Madam Speaker, as I was saying, there are two dimensions to this crisis. The first is to keep our workers safe, and, with our collaboration, the government managed to do that by introducing the CERB and the wage subsidy.
The other dimension concerns health infrastructure, including the search for a vaccine. During the first wave, we received many calls from our constituents who wanted information on the CERB and the wage subsidy. Unfortunately, when it comes to vaccination, we have a big problem, because we cannot properly inform our constituents, who have very legitimate concerns.
Another rather crucial element is the fact that, without clear guidance on vaccination, I do not think it is possible to foresee a return to normal. Earlier this week, the government presented an economic statement without any recovery plan. I hope that will come soon, but we cannot think about economic recovery without a vaccine.
If Canada goes last, which appears to be the case, our economic recovery will be delayed and getting life back to normal for the entire population will happen more slowly. We therefore need clear guidance as soon as possible.
Thinking back on the government's actions on health and what it has been saying these past few days, I thought of a rather simple principle that is used in the health sector, the precautionary principle. It means rapidly taking concerted action when confronted with danger or elevated risk. It emphasizes being proactive, not reactive.
It seems to me that the government did not apply the precautionary principle when it comes to the vaccine. We are faced with two major questions that remain unanswered by the government: when will the vaccine be available to all Quebeckers, and how will it be administered?
The question of when is still a grey area. I will come back to that. The question of how is also a grey area, since we do not know how the vaccine will be distributed to the provinces. Has the government decided to distribute the vaccine based on the number of cases or based on the available infrastructure? We have no idea. This planning is the federal government's responsibility.
That is what is shocking. The government is interfering in areas of jurisdiction where it does not belong. One example is how, in its economic statement, the government is proposing $1 billion to support long-term care homes by imposing Canada-wide standards. This is an area of provincial jurisdiction, not federal.
The government is intervening and maybe applying that precautionary principle in these areas of jurisdiction that do not belong to it, but it is not doing anything to sort out when and how to procure the vaccine. This is cause for concern and confusion for many Quebeckers, and many Canadians too, I am sure.
With respect to the question of when, earlier this week, I heard the Prime Minister say that a majority of Canadians would be vaccinated by September. For a sovereignist, a majority means 50 plus one, or 51%. What kind of majority is the government talking about? Is it 51%, 60% or 70% of the population? That is another pretty big grey area.
The government also said that potentially by March 31 next year, 700,000 Quebeckers would be vaccinated, which is 8% of the population. Once again, we do not know how Quebec will get these vaccines from the government. The federal government itself does not seem to know.
Three large companies are the furthest along in their vaccine research: Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca. However, the federal government does not seem to know where it stands in the order of precedence. The Prime Minister told us that we rank high with Moderna, but we do not know where we stand with Pfizer or AstraZeneca. We are completely in the dark about when and how the government will procure the vaccine.
I would like to highlight something else I found quite shocking. On Tuesday of this week, the Prime Minister announced that $126 million would be invested to increase Canada's domestic vaccine manufacturing capacity through the National Research Council of Canada. I quote: “Once a vaccine is proven to work, we’ll also need to be able to produce and distribute it here at home.”
The Prime Minister said this on Tuesday, but that is not when he should have said it. The government should have said it in April. This brings us back to the precautionary principle I mentioned. We already knew in April that pharmaceutical companies were well on their way to finding a vaccine. It was then that the government should have invested in the infrastructure needed to produce it ourselves. What made the government act only on Tuesday instead of in April? That is a rather important question.
We also know that the COVID-19 vaccines are made using a new technology. We knew that in April. We knew that our facilities in Quebec and in Toronto, the two major facilities capable of producing vaccines in Canada, did not have the required infrastructure. The government took no action before Tuesday, when it made this $126-million announcement. That means that we lost eight whole months when vaccines could have been made here.
Do I have any time remaining, Madam Speaker?