Mr. Speaker, we put in place a very complex and deliberate mechanism and logistics system to ensure there would be a smooth rollout of vaccines across the country. Indeed, we had to assure Pfizer and Moderna that we had a smooth logistics system in place before they would provide us with the early deliveries we received in December. Once Major-General Dany Fortin did a dry run with the provinces and territories and we were able to assure Pfizer and Moderna that we had a logistics system in place that ran end to end, from the point of production to the source of delivering these vaccines, they felt they could deliver those vaccines to Canada.
That is why we were one of the first countries in the world to begin inoculations and one of the first countries to have every jurisdiction undertaking inoculations. It was because of the end-to-end logistics systems the federal government implemented in collaboration with the provinces and territories, including local municipalities.
We also purchased a total of 446 freezers. We purchased dry ice. We purchased syringes, needles, gauze, bandages, alcohol swabs and sharps containers. We delivered all of this across the country free of charges to the provinces so that we could support the local vaccination effort.
That is our commitment as a federal government. That is what we are going to do, because we believe the health and safety of Canadians, through this vaccination program, is of the utmost importance.