Debates of Dec. 3rd, 2020

Opposition Motion—Status Update on COVID-19 Vaccines

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Madam Speaker, I find it rather interesting that my esteemed colleague is saying that we should have been wary of them and started asking questions much earlier, because even they knew they were out to lunch.

We did not ask because asking about a vaccine in March was not an accomplishment. The whole world was talking about a vaccine. I think people on the moon were talking about a vaccine in March. It was not an accomplishment.

The other problem is that we are not asking about the 400 million doses or the seven different potential vaccines. Our question is about when. We want to know when.

How much longer will we be counting the number of people who contract COVID-19 or, even more sadly, who die because of what turn out to be some ill-advised decisions?

That is what the Conservative Party's motion is getting at.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Madam Speaker, yesterday, the leader of the NDP called for the creation of a Crown corporation that would produce vaccines and essential medications in Canada. Of course, all Canadians were greatly disappointed to see the Prime Minister acknowledge in November that we do not have the capacity to produce vaccines in this country. That leads us to be vulnerable. Other countries produce vaccines and drugs, accelerating access to vaccines for their citizens, as opposed to Canadians.

Does my hon. colleague agree that Canada should cure this defect and ensure that we have the domestic capacity to produce life-saving vaccines and essential medication here in Canada for Canadians?

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Madam Speaker, I have nothing against the idea of ensuring that Canada and Quebec are able to manufacture vaccines right here.

The facilities exist, and the government has invested in other facilities that will increase our vaccine manufacturing capacity.

Is a Crown corporation the way to do it?

I am not a fan of big centralizing bodies. However, the pharmaceutical industry has evolved a lot in recent decades. Canada's pharmaceutical industry is hurting because it has fallen behind and now relies on the innovation of independent laboratories and academic institutions. Pharmaceutical companies then purchase the rights and manufacture them.

This is something that the government should be investing in, not taking charge itself.

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

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I have a question for him.

I am a Conservative and you are a member of the Bloc Québécois, but we have one thing in common: we both live in Quebec and we both have the same problem, and that is the impact that COVID-19 is having on the Government of Quebec.

Now, I would like to know what you think about the fact that the Prime Minister often tells all of the opposition parties that we are fearmongering when we ask questions about the current government's management of the COVID-19 crisis.

What do you think?

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, Carol Hughes]

I would ask the hon. member to address his comments to the Chair.

The hon. member for Beloeil—Chambly.

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Madam Speaker, Quebeckers know as well as anyone else that fear is a political tool that has been used against them many times. I could name two or three of those fateful dates.

The best weapon against fear is always information. If the government wisely agrees to provide clear, specific information through the media, which also has a strong sense of responsibility, fear will no longer be an argument because it will be replaced by knowledge and science.

That is the way to get through a crisis like this one.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Madam Speaker, my eyebrows went up when the government's parliamentary secretary said we had not asked any questions about vaccination, because we spent much of the summer talking about Medicago, a company working on a vaccine that the government was not stepping up to fund.

I know my leader is a modest man, but I would like to ask him to explain what steps we took with regard to Medicago.

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Madam Speaker, I am not sure I can be that modest.

I myself met with the people at Medicago. That is one example I can give in relation to the previous question. Innovation is happening, and it is often led by the private sector, by entrepreneurs, by researchers from well-respected educational institutions who decide to get involved in research so they can bring a product to market. Medicago is a very good example of that.

Will the people at Medicago come up with a viable vaccine in time while we are making our way out of the crisis? Nobody knows. However, we do know they have been working on it, because we met with them. They told us about their process, and they eventually got funding. That deserves a lot of respect because Medicago is making a real name for itself in Quebec's pharmaceutical sector.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Vancouver Kingsway.

I want to begin by talking about the situation that we find ourselves in right now.

These are obviously difficult times. Many people are worried, and we understand why. The Liberal government has totally failed in its responsibility to create a plan for this pandemic. Generally speaking, the fear we are seeing is related to the fact that successive Liberal and Conservative governments have always forced families to bear the burden by cutting the services they needed. That is the history of those two parties.

