Debates of Jan. 26th, 2021

COVID-19 Vaccine

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question.

Pfizer informed me of this reduction in supply on Thursday evening. Friday morning, the next day, 12 hours after I was informed by Pfizer, I told Canadians the news.

It was just 12 hours after Pfizer told me of this news that I told Canadians, because I believe that, whether news is positive or negative, I have an obligation to tell Canadians what that news is.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the minister has repeatedly and explicitly talked about her commitment to transparency, yet to this day, she has not released one word of any of the seven contracts that the government has signed with vaccine manufacturers, unlike other countries.

In the interests of transparency, will the minister release to Canadians portions of the contracts that at least tell Canadians how many doses we are going to receive, when and from whom, or does she not trust Canadians, who are paying for these doses of vaccines, with that information?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we are forthcoming with information about our delivery schedules. As soon as we have those, we provide those to the provinces and territories and the public at large.

No other country, to my knowledge, puts out week-to-week delivery schedules. The reason we put those delivery schedules out is because we believe that the provinces, territories and Canadians at large need to be able to plan when vaccinations are going to be occurring in their province. That is our commitment to Canadians: to make sure that we have an orderly rollout of this vaccination campaign, which we began in earnest with our negotiations last August, putting in place contracts to secure the largest, most significant portfolio of doses in the world and the largest number of doses per capita in the world.

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

Mr. Speaker, I want it said from an opposition bench tonight that I know that the minister has been working extremely hard. I do not know how it is so easy to Monday morning quarterback these vaccines. I think it is extraordinary that we have vaccines. It is a remarkable achievement of modern science that vaccines exist for something we did not even know about a year ago. That is not to say mistakes have not been made, but I think we can turn the temperature down.

I am disturbed by the fact that Pfizer is trying to negotiate in the media with the government to get better tax treatment at the same time as it is withholding vaccines because of difficulties with its Belgian manufacturing operations.

Has the minister detected any link between Pfizer's requests for better tax treatments and Canadians' access to vaccines?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to state very firmly that the only thing I have discussed with Pfizer is the delivery schedule for the vaccines, the contractual obligations for the vaccines and the dates of arrival of vaccines in this country. It is something I do every single day with our vaccine suppliers, and I will not personally rest until all Canadians have access to a vaccine, which we expect to be by September 30, 2021, if not before.

I want to reiterate that I have not discussed any other matters with vaccine suppliers at all.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the government prides itself on being a great defender of seniors. I would therefore like to know what the consequences of this supply shortage are. Who are the first to get the vaccine? It is seniors. Who are the first victims of the vaccine supply shortage? It is seniors. Who are the ones who are still left alone and isolated? It is seniors. In the first wave, there was distress. That has now turned into frustration. Seniors are upset, they are angry, and they are anxious to get vaccinated.

I would like to hear from the minister about the impact that this supply shortage is having on seniors.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would first like to say that my father is 70 years old, and he too would like to get the vaccine. I want him to be vaccinated as well. This is an issue for all seniors across the country. That is why I am working hard for Canadians. I want to make sure that there are vaccines here in Canada for everyone as soon as possible. That is my priority and the priority for our government.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Mr. Speaker, saying thanks to the minister is not enough for the amount of work she and her department have been doing.

I have been working with our local public health office in Guelph, the family health team of physicians, the hospital and long-term care facilities, and I see the coordination required between the local efforts, the provincial efforts and the national efforts. Some conversations are happening between the national and local levels.

Could the minister comment on the importance of getting feedback from local agencies about how things are going with the actual rollout, the acquisition of storage for vaccines and the phased approach, which are building up to a massive distribution of vaccines in the coming months?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

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.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my colleague from Beauport—Limoilou.

We did not need to cite many reasons, Mr. Speaker, to convince you of the urgency of this debate, and rightly so. There is a total lack of transparency with respect to the vaccination schedule and the contracts.

