Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning.
I am pleased to appear before the committee to discuss the Auditor General's report on securing vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here with me today is Michael Mills, assistant deputy minister of procurement.
The Government of Canada worked diligently to secure access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines.
On behalf of the Public Health Agency of Canada, and based on advice from the COVID‑19 Vaccine Task Force, Public Services and Procurement Canada led negotiations and finalized agreements with vaccine suppliers.
The report by the Auditor General focused on whether Public Services and Procurement Canada provided adequate procurement support to secure COVID‑19 vaccines. It concluded that the department provided efficient procurement support to the Public Health Agency of Canada as part of a whole-of-government response to a rapidly evolving coronavirus pandemic.
Working with the Public health agency of Canada, Health Canada and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, and guided by the Task Force, we successfully secured enough COVID‑19 vaccine doses to vaccinate everyone living in Canada.
At the end of May 2022, the Public Health Agency reported that about 82% of eligible people at that time had received at least two doses.
This was the largest mass vaccination program in Canadian history, carried out under the most extraordinary of circumstances.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and in a hyper-competitive global market, Public Services and Procurement Canada was tasked with procuring the vaccines to reduce Canadians' risk of serious illness, hospitalization and death. At the time, there was great uncertainty about which vaccines would be developed and authorized, and when the vaccines would be available for distribution. Canada also had very limited domestic capacity to produce vaccines and relied on international products.
In those early days, procuring the required vaccine doses was an around-the-clock effort that was undertaken by PSPC immediately after the vaccine task force made its recommendations regarding potential vaccines.
As the department worked to secure a sufficient supply of vaccine doses, we were always mindful of the urgency, as well as the need for due diligence. As the Auditor General noted, Public Services and Procurement Canada modified its procurement processes early in the pandemic to allow use of its emergency contracting authority, enabling the department to procure vaccines using a non-competitive approach.
Based on expert advice, Canada adopted a sweeping strategy to supply everyone in Canada with the most promising COVID‑19 vaccines. It was a strategy to cover all bases, securing agreements with several companies in case Health Canada authorized only one or a few vaccines.
By January 2021, Public Services and Procurement Canada had signed seven advance purchase agreements for up to 414 million potential doses. These agreements included advance payments required to support vaccine development, testing, and at-risk manufacturing.
The Auditor General found that the department exercised due diligence on the seven companies by conducting assessments to examine their financial capability to meet requirements and by conducting integrity checks to mitigate the risk of unethical business practices.
Ultimately, our approach was successful. In July 2021, the government announced that Canada had received more than 66 million doses of COVID‑19 vaccines, enough to fully vaccinate every eligible person in Canada and meeting the government’s target to provide vaccines to those who wanted them by fall 2021.
In closing, Public Services and Procurement Canada employed a procurement strategy that covered all the bases to secure vaccines to protect Canadians, and it has proven effective.
Of course, we continue to evolve our vaccine procurement strategy based on the best scientific advice available, including securing new formulations for variants, boosters and pediatrics as they become available and approved by Health Canada.
Thank you. I'm happy to take your questions.