Madam Speaker, it is great to see my colleagues this evening. I look forward to the opportunity to participate in this emergency debate that was requested by my hon. colleague from Saanich—Gulf Islands. My thanks for this opportunity and for raising a very important issue to, I know, all Canadians who are watching or not watching this evening, who are home with their families and preparing for the day ahead tomorrow.
I rise tonight as many parts of our country are plunged into a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. For 13 months, Canadians and the residents of my riding of Vaughan—Woodbridge have been carefully following public health measures, limiting their interactions, wearing masks in public, working from home and keeping their distance whenever possible. It has not been easy, but Canadians have risen to the occasion, doing what needs to be done to protect themselves and each other. I would add that at this time, many residents of my riding and Canadians across the country are now signing up to be vaccinated. I encourage all residents and all Canadians when they are eligible to do so, to please go and get their vaccines. The way we get out of this pandemic is to obtain a vaccine. We know that literally millions of them are arriving on a weekly basis here in Canada. I am very happy to announce that I will be receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine tomorrow in late afternoon. I look forward to that.
I would like to assure Canadians that the Government of Canada has developed and is implementing its plan to respond to the pandemic on all fronts. COVID-19, as we know, is a very contagious illness with significant rates of both hospitalizations and deaths. Every day in Canada we are seeing case counts climb and hospitalizations increase. These are real people. They have families. We pray for them that they make it safely back home and recover from COVID-19.
Health Canada has authorized four different COVID-19 vaccines: Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen. Another vaccine by Novavax is currently undergoing Health Canada's regulatory review. All of the authorized vaccines have shown to be very effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths. Health Canada only authorizes a vaccine if it is supported by very robust scientific data and evidence showing that the benefits of the vaccine clearly outweigh any potential risks. Each vaccine has unique characteristics and all authorized vaccines are very helpful in the fight against COVID-19. Having additional vaccines from different manufacturers can help meet volume requirements to get more people vaccinated sooner and offers more vaccination options.
The government has been hard at work negotiating with manufacturers and suppliers to secure significant vaccine supply for Canadians and planning for the vaccine rollout. In the development of this plan, the federal government has engaged in consulting all levels of government; indigenous leaders; international partners; industry; and medical and science experts, among others.
On December 8, 2020, the government published “Canada's COVID-19 Immunization Plan: Saving Lives and Livelihoods”. At the heart of the plan are six core principles: science-driven decision-making, transparency, coherence and adaptability, fairness and equity, public involvement and consistent reporting. These principles are governing and informing our vaccination rollout actions. The plan also outlines the seven steps in the rollout process. These are communicating with and engaging Canadians throughout the campaign; obtaining sufficient supply of vaccine; obtaining regulatory authorization from Health Canada to ensure safety and efficacy of vaccines; allocating and distributing vaccines efficiently and securely; administering the vaccines according to a sequence of priority populations identified by experts; and collecting data to monitor vaccine safety, effectiveness and coverage.
We are making progress and we are laying the groundwork for great gains and momentum in the coming months. As colleagues no doubt know from the news, we have procured through advance purchase agreements, more than enough vaccine doses to vaccinate all eligible Canadians who wish to receive a vaccination. The federal government and the provinces and territories have worked together collaboratively to develop a plan for the fair and equitable allocation of vaccine doses. Without compromising regulatory integrity, we have expedited the regulatory reviews of promising vaccine candidates. Health Canada is using agile regulatory processes to review vaccines as quickly as possible, while maintaining our rigorous standard for safety, efficacy and quality. Health Canada has hired additional scientists and has established dedicated review teams for COVID-19 vaccines.
In order to ensure consistency in their reviews, these teams have been working literally around the clock to expedite them. Health Canada's findings are based on a sound and thorough review of all evidence available. The department only authorizes a vaccine following a rigorous review of the evidence to determine that it meets stringent requirements for safety, efficacy and quality. Health Canada continues to actively monitor and assess the safety and effectiveness of all vaccines authorized for use in Canada.
Health Canada is also working closely with other major regulators who are reviewing the same vaccines. These partnerships allow us to share scientific evidence and streamline review processes while still making independent decisions for Canadians. These partners include international regulators in Europe, the United Kingdom and around the world to share evidence, discuss findings and combine the best scientific brains to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
Health Canada's assessments and regulatory decisions are largely aligned with those of our partners. All the vaccines in use in Canada are closely monitored through Canada's vaccine safety monitoring system. We will keep Canadians informed about what we find out, and take appropriate action should any safety issue be confirmed. We will report any adverse events that occur following vaccination and conduct investigations in order to assess whether they were caused by vaccination.
We are deeply grateful to have members of the Canadian Armed Forces working within the operations of the vaccine rollout task force. As logistics experts, they are playing a vital role in the success of our campaign. In addition to the forces, we have engaged the private sector to support the logistics of this ambitious undertaking, and to assist with administering the vaccines in the provinces and territories, we are enlisting the help of the Canadian Red Cross and other health care professionals.
We are truly in an unprecedented situation, and this has called for all hands on deck. In fulfilling our mandate to provide transparency, we post updates to the Government of Canada's website, canada.ca, on our progress on vaccination administration and coverage. We also provide authoritative information and data on COVID-19.
In closing, although we must continue to implement public health measures, we can be optimistic that our efforts will start to pay off if we remain steadfast.