The other problem is that the Liberal and Conservative parties are too close to big business. In this case, it is clear that the Liberal government is too close to the pharmaceutical companies. The Prime Minister and the Liberals gave $1 billion in contracts to big pharmaceutical companies and did not ensure that the vaccines needed to protect people against COVID-19 could be produced here in Canada. Canadians are having to wait even longer to get the vaccine because of the Liberals. As a result, more people are going to become ill and potentially die from COVID-19.

In the United States and the United Kingdom, vaccines will be available this week. However, in Canada, the only thing we know for sure is that we are receiving six million doses in March, which is enough for three million people. The problem is, that is not even enough to vaccinate everyone over 70. There are 4.5 million seniors in Canada over the age of 70, not to mention high-risk individuals such as health professionals, essential workers and indigenous peoples. The government must ensure that we have the capacity to make our own vaccines and essential medications for Canadians.

This pandemic has shown that we must not rely on production from other countries during emergencies. As a result of the Liberal government's lack of preparation, Canadians will have to wait even longer to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

Past Conservative governments privatized labs and vaccine manufacturers, effectively preventing Canadians from having access to a vaccine and essential medications. Despite being in power for decades, Liberal governments have not restored this capacity to produce vaccines and medications here in Canada.

The fact is that the Liberal government has completely failed to lay out a plan. It does not have a plan to address the major question of the pandemic, which is about rolling out the vaccine. The Liberals are going to talk about the fact that they have the best access to vaccines and have some of the best plans, but they have not published their plan.

Australia, a country very similar to Canada in resources and size, has the entire plan for its vaccine rollout on its website. The Liberals might say that they do not know which vaccine will be successful. Australia factored that in. It has included all potential scenarios. If one vaccine is successful, it has a plan; if another is successful, it has a plan. It talks about who will get it and when they will get it. That is what a government should do.

The Liberal government has completely failed to lay out a clear plan. There is no question about that. What is even worse is that the most we know about the plan the Liberal government is proposing is that the first round of vaccines, coming possibly in March, will only be enough to cover three million Canadians.

We know, based on Canada's census, there are over four and a half million Canadian seniors over the age of 70. There is certainly not enough medication to cover all of the vulnerable seniors, let alone all of the front-line workers and the indigenous communities at high risk. What is the plan? This is a simple request that the government has failed to answer.

It has failed to roll out a clear plan of when everyone will be vaccinated and who will be vaccinated. People want to know the answers to these questions. This will give hope to Canadians who are worried, who are wondering what is going to happen and what the future looks like. The fact that the government could not lay out a clear plan with clear details is a failure in leadership.

Another problem that we saw at the beginning of this pandemic was that we could not produce some of the most important essential equipment that we needed. It came to light that the protective equipment we needed to provide to our front-line workers was in short supply. We relied on a supply chain that was broken, and Canadians were not able to access protective equipment.

People were outraged that the 10th largest economy in the world did not have the ability to produce masks, gowns and sanitizers. I am very proud of the fact that Canadian companies mobilized and were able to turn that around and start producing these locally, but it is a clear failure in policy if a country is not able to produce the medical equipment it needs.

What has become even more troubling is that we do not have the capacity, as the 10th largest economy in the world, to produce our own medications or vaccines. Here is where we have to be very clear about who is to blame. There is absolutely no question that Conservative governments in the past privatized our public companies, the companies owned by us that produced vaccines in Canada. Their policies effectively eliminated all the production capacity to make vaccines in Canada. That is their responsibility. By the same token, the Liberals were in power for decades and failed to restore our capacity to manufacture and produce vaccines and medications.

Let me give a really clear example, one that should startle people. One of the prides of Canada is the fact that Connaught, owned by Canadians, was where insulin was made. The medical breakthrough on insulin was made in Canada and we owned it. We created it and owned the ability to produce it, and we produced it at an affordable rate. As an example, which is not a public or private example but strictly Canada versus the U.S., one vial of insulin, the homologue version, costs $32 in Canada and $300 in the U.S.: 10 times the cost. People from the States come to Canada to get medications because they are so much more affordable here. We not only discovered but made insulin in Canada, and the Conservatives privatized Connaught.

Connaught was also the key player in many vaccines that were discovered. In fact, the reason why Connaught was developed in the first place, and I am sure the irony will not be lost on members, is because a diphtheria outbreak meant that people needed a vaccine. Canada found that it was far too expensive to buy: private companies were charging too much, so it was decided to make it here in Canada. History has a habit of repeating itself. We are now faced with a pandemic, and we do not have the capacity to make the vaccine in our own country. We need to make it in our own country.

