Madam Speaker, in his speech the parliamentary secretary spoke about the vaccine. We know that, so far, Canada has signed six agreements to procure 282 million doses of a future vaccine.
With respect to the amounts committed by the Canadian government to reserve these millions of doses, the federal government explained that payment would be made to the drug companies contingent on successful clinical trials. There is a lack of transparency on the contracts because we do not know their value. Several members of the COVID-19 vaccine task force, comprised of 12 experts, have business ties to drug companies that have already signed contracts with the government.
We know that Ottawa bowed to pressure and created a registry of declared conflicts of interest. Since June, at least 23 conflicts of interest have been declared.
If this is not a transparency problem, then what is it?