The key words in my speech this evening are “the urgent need for action” and “transparency”. To date, the virus has resulted in 19,238 deaths in Canada and infected more than 753,000 people. In Quebec, 256,000 have been infected and 9,577 have died. I want to stress these numbers because we should never see them as mere statistics and downplay these deaths and human suffering.

We have all been directly or indirectly affected by the death of a parent, friend or acquaintance, or we all know someone who has lost a loved one. Not to mention all the patients not suffering from COVID-19 who are awaiting treatment. It will be too late for some of them. There is also the exhaustion and desperation of front-line workers, those who were direct or indirect victims of the virus. This evening I am thinking with compassion of the family of the young doctor who recently took her life.

People have lost their jobs, they have declared or are on the verge of bankruptcy, or they are living in a state of perpetual stress. Many Quebeckers and Canadians of all ages are experiencing mental health issues. This virus is pernicious and insidious. It demands that each and every one of us adopt an impeccable hygiene routine and ironclad perseverance. A single misstep can have unfortunate consequences for ourselves and for others.

Managing a health crisis of this scale involves making decisions. This virus is always two weeks ahead of us, which is why we need to be proactive. I will come back to this point later. One thing is certain: We must never waver or hesitate. These decisions are urgent.

To date, Quebec has vaccinated 225,000 people. It is two weeks ahead of schedule, but supplies have run out. There are no more vaccines this week. The Prime Minister should apologize for claiming that the vaccines would end up sitting in refrigerators.

A year ago today, we were taking stock of the enemy at our gates. We knew then that the only way out was vaccination and that, in the meantime, we had to manage time and space. We had to manage time to develop a vaccine, we had to take the time to wash our hands regularly for at least 20 seconds, we had to take the time to put on a mask. We had to manage the space between ourselves, from a total lack of contact in lockdown to two metres of physical distancing, to avoid contaminating one another.

If we were not ready for the first wave, we had to be ready for the second wave, and we had to be ready for the solution to get out of the crisis, namely vaccination. There have been several decision-making steps since the beginning of the management of this pandemic. These included border closures, quarantine requirements for foreign workers, the wage subsidy and amendments to the subsidy to prevent political parties from taking money away from the companies, employers and employees who really needed it. They also included changes to the CERB to incentivize work and the necessary changes to the commercial rent relief program.

More recently, there was talk of banning discretionary travel, including travel to sunny destinations and other vacation spots during school breaks. There has also been discussion of starting to monitor travellers in quarantine for greater control and to better protect Canada from the threat of virulent new variants.

There is also the matter we are considering this evening, namely vaccine procurement.

The Liberal government is dragging its feet. Unfortunately, this has become a pattern in how the Liberals are managing this historic pandemic. From the very beginning of the pandemic, we have known that vaccination would be the light at the end of the tunnel, a chance for survival for a patient who might otherwise have been seriously ill, and a chance to finally get out of this enormously difficult situation and our restricted economy.

How did we get here?

The Prime Minister boasts about the size and diversity of the vaccine portfolio, but it is important that those vaccines arrive on time and that the provinces and Quebec can plan for the deliveries. A predictable vaccine supply is critical for Quebec, the provinces and territories. Transparency is crucial when it comes to the delivery schedule. Currently, we know the amount, but we do not know either the costs, the contractual agreements or the delivery times. I suppose the government negotiated in good faith, but it is as though it did nothing to ensure delivery. However, when it comes to any procurement deal, the basic equation is amount, cost and delivery. In this case, only the amount is known.

On November 27, 2020, the Public Health Agency of Canada told us that the entire population would be vaccinated by 2021 but did not specify if it would be vaccination or immunization. Dr. Njoo said that three million Canadians would be vaccinated during the first quarter of 2021. To be honest, I am not sure how anyone could think that, especially now with the Pfizer delivery delays. Earlier, the Minister of Public Services and Procurement talked about six million doses, but we have to divide that in two, so does six million doses really mean three million immunizations?

One thing is certain: The government should share scenarios ranging from the best to worst case. That would give us a sense of the numbers and the hypotheticals underpinning its vaccination time frame, assuming there is a vaccination plan, which I doubt this evening. Even so, there is still time to do things properly. Better late than never.

