Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the house this evening to speak about the question I asked the Minister of Finance, that is, when the next budget will be tabled. It will be tabled next Monday.
I also want to talk about vaccines. From the beginning, the Liberal government did not provide Canadians with the vaccines they needed. This failure is rooted in the government's efforts, at the very outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, to establish partnerships with China for the development of vaccines. This partnership quickly collapsed and only resulted in a scandalous waste of time.
While the Liberals were busy trying to reach agreements with China, our global allies were signing contracts with Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca. Canada had no choice but to try to catch up because it was so far behind. Since the beginning, the Liberal government has failed to obtain vaccines for Canadians. The government's dithering has only exacerbated the delays and obstacles that we are still facing today in getting Canadians vaccinated. The delays continue to this day. Last week, 850,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine were supposed to arrive in Canada, but they did not. Government officials say that we could be facing a similar delay for 1.2 million doses from Moderna.
In the midst of the third wave, Canadians are still worried about the future and about getting through the pandemic. That is normal. The Prime Minister himself contributed to those worries. He kept promising that all Canadians who wanted a vaccine would get one by the end of September. However, in order for that to happen, 400,000 doses will have to be administered every day until then.
Do we really have confidence that this target can be met? Based on what we have seen so far, I do not think so. It took four months to get the first dose to 20% of Canadians. Compared to our partners, Canada's vaccine rollout and overall management of the pandemic have been complete and utter failures.
The United States has administered nearly 190 million vaccines so far and has fully vaccinated 22% of its population. The United Kingdom has given both doses to 40 million people, which represents 14.5% of its population. By March, half of U.K. residents had received their first doses. In Canada, just 2.1% of the 33.7 million Canadians have been fully vaccinated.
The Liberals are boasting about over-delivering. It is like setting our own targets. The Liberals set a target so low that they would be sure to exceed it. Bad targets lead to bad results. Even if the targets are exceeded, the results will still be poor. This is bad for Canadians.
However, I must say that I am glad the Liberals will finally present a budget on Monday. Canada is the country that has gone the longest without presenting a budget during the pandemic. The other G7 countries and the Canadian provinces have presented theirs.
Why am I delighted to have a budget? It is because the Liberals never adequately responded to the pandemic and thousands of Canadians continue to suffer. Businesses have had to shut down permanently. Millions of Canadians are facing a harsh reality.
The Canadian economy and its workers are still at risk because of the vaccine failures and also because the Liberal government failed to present a real plan—