Evidence of meeting #54 for Public Accounts in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was contracts.
A video is available from Parliament.
5 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Thanks, Chair.
Witnesses, thanks for joining us today.
I have a quick question for Pfizer. Have you released, anywhere in the world, access to the documents to elected officials, in committee or otherwise?
5 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Okay.
Let me just ask you this. Mr. Desjarlais covered it, as did my friend from the Bloc. I can't remember her last name....
5 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Yes, it's Ms. Sinclair-Desgagné.
We are not asking for these documents to be released. They're going to be held in a separate room for us to view without access to any ability to take pictures or document this. I'm looking at the letters sent to the committee from the American Chamber of Commerce, in Canada the Canadian chamber, BIOTECanada, the Montreal chamber and Innovative Medicines Canada. All wrote letters to the committee implying that we were going to publish these or disclose these letters.
Did Pfizer or any of you contact these organizations and ask them to contact the committee with what appears to be very misleading information?
5:05 p.m.
President, Pfizer Canada
Thank you for the question.
We work very closely with some of these entities—
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
I'm sorry. I didn't ask if you worked closely. I just asked if you contacted and asked them to write the committee.
5:05 p.m.
President, Pfizer Canada
We have been in contact. We have not asked anyone to write specifically about this.
I think what we're seeing is just—
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
The reason I ask is that we are not asking to publish these. We are not asking to disclose these. It's to be in a secure location, as Mr. Bédard indicated.
I am just curious. How many—in Canada, for example, or perhaps in the U.S., the U.K. and the EU—procurement officials would have had access to these contracts?
5:05 p.m.
President, Pfizer Canada
In every market where we were working with procurement to sign these contracts, they would have had access.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
As a ballpark, how many people would it be? Is it five or 500?
5:05 p.m.
President, Pfizer Canada
I'm not sure, but I can get back to the clerk on this.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
It's a fair amount.
I've seen contracts that have been leaked from Albania, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, the D.R., the European Commission, Peru, the U.S.A. and the U.K.
Do you have any evidence that shows that those leaked contracts came from politicians or elected officials?
5:05 p.m.
President, Pfizer Canada
I'm not familiar with all of those instances, but I do know there have been a couple of leaks. They were taken down right away.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Is there any reason to believe they came from elected officials?
5:05 p.m.
President, Pfizer Canada
I'm not exactly sure if we know who leaked the information, but in these cases, Pfizer never voluntarily provided an unredacted contract.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Do you believe that any of these leaks came from elected officials?
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Were there any commercial repercussions to these countries with these leaks?
I have listened to your testimony and I have seen the letters. There are very implied threats to investment in Canada, etc., if 11 MPs in a private room have access. There are all these countries with leaked contracts. I have many of them here with me.
Was there divestment in these countries, similar to what seemed to be implied if the 11 MPs in the room looked at the contracts?
5:05 p.m.
President, Pfizer Canada
I don't think in any of these cases.... I'll speak on Pfizer's behalf that we never implied we would divest if a contract was leaked.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
The conversation we've had and the letters sent by your advocates have stated very clearly that investment is at risk in our country, yet where they have leaked full contracts, you haven't divested.
It seems like an odd implied threat that if 11 MPs were to look at it, with zero ability to get these items out, there would be a threat to investment and the development of the pharma industry in Canada, yet fully leaking the European Commission one, for example, has no repercussions.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
I'll open this to each of you.
In all the contracts, do each of you state that it requires the permission of the pharma to release the details of the contract? Does each country, like Canada and the U.S., require permission from Pfizer or Moderna to release the contracts or details?
5:05 p.m.
President, Pfizer Canada
These are two-way contracts signed by both us and the department of procurement. It is our intent that these are always confidential, and we retain confidentiality throughout.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Thank you.
Ms. Bradford, you have the floor for five minutes.
March 23rd, 2023 / 5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Valerie Bradford Liberal Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses for appearing today. Thank you for all the research your companies did to keep Canadians safe from the worst effects of COVID-19.
I want to get back to MP Shanahan's question. This is for Sanofi.
I just want to clarify. You said that there hadn't been any unredacted contracts released to the public. I think the question was about parliamentarians. Were any unredacted contracts released to any parliamentarians anywhere?