How can the government claim that everyone who wants the vaccine will get it by this fall? Personally, with the data I have in hand and considering how little the government is telling us about its hypothetical vaccination plan, I cannot guarantee that. That is the least we can tell people who are currently on lockdown and under curfew in Quebec.

The government must not make the same mistakes. It did not properly invest in our self-sufficiency in terms of vaccine production. The government needs to quickly reduce our dependence on vaccines produced abroad.

The government needs to take the necessary measures to increase local production because there are going to be other pandemics. We cannot continue to depend on others. I imagine that the agreements the government negotiated are ironclad because it divested itself of the means that it had. It had the legal means to ensure a minimum of local production.

I would like answers to all of these questions. Fortunately, this evening's debate gives us an opportunity to ask those questions.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I am wondering if my colleague could speak about the fact that Quebec has experienced a very difficult situation over the last few weeks with the curfew. I know that he has been on top of this and has talked about how the curfew has affected his constituents. Maybe he could speak a little more about how the work that he is doing on the health committee will help find a way forward, and how important it is for the federal government to be clearer to the residents of Quebec about when they will be able to get a vaccine.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my esteemed colleague knows very well that we are about to undertake a study on vaccines at the initiative of my Conservative colleagues. We will begin that study as of Monday.

I would imagine that, in addition to hearing from the ministers concerned, we will be able to get some answers to the questions that I am asking this evening at those four meetings, so yes, the Standing Committee on Health has played an important role in understanding the situation and in determining the solutions that we are and should be implementing.

Unfortunately, even though the government may be hearing good ideas, it often drags its feet and is not proactive in implementing solutions.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Montcalm for his hard work on this file.

To me the key element is the capacity to produce vaccines. What is coming out of this debate is that no vaccine is being produced here in Canada. What could have been done from the start of the pandemic to ensure that all Canadians and Quebeckers can have access to a vaccine that is produced here?

Is the Medicago solution still viable? How could we have better supported it? What is being proposed at this stage to ensure that everyone can be vaccinated as soon as possible so that we can get back to normal life as much as possible?

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question and I thank him for raising the fact that the people at Medicago in Quebec are offering a promising solution that could result in local production.

It is not as though they were favoured or encouraged from the start. They had to work very hard to keep their head above water and get to where they are today. As others mentioned earlier, governments have divested from the pharmaceutical industry in Quebec, which was flourishing, including in the capacity to produce vaccines. We must address that situation because, as I was saying, there will be more pandemics.

The government also should have held on to the provisions that were put in place during the first wave, even if that means paying fees to pharmaceutical companies to allow the vaccine to be produced here. This divestment in the pharmaceutical industry and the unfortunate experience with the Chinese pharmaceutical industry has reduced Quebec's production capacity. There is a way to come up with a solution if we make the necessary investment and do not put all our eggs in the same oil production basket in western Canada.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am wondering whether the Bloc will support the call for action to ensure that all migrant workers, documented and undocumented, also have access to the vaccine free of charge. As we know, many of them are front-line workers in the sense that they are providing food on the table and putting their lives at risk. I wonder whether the member will support the call for action to ensure everyone who wants a vaccine in Canada, whether they are migrant workers, Canadians or undocumented workers, would be able to get one free of charge.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

I am surprised by the question, Mr. Speaker. This is a global pandemic and, at the beginning of the first wave, the Standing Committee on Health was told that it was important, with programs like COVAX, to be able to vaccinate the entire planet and that everyone should have fair access.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that front-line workers in our country are entitled to it. We must also ensure that elsewhere, in poorer countries, people get the vaccine. Until everyone in the world is vaccinated, we may continue to discover variants in our country. We must stand together. We must stand with people around the world and even more so with those who come to Canada to give us a hand.

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

Mr. Speaker, the last pandemic dates back 100 years. The last national immunization campaign was for polio and dates back to 1952. Since then, there have been dramatic changes in knowledge, techniques and technologies.