We need to be able to restore our capacity to make this here at home. We need to be able to make vaccines in Canada, so New Democrats are proposing the creation of a public Crown corporation: a company owned by us. Just as we own electricity and roads in many jurisdictions, we should own the ability to make vaccines and medications in our country. It is a question of sovereignty and the ability to protect our citizens. We are the 10th largest economy in the world and should absolutely be able to make critical, vital medications and vaccines in our own country. That is our proposition. To undo the wrongs of the Conservatives and the Liberals, we need to move forward and restore our ability to manufacture medications here in our own country.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Madam Speaker, I agree with the member that we need to recognize the phenomenal efforts of the industries in Canada that really stepped up. He pointed out such things as hand sanitizers and masks, and it was truly amazing how industry in Canada turned it around and started to produce those very important products. I just wanted to mention that.

My question is more related to vaccinations. We have been focused since before June on how we are going to ensure that Canadians will be vaccinated. We need to recognize that not just the national government is in charge of the administration of that. It also involves the provinces and territories, so there needs to be a high sense of co-operation and collaboration between the national government and provinces and territories.

Can he provide his thoughts as to why that is so important?

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Madam Speaker, I anticipated a question like this, and that is why I gave the example of Australia.

As the hon. member knows, Australia has a very similar setup, with a national government as well as state governments. It has very similar responsibilities of co-operating together. Despite that same challenge, the Australian government has laid out a clear plan. We can Google it right now and find out exactly what is going on. The Canadian government has failed. There is no other way to put it. It has failed. We knew that vaccine delivery and production would be vital for us to get out of this pandemic. The fact that we cannot, right now, find out what that plan is, and that people clearly do not know what the plan is, what the doses are, which companies are involved, who is going to get vaccinated or when, or have answers to other basic questions, is very clearly a failure of leadership on the part of the Liberal government.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for his leadership in addressing what is, I think, a profound failure in public policy by successive Conservative and Liberal governments.

As he pointed out, it was the Conservative government in 1986, the Mulroney government, that privatized Connaught Labs, which had performed a valuable public health service to this country by producing essential vaccines and insulin for millions of Canadians. Of course, the Liberals have had 18 years in government since then, 16 of those in majority, to reverse that policy. Instead, both governments presided over the slide in Canada's pharmaceutical production capacity.

Can he tell us in the House what the impact would be on Canadians' public health if a Crown corporation had a drug manufacturer, going forward?

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Madam Speaker, I want to first thank the member for Vancouver Kingsway for the idea itself. We were having a discussion about what we could move forward on, and the member is a big part of why we are making this announcement.

This would be vital. Members can imagine the outrage that Canadians felt when we could not produce basic masks, gowns and protective equipment. Canadians feel that same outrage right now. They think about the fact that a country as wealthy and as advanced as Canada cannot make vaccines and medication for its own population and the fact that, since we do not have capacity, we are going to have to wait until other countries produce for us to receive.

The ability to make it here in Canada, and to have our own company where we can make medication and vaccines in Canada, would be life-changing. It would open up the door for us to have national universal pharmacare that is fully public. It would make it easier. It would make sure that millions of Canadians who are struggling with the cost of medication would not have to worry, and right now in this pandemic, it would have meant that we would have gotten through this more easily.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Madam Speaker, I certainly agree entirely with the thrust of the remarks from the member for Burnaby South. My colleague, the member for Nanaimo—Ladysmith, has spoken frequently in the House about Connaught Labs and the terrible mistake in privatizing it.

I wonder if the hon. member has any thoughts as to what we can do now to ensure that the billions of dollars of public investments in developing a COVID vaccine do not immediately convert themselves into private profits for big pharma.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Madam Speaker, that is a very legitimate question. Much of the research that was done was publicly funded, but the outcomes are going to be private profits. That is wrong. One solution is to ensure we have a public manufacturer, but there are other ways to ensure that public research does not become privatized and that it is used for the public good.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Madam Speaker, it is a privilege to speak to the important motion introduced today by my colleague from Calgary Nose Hill. I think I speak for all of us in the House when I say 2020 has been an incredibly challenging year, not only, of course profoundly, from a health point of view but also from an economic point of view. It is a fair comment to say 2020 has been unprecedented, really one year in a century, when it comes to the intersection of a public health crisis with a massive economic shock.

