Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Abitibi—Témiscamingue
Before I begin, I would like to talk about what appears to be the government's attempt at communication. Every time that we ask the government a question, we are told that we are looking to pick a fight. The Leader of the Government in the House of Commons used that logic again today, during question period, saying that we were trying to pick a fight instead of working together.
All I want to say is that the motion our Conservative colleagues moved today is about working together, because it is seeking more information on vaccines, and this information is vital to keeping everyone safe. I say this simply as a little warning. I am not trying to pick a fight with my speech. I am looking to point out the blind spots that the government unfortunately missed.
In that respect, I could begin by saying that I heard the parliamentary secretary to the government leader say to the leader of my party when he gave his speech that we have never asked questions about vaccine development. That surprised me because one example of the government's inaction is the case of Medicago. I remember making many representations in that regard because Medicago received a letter of intent from the Liberal government in March, but we had to make many representations before the government finally sent Medicago the confirmation of its financial support in July. It took four months.
Today, Medicago, the only company conducting pharmaceutical research in Quebec, is four months behind. That is symptomatic of what we are seeing today. It is a form of inaction on the part of the government with regard to the vaccine and the consistency needed to support the vaccination process.
Earlier, my Conservative colleague talked about something that I also wanted to bring up. He talked about a lack of information. If there is one thing that is key to making people feel safe in a pandemic, it is information.
There are two dimensions to this crisis. As we see it, the first is to keep workers safe. That is what was done in a collaborative effort when we created the Canada emergency response benefit and the emergency wage subsidy. We got lots of calls at our offices from people who were worried and wanted to know how it was supposed to work. The work we were doing was about keeping them safe. Now we are getting the same kind of calls because there is another dimension—