This time, we were almost lucky. Since the 2003 SARS crisis, scientists around the world have been warning governments about the extremely high risk of an impending pandemic. They were ready to bet their boots that the pandemic would be caused by a coronavirus. However, governments around the world made cuts to academic research. That was a bad idea.

We were even lucky enough here, thanks to technology, to see the devastation that the virus caused in China a few months before it came to Canada. A year ago today, questions were asked in the House about the measures being taken to limit the spread of the virus in Canada by imposing a mandatory quarantine on people arriving from China.

I was looking at the situation and thinking that we were lucky to have been warned, that we were going to be prepared. I was wrong. I am going to talk about procurement, simple mathematical calculations and the importance of information.

Procurement is by nature a complex matter. The pandemic has made things even more complicated because the government has to take on new obligations on top of fulfilling its usual duties. It was clear that we needed PPE, but procuring enough was sometimes very difficult given that Quebec, the provinces and Canada pretty much abandoned their manufacturing capacity when they decided to rely on Chinese manufacturing.

Another element that took some planning was vaccines. The government had to invest in research and reserve supply. It was sensible to reserve doses with several companies because we did not know which ones would come up with safe, effective vaccine candidates first. How much did those reservations cost? We do not know. What kind of timelines were attached to reservations and deliveries? We do not know. What percentage of the weekly vaccine production at each of those facilities is destined for Canada? We do not know. No matter how much the government pats itself on the back for having the biggest portfolio in the world, there are no vaccines to be had.

When it comes to vaccines, as a result of changes made to the Patent Act, pharmaceutical companies that were once here moved elsewhere. As a result, Quebec and Canada have very few plants producing vaccine candidates. I feel fortunate that my riding is home to Medicago. Not only is it in the midst of clinical trials for its vaccine candidate, but its manufacturing plant should be ready sometime this year. We will be able to get vaccines quickly.

A pharmaceutical company from western Canada announced today that it is also able to produce its vaccine. That is good news, but it almost did not happen because the financial support promised in April to Canada's pharmaceutical companies did not arrive until July or August. Meanwhile, open negotiations were happening internationally, as our domestic companies were waiting for assistance. Comprehensive planning should have included follow-up in the Prime Minister's highly publicized announcement.

I would add one final point regarding planning. It is not normal for a company to advise on January 19, or Thursday, January 14, that it will not be able to supply the number of doses set out in the agreement for the coming weeks because it needs to update its facilities. There is no mention of emergency repairs. An update is planned months, sometimes even years in advance. Let us say months. These kinds of decisions are planned, and we did not hear anything about it at the time.

Why was Canada not informed in advance of this update, especially when the vaccine delivery schedule was being finalized? We do not know. If the government had been informed of this facility update before January 19, or January 14 according to what the minister told us, it could have asked Pfizer to use its Michigan plant to supply us. Why was that not done? We do not know.

If the government had known this during the negotiations, it could have turned to other suppliers, such as Moderna. This is called basic planning.

I want to do some simple math. I wish I had my whiteboard here, but since I do not I invite my colleagues to grab some paper and a pencil.

Since December, the government has been saying that all Canadians will be vaccinated by the end of September. This morning, the Prime Minister specified that there will be vaccines for every Canadian who wants one. That being said, in order for us to achieve herd immunity and finally get a break from this virus, 70% to 80% of the population has to be vaccinated. Say that 75% of the population wants to get vaccinated. That means that out of 38 million Canadians, 28.5 million will have to be vaccinated. Since it takes two doses of vaccine, we will need 57 million doses.

Since there are 35 weeks between now and the end of September we will need a little more than 1.6 million doses delivered and administered every week for eight months to keep the promise made by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Public Services and Procurement.

The minister told us that between the beginning of the vaccination campaign and the end of March, we will receive a total of six million doses. That leaves a shortfall of 51 million doses before we achieve herd immunity.