On a personal level, there has been incredible suffering and sacrifice by Canadians in every community in our country. Over 12,000 families have lost loved ones. There has been incredible isolation, with family members being separated and kept apart: children from their aged parents, sometimes spouses from partners and sometimes grandparents from grandchildren. Seniors have been left alone, isolated, sometimes in long-term care centres separated from their closest family members, and some have died alone without the comfort of family members around them.

We have had incredible job losses, income challenges and displacement, and the economic devastation many businesses have felt across this country is something that will be felt for years to come.

However, there is hope. The global search for an effective vaccine is showing great promise. Along with a potential treatment, this is really the only way we will restore Canada to some semblance of normalcy. Hopefully that is a new normalcy that is better than the one it will replace.

Canadians across this country are awaiting access to a vaccine with excitement, anticipation and great optimism, but of course a vaccine has to be safe, effective and delivered as broadly and as swiftly as possible. To do this, not only parliamentarians but Canadians need transparency and information. In fact, the public is entitled to it. The public needs it. Besides it being a right for Canadians to have the most current, accurate information possible from their federal government, it is also critically important to allay fear and suspicion and to build trust and confidence.

The NDP has worked throughout the COVID pandemic to be a positive, constructive and evidence-based voice in Parliament and in our communities. We have one goal, and that is to help Canadians stay healthy and supported in the best way possible. Economically, the NDP has been responsible for at least a dozen improvements to support Canadians, ranging from increasing the CERB to $2,000 a month, to extending support to part-time and seasonal workers, and increasing the wage subsidy for small businesses to 75%. There are many other ways we worked hard and productively with the government to improve those supports.

Regarding the health side of the equation and vaccines, what do we know right now about the government's response? First, we know the Liberal government has refused to make a single vaccine contract public. In fact, it voted against a motion in the House to disclose even redacted contracts.

Second, after promising Canadians in August that we would be able to manufacture vaccines in Canada, the Prime Minister admitted in November that we have no such capacity. Worse, he had to acknowledge that this meant Canadians would get vaccines later than citizens would in countries that are producing vaccines.

Third, the Liberal government failed to negotiate in a single contract, of any of the seven contracts it signed with potential vaccine manufacturers, the right to produce a vaccine in Canada.

Fourth, as of this day, December 3, we have no detailed vaccination plan that reveals how vaccinations will be administered, by whom, or who will have priority.

Fifth, the government failed to receive promising vaccines on Canadian soil pending Health Canada approval, as Canadian law specifically allows and as is being done in other countries, like our neighbours to the south.

Sixth, the best information that we have is that Canada has secured, at most, six million doses of vaccines by April, which is enough to vaccinate only three million Canadians or about 8% of the population of our country. As the leader of our party has pointed out, we have over four million Canadians over the age of 70, so that is not even enough to vaccinate every senior over the age of 70, who are obviously in a vulnerable position.

Seventh, to this day, we do not know when vaccines are expected to arrive, how they will be distributed, which province will get them and in what amounts.

Eighth, we have no real date for herd immunity. We have a vague assurance by our Prime Minister that he hopes to immunize 50% of the population by September, but we have absolutely no evidence or data to suggest why that date has been chosen.

I know that vaccine science is complex. I acknowledge that there are things that are not yet known. We agree that some plans must await Health Canada approval. However, let us compare how the current government performs, compared with other countries, to see what is actually possible.

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention established a vaccine readiness date of November 15 with a 24-hour rollout. It released a 75-page playbook detailing everything, including vaccine provider recruitment, vaccine storage and priority groups. The U.S. has received Pfizer vaccine to pre-position it, pending FDA approval. I will pause there. FDA has not approved the Pfizer vaccine, just like Health Canada has not approved the Pfizer vaccine. That did not stop the United States from receiving the Pfizer vaccine and having it stored, so that if and when it is approved it can roll it out immediately. Canada has not done that.

