality in this pandemic, including a second phase, which we saw.

What we did was to procure over 2.7 billion items of PPE, and we were able to provide that equipment to the Public Health Agency for distribution to front-line health care workers across this country. Over 1.4 billion items of that PPE have been delivered: face shields, gloves, gowns, surgical masks, N95 masks. That was a massive procurement effort. I don't want that to go unnoticed, because our public servants worked incredibly hard to provide for Canadians.

At the same time, there were additional procurements that were needed, for example rapid test kits. We moved very quickly to purchase over 40 million rapid test kits for Canadians and distribute those to provinces and territories. Nearly 15.5 million tests have been delivered to date, and that number is increasing.

In addition to that, we then moved to procure vaccines, under seven APAs, and put those contracts in place in very rapid succession after we received the advice of the vaccine task force and the Public Health Agency of Canada. We put those contracts in place, and now we are seeing deliveries into this country, which will rapidly increase as we go through the next weeks and months.

That strategy was one of aggressive action and forceful conduct at the bargaining table, and I am very honoured to be on the team that brought that to the fore.

By the same token, we are also in charge of ensuring that the supplies and the logistics systems are in place. So, count this: the PPE, rapid test kits, the vaccine procurement contracts, and a logistics system that works end to end so that we can support the delivery of supplies across this country, including vaccine supplies.

For example, we purchased freezers—a total of 446 deep-freeze and ultra deep-freeze—gauze, bandages, alcohol swabs, sharps containers, fill and finish machines, all to be utilized in the vaccine procurement and distribution effort. Those supplies are being delivered to the provinces every day, because we are in this together.

We need to be collaborative, to work co-operatively, and that's exactly what I talk to my team about every day. We are working for Canadians to make sure that we are supported as a country through this pandemic.

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

Thank you very much, Minister Anand.

You didn't mention one particular product: ventilators. I believe there was an excellent response from domestic manufacturers in that area as well.

Do you recall any details of those contracts?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I'll start, and I will ask François-Philippe if he would like to join in.

I believe his department led a competition for the selection of ventilator manufacturers, and once that selection occurred and the ventilator suppliers were chosen, then our department supported those choices and executed contracts. In total, we ordered over 40,000 ventilators, and we have received over 22,000 of those ventilators already. That was an incredible made-in-Canada effort to ensure that we have domestic supply of PPE, including ventilators. Of all our contracts for domestic manufacturing and PPE, we now have over 40% with domestic companies.

This is an incredible and important effort.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you, Minister.

My apologies. I hate cutting you off, because these are excellent questions and excellent answers, but I want to make sure everyone gets their turn.

I now give the floor to Mr. Lemire for two and a half minutes.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

My question is about Bill C-13, COVID-19 Emergency Response Act, passed in March 2020.

Under one of that bill's provisions, it would have been possible, until September 30, 2020, to override drug patents in case of health emergency and to import drugs that are not authorized for sale in Canada.

However, that provision was removed on September 30, 2020, and I would like to know why.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Is that question for me or for François-Philippe?

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

I think that Minister Anand knows more about this than I do. However, I can give you a more general answer, Mr. Lemire.

Since our call to action, 6,800 companies in Canada have wanted to participate in the collective effort. What we have done is almost comparable to Project Apollo.

I want to come back to questions that were raised earlier, especially by Mr. Davies. People are wondering why some manufacturers decided to do things differently if there was a license. That's because Canada did not have the manufacturing base to produce vaccines in such large quantities. The largest factory we have is Sanofi's facility in Toronto. However, Sanofi already produces vaccines for other diseases. So that is why the contracts we have in Canada may be different.

If we take the example of AstraZeneca and India, it's important to understand that they had already established a partnership. That factory in India produces 1 billion vaccines annually. You understand that our situation is in no way comparable to India's, even if we take into account facilities we are currently building. We need to rebuild our entire manufacturing base. That explains in large part the decision made in terms of contracts.

The same goes for England. Our manufacturing base is even smaller than England's.

In these circumstances, the best solution was clearly to import vaccines, as Minister Anand decided to do. The second action we took, 12 days after the pandemic was declared, was to quickly invest considerable amounts of money to improve our manufacturing capacity in order to ensure our resilience.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

I have a supplementary question.

The pharmaceutical industry was a jewel in Quebec in the late 1990s. However, major pharmaceutical companies and their science experts left the country in the 2000s, primarily because the risk-sharing investment program Technology Partnerships Canada was put on hold under Paul Martin's Liberal government and abolished under Stephen Harper's Conservative government.

Some 15 years later, we are seeing the failure in terms of our ability to produce vaccines and personal protective equipment or to find pharmaceutical solutions.

Will you reinstate that program to enable major pharmaceutical companies to return to Canada?