There are about 24 or 25 weeks between the end of March and the end of September. What does that mean? It means that we will have to receive and administer 51 million doses. During that six-month period, we will have to administer about 1.9 million doses per week.

Based on its calculations, will the government manage to achieve herd immunity by the end of September? We do not know. According to the government, how many people will receive two doses by the end of September? We do not know. Would it be possible to see someone's, anyone's, calculations? It could be jotted down on a piece of paper or a napkin. I do not have a problem with that, as I am not picky. I just want to understand. I want the public to understand.

It is easy to tell governments that they must not hold back doses and have to distribute the vaccines, even if they point out that a second dose is required. Once the governments start distributing the first dose of the vaccine, however, the directive changes and the governments are then told to wait because a second dose is required. It is easy to blame others. We need a plan. Where is this plan? We do not know.

I understand that there are trade secrets to be kept, but there must still be a way to show a schedule to the members and the provinces so that everyone can adjust. It would also help the government to see that the figures do not match what was promised, unless the government has information that it is keeping to itself.

Information is power. People often think that they hold a lot of power when they have a lot of information and keep it to themselves, but when the perspective is switched, we find that people work together and are more open when they are properly informed and not kept in the dark.

I have found that sharing information gives people a reassuring sense of control over their lives. There are two versions of the old saying: Either we use information to wield personal power to benefit one person or a small group of people, or we use information to share power that benefits the entire country.

I have a few questions. Why is the government keeping information about the vaccine delivery agreements to itself? Is it thinking about the purely electoral value of the information, or is it thinking about the common good? Personally, I have made my choice: I am thinking of the common good.

[The Speaker, Anthony Rota]

Before we go to questions and comments, I would like to remind hon. members that when giving a speech or asking a question, we do not refer to individuals in the House by name; we refer to them by their title or their riding. That was a brief reminder.

The hon. member for Shefford.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it has been a while. Happy new year.

My colleague did a great job explaining the importance of vaccine distribution and the latest estimates that are quite worrisome and about which we are getting no answers.

The main concern in both Ontario and Quebec right now is the arrival of variants, which have been identified in some seniors' homes. Mr. Legault is concerned about the arrival of variants in Quebec. Over the weekend, it was proven that the vaccine may help with certain variants, in particular the British one, but that it would not work until an individual has received a second or even third dose of the vaccine.

Based on the numbers we are seeing, how can we combat the arrival of the infamous variants? On top of this is the government's failure to take action on international flights and failure to take effective and decisive action against these variants and with respect to vaccines.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for her very astute question.

When the governments of Quebec and the provinces and when Quebeckers and Canadians do not get answers to questions about the delivery schedule, how are they supposed to feel reassured? All they need is information and reassurance to get through this crisis. If they need two doses, people want to know when those doses will be here. That is all. They do not have that information, which is difficult to accept.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech.

Could she expand on the point that Canada unfortunately relies on foreign manufacturing? Businesses here in Quebec and Canada are capable of producing the vaccine. One such example is Medicago, which could have a promising lead on producing a vaccine.

We of course need some short-term solutions. However, in the near future, should the federal government put some faith in domestic production?

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her excellent question.

I strongly believe that we need to review the Patent Act to encourage pharmaceutical companies to come back here. I also strongly believe that we need to recognize the pharmaceutical expertise that we have in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada. We need to recognize that we have the knowledge and the power. All that is missing is the political power. The government needs to invest here for the people here.

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

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask my colleague whether she has heard anything recently about what happened to the investment that was made in Montreal's Institut national de la recherche scientifique last August. The former minister of innovation, science and industry proudly made a wonderful announcement about how we could produce 250,000 vaccines a month in Canada. Has the member heard anything about that?

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

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, I have not.

The newspapers published some good news out of Montreal this week about an anti-inflammatory that reduces the effects of COVID-19. However, I am not aware of any updates on the minister's announcement.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is very simple. What does the member think about the current situation, about the fact that people are unable to get access to the vaccine? She spoke about it already, but what impact might that have on people's mental health, for example, or on other factors that directly affect people's lives?