The U.S. aims to vaccinate every American who wants it by June 1, 2021. In fact, its plan is to vaccinate 20 million Americans in December and 30 million Americans every single month, meaning the U.S. will have vaccinated 110 million people, or one-third of their population, by the time we have done 8%. Finally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S. signed agreements with major pharmacy chains like CVS and Walgreens to assist with vaccinations in long-term care centres.

I will turn to the U.K. It has already designated 1,250 local health clinics as vaccine sites, with targets for the number of vaccinations each week. The U.K.'s NHS has already started taking vaccine appointments, starting with long-term care residents, those over 80 and health and social workers. The U.K. government approved AstraZeneca, and the U.K. is receiving 800,000 doses of vaccine this week.

In Germany, the health minister has asked states to have vaccination centres ready by mid-December and had a national vaccination strategy ready by early November. In Australia, the government has a 12-page vaccination plan released and there are 30 million AstraZeneca doses being manufactured in that country. Brazil, India, Japan, Indonesia, China, Russia, Australia, Belgium and many other countries are producing vaccines in their countries. In Canada, our Prime Minister says we cannot.

What do we need? We need action and transparency. We need a detailed strategy and timeline for vaccinations. This does not need to be delayed until Health Canada's approval. It can and must be decided and released now.

Canadians deserve to know when the first doses will arrive, who will get vaccinated first, how vaccinations will be delivered and when they will be available to every Canadian. We would like the government to release at least basic details of our vaccine contracts. After all, Canadians paid for them.

Finally, we want to establish a public drug and vaccine manufacturer, a Crown corporation, to fix Canada's unacceptable vulnerability, so that never again will Canada have to wait for China or the United States to deliver essential medical equipment, supplies, medicine or vaccines to Canada.

We support this motion. Let us get transparent information to Canadians, so that they can know what is going to happen and we can get started with the process of vaccinations as soon as possible.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Madam Speaker, I have enjoyed working on the health committee with my colleague a great deal. Right now at committee, we are studying the mental health impacts of the COVID pandemic. I think both of us would agree that the vaccine is a more critical and timely issue, but listening to our constituents who are having issues with mental health and opioid addiction, I would like to hear the member's comments on the impact of not knowing for Canadians who want to see that there is a clear path to accessing vaccines, rapid testing and home-based testing, which this Liberal government refuses to provide to Canadians.

What impact is that having on mental health, on the opioid crisis and on Canadians who are just being left in the dark when it comes to a strategy to access vaccines?

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for Foothills for his wonderful and very intelligent discussion and contributions to the health committee in all its matters.

It is an excellent question. As I referred to in my speech, to gain public confidence and allay fears and suspicions requires transparency and information from this federal government. I must say that other than the Liberals saying that they have the best portfolio is the world and to just trust them, they have been remarkably reluctant to release basic information. Frankly, I do not understand it. These are not state secrets. Nobody is asking for detailed commercial information. What we are asking for is the basic information that is necessary for the Canadian public to have confidence that there is a way out of this crisis, and that they will get access to a safe and effective vaccine.

For instance, like the disease of addiction, it is often said that the sickness is in the secrets. When we have secrets and a lack of transparency, it leads to anxiety, suspicion and false information. That cannot be good for the Canadian public. I cannot be good for Canadians' mental health. That is why I think that the Conservative motion today is very helpful in helping to allay those concerns.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Madam Speaker, the member just said that no one is asking for detailed information, yet in his speech he said that he wanted to see the contracts.

We need to recognize that the Government of Canada is not acting alone. There are experts and civil servants on a vaccination committee who have done their homework to ensure that Canadians will be well served with a vaccination. There are seven companies with which we have contracts. They are leading companies. At the end of the day, I believe that Canadians will, in fact, be well served by the work of the civil servants and the experts, by the implementation and by working with the provinces and territories.

Would the member not acknowledge that the administration of the units is not going to be by Walmart and Walgreens, but the provinces and territories doing what they have done well? We can look at this flu season, with 16 million vaccinations administered during a pandemic.

Could the member provide his thoughts in terms of the role that the provinces and territories play?

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Mr. Speaker, first, to clarify for the member, what I said was that we are not looking for detailed commercial and sensitive information from the contracts. We just want the basic details that Canadians want to know. When will the vaccines come? How many vaccines will be administered in January, February and March? Who is going to do the vaccinating? What are the priority groups? To this day, December 3, there is not a document from this federal government that says conclusively what the priority order of target populations to be vaccinated is. That is unacceptable on December 3, if we are going to be starting to vaccinate in early January.

To speak to the member's other point, Canada is not unique. The United States has a federal government with many states and many complex administrative relationships. Australia is a country very similar to Canada. It is a mid-sized country with a federal government and states just like Canada. Those countries are producing vaccines domestically. They are releasing detailed vaccination plans. They are telling the population what the details are.

What my hon. colleague basically says is that we have all these people working on all of these plans, and I agree with that. What we are asking for is to tell Canadians what those details are. It is time.

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

Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman.

I am pleased to rise today in the House to speak to our motion. It is an important one, but it would not have been moved if the Prime Minister and the government had just answered the questions that the opposition parties have been asking for weeks and even months.

Canadians are worried, and we are too. We are worried about the virus and the pandemic, but we are also worried about how this government is handling it. I will name just a few examples of this government's poor management since the beginning of the pandemic. The Minister of Health allowed our pandemic alert system to be shut down just a few months before the outbreak of COVID-19. The government sent hundreds of thousands of masks, gloves and gowns from Canada's main stockpile to China. A month later, health care professionals and first responders were asking us to ration our PPE because our supplies were running out.

I was a member of the emergency health committee that was struck in January, and we were already talking about the importance of restricting entry at the border. At that time, we were told that there was no problem and that everything was fine. There were all those questions, and then there was also a lot of dithering around masks. At the time, the Minister of Health even said the risk was low. Everything was managed very incompetently. It must be said that all the opposition parties raised good points and proposed solutions at various committees and here in the House. We were not there to cause conflict with the government. We were there to try to protect Canadians and prevent the virus from having a negative impact on their health and our economy. Most of the time, however, our proposals were rejected out of hand on the grounds that we did not know anything.

Now we have very urgent questions about the infamous plan that everyone has been talking about since this morning. We know that there is no way of knowing the exact date. People in the media are asking questions, but we do not know the exact date. However, just because we do not have an exact date does not meant that the government cannot put a plan in place. It could develop a plan that includes phases and a model that could be applied. The plan could explain what will happen as of the first day approval is received from Health Canada. It could explain how the vaccine will be distributed, who will get it first, where people will be vaccinated and how. Canadians deserve answers from the government to those kinds of simple questions.

This week, I watched a report on Radio-Canada about the situation in Germany. Germans are known for their precision. Just think of German cars and German technology. Germans are very detail-oriented, and their government lived up to that reputation by preparing a plan. The Germans also do not know the date when they will get the vaccine. They do not know that yet, but they know exactly where and when those vaccines will be distributed. What is more, they know that it will take less than two minutes to vaccinate each German citizen. That is how detailed their plan is.

Other countries like France and Great Britain are starting to administer vaccines and have already told their citizens what to do. We do not understand why, here in Canada, all we are told is that we have the best vaccine portfolio in the world. The Prime Minister told the House that other countries were envious and wondered why Canada had ordered so many. The Prime Minister is saying that we have 10 doses of vaccine per person. That is a talking point that was invented to get him out of trouble.

The former environment minister was once filmed in a bar telling people around her that, in the House of Commons, if you keep repeating the same thing, people will eventually believe it is true, and it really drills your message into the collective consciousness. For weeks now, the Minister of Health and the Prime Minister have been telling us that Canada has the biggest and best vaccine portfolio in the world. That is what the government wants to put into everyone's head. In the army, that is called a psychological operation.

Psychological operations, or psy-ops, are campaigns conducted by various countries to influence their citizens. We recently found out that the government wanted to create a psyop cell here in Canada to influence Canadians. It was lucky that we found out, because the idea was dropped. That is serious.

No one is here to score political points. We are in the middle of a global pandemic. Economies have ground to a halt. Back home in Quebec, restaurants and gyms have closed. Stores are even being forced to tighten their rules. People are being asked to stay home, and if the trend continues, they might not be able to see each other at Christmas. There is nothing funny about that.

As I mentioned, we are not here to score political points. We are not trying to win anyone's vote in the next election. We want to solve the problem. The people, our constituents and our voters are asking every party for answers, and indirectly, the provincial premiers, who have the heavy responsibility of managing their citizens, are also asking us for answers. The Quebec premier and his government are the ones having to establish rules, and he is being lambasted by people who are understandably upset, fed up and exhausted.

The federal government has the major national responsibility of providing the best information available. We need this information, and it has to be accurate. If the government says that it signed the vaccine agreement later than expected and that it will receive the vaccine on February 1, we will do what we must to get through the next two months knowing that we will get the vaccine on February 1. The government really does not want to provide that information, because it does not want to suffer a political backlash now and be told that it was too slow and mismanaged its contracts and agreements, so we are going to have to suffer longer.

This reminds me of a speech I made recently about courage. The Prime Minister and the government will eventually need to muster the courage to tell it like it is. Canadians are not dumb. People want to know what to expect so that they can act accordingly.

When the public is left in the dark, that is when we start to hear alternative theories, like conspiracy theories. That starts when people do not know what is going on. However, the government does not seem interested in communicating information, other than repeating that it has the biggest vaccine portfolio in the world.

Judging from what the Prime Minister says, it sounds as though we could vaccinate about 40 countries, but that is not what we need. There are 38 million Canadians, so we need 76 million doses to vaccinate everyone. It is as simple as that. We want to know exactly when we will get the vaccines.

The government might not know the exact date, but I am sure it has a pretty good idea. We know that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the FDA, is about to approve the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and Health Canada has already said it would follow suit, so that will obviously happen sometime in the next two weeks.

However, we know the Americans signed their contract on August 5 and gave Pfizer $1.9 billion U.S. to reserve the first 100 million doses, which will then be distributed across the U.S. It is right there in black and white in the contract and in the U.S. government's official documents. They also asked Pfizer to distribute the vaccines on the ground itself.

Obviously, the Americans will get Pfizer's first 100 million doses. That is why we are waiting in line. We say that and the Liberals tell us it is not true, but facts like that confirm it.

What I am asking of the government today, December 3, is that it provide us with a clear plan explaining exactly what is going to happen after the holidays. It needs to give us a date, whether it be January 15 or February 1, for example, so that the provinces can make arrangements accordingly and so Canadians know that, unfortunately, they will have to wait. This could have been done better, but on the political side, evaluating the government's performance will come later. What we need right now is a plan so we can see where we are headed at this very moment. That is what Canadians and everyone else are waiting for.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Madam Speaker, since day one, this government has been focused on the coronavirus and minimizing the damages it has caused. The vaccine plays an absolutely critical role in that regard. That is why, once again, the government has been focused on ensuring and providing accurate information to Canadians through press conferences and other methods so Canadians can feel confident that the government knows what it is doing and will be serving them well.

The question I have for the member was put to the leader earlier by a minister.

A headline in the Toronto Star is interesting: “Anti-vaxxers find their champion in a Conservative MP”. The member made reference to misinformation and how it plants fear. He said this in his own speech and mentioned the impacts of misinformation.

Why does the member believe the Conservative Party and the leader of the official opposition, who had an opportunity earlier today to address this headline, fell silent on the importance of sending a consistent message about the importance of having vaccines?

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

Madam Speaker, I understand my colleague's question and I can tell him that the Conservative Party values freedom of expression.

If my colleague chooses to support a petition, that is his business. As for me, my work and my position have been clear: I want a plan, and I want to know when and how the vaccine will be distributed across Canada.

If my colleague has a question regarding my position, I would be happy to answer it.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Madam Speaker, last spring, we spent countless hours helping people get back to Canada.

What those people were telling us was that they were not getting any information and that they felt abandoned and unimportant, even though they were Canadian citizens and they just wanted to come home.

At-risk populations include the first nations, who often live in remote, hard-to-access areas. How does my colleague think the first nations feel right now, given that they do not have any information?

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

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Beauport—Limoilou for her very good question.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government mentioned that technical briefings are being given. We attend those briefings.

This week, at a technical briefing given by the Department of Health, we were informed of the categories of people with priority. For example, seniors, people with certain illnesses and indigenous people are all on that list.

Priority is being given to certain groups of citizens, and the government is saying that three million of those people will be vaccinated by March 31. However, the government is not telling us how many millions of people those groups represent or giving us the break down by group of the three million people who will be vaccinated.

The government said that indigenous people are a priority. That sounds good, but they do not know whether they will have access to even one of those three million doses.