House of Commons Hansard #91 of the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was vaccines.

Topics

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

12:30 p.m.

Conservative

Chris d'Entremont Conservative West Nova, NS

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question.

We need to be optimistic about what we can do for Canadians. The government has to set dates and decide on amounts. The motion may be optimistic, but at the same time, it is necessary to inform the people of Canada and Quebec.

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

12:30 p.m.

NDP

Scott Duvall NDP Hamilton Mountain, ON

Madam Speaker, I have listened to the speeches today, and everybody is saying that it is not realistic or feasible to have every Canadian adult vaccinated by the May long weekend.

Obviously, we do not know how to do this, but the Conservatives do. Otherwise they would not have put it in their motion. Maybe the member could share with us how this could be done and what the plan is for this, since the Conservatives feel they have enough evidence to put it in a motion.

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

12:30 p.m.

Conservative

Chris d'Entremont Conservative West Nova, NS

Madam Speaker, the government has failed on every corner it has taken on this issue. It has not provided Canadians with a plan for how we are going to be able to solve it. They have not told us how we are solving the first wave, let alone the third wave we find ourselves in today.

We need to be able to get vaccines into the arms of Canadians. The government needs to give us something inspirational to tell our constituents. My constituents continually go online to find there are no spots available for them to get vaccines. This is because the federal government is not providing the vaccines required. It has to stop. The government has to tell us what it is actually going to do.

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

12:35 p.m.

Conservative

Brad Vis Conservative Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC

Madam Speaker, I stand in this place today to highlight the federal government’s failure to stop the current third wave of COVID-19, and to press it to secure faster access to much-needed vaccines.

While we see the EU and the United States took swift action to secure life-saving vaccines for their citizens, the government here is standing idle as our vaccine shipments get delayed and cut amidst this deadly third wave. Canadians need vaccines, and they need them swiftly, but the national rollout has been defined by delays, denials and disappointment.

Without the details of the vaccine contracts that the Liberals refuse to make public, we are left guessing how to improve our vaccine rollout. The information from the contracts could help provinces plan and provide Canadians with what to expect going forward.

The Liberal government must act immediately, come clean and disclose the details of their vaccine contracts. The lack of transparency from the Trudeau Liberals has left Canadians confused—

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

12:35 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès) Liberal Alexandra Mendes

The member cannot use names.

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

12:35 p.m.

Conservative

Brad Vis Conservative Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC

Madam Speaker, I apologize.

The lack of transparency from the Liberals has left Canadians confused and anxiously waiting for their turn. In the midst of the third wave, Canadians are struggling to cope with the rise of COVID-19 cases, COVID-19 variants and increasing ICU admissions, never mind the ripple effect of these circumstances, including job losses, reduced hours, travel restrictions, charter infringements, a mental health crisis and an ever-expanding taxpayer-funded deficit. The third wave is a direct result of the Liberal government's abject failure at addressing COVID-19 in general and the vaccine procurement in particular.

Those on the other side of the House love to ask what the Conservatives would have done better. We have been providing them solutions this entire time, and I can say for certain that we would not have partnered on vaccine development with the biggest totalitarian government in the world, which is currently holding our citizens hostage.

The government's first move should have been to ramp up domestic production immediately. However, now all we hear in the news is that shipments have been delayed, shipments have been reduced and there is a small number of doses coming from a partnership. We literally took vaccines away from developing nations. We are that desperate.

I receive literally hundreds of pieces of individual correspondence each week, and I can tell members that constituents in Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon are frustrated. They are tired and are at their wits' end. I never thought that in 2021 I would have so many constituents furious about the ongoing infringement of their personal liberties, which is due to the government's incompetence.

It has been two Easters and two Vaisakhis. My constituents want to go to church. They want to go pray at a gurdwara. They desire fellowship and community.

I am constantly asked questions. “When can my kid play soccer?” “When will band trips get going again?” “Why has my high schooler had to miss out on two years of senior rugby?” I have heard from hunters that they have been banned by the Government of B.C. from going to rural and remote regions in my province, where they are only likely to see bears and deer, because they are unvaccinated.

Enough is enough. Canadians want to know when they are going to get a vaccine in their arm.

Let me say a few words about my riding.

Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon is 22,000 square kilometres of ruggedness. We are surrounded by the Cascade Range and the South Chilcotin Mountains. My constituents are diverse and they are fiercely independent people. They love the outdoors and the wild nature. They live in this area because they love their independence, they love their freedom and they love being connected to the river and the mountains. They are also law-abiding, and they want the very best for their country.

However, their patience is wearing thin. We are not getting straight answers from the government. People have received inconsistent messaging from the outset, and they cannot take much more. It is not acceptable for the government to demand that Canadians continuously give up their charter rights without being more transparent and providing a real plan.

I have some stories from over the last year.

In my riding, when a veteran named Mr. Anderson died, his family was not able to attend his funeral on account of public health restrictions. I attended it as his MP, as a representative of Canada, to honour his life and his service to Canada in the liberation of the Netherlands during World War II. It should not have been that way.

A few weeks ago, a mother who home-schools her kids reached out to me. She has an autistic child. Over the last year, this child has been cut off from family members, community support groups, home-schooling peers and trusted community educators on account of public health restrictions. They cannot get their lives back. That kid cannot get his education back until he is vaccinated.

At the day care my kids go to, many parents are front-line health workers, correctional officers, doctors and nurses. I know for a fact that many of them often have to make decisions about whether they can go to work to support other Canadians or take care of their own kids. Canadians deserve better.

I can go on about border closures. A constituent reached out to me the other day. He is a Canada Border Services Agency officer, and he asked why he has not been vaccinated. Every day he is putting his life on the line to protect our border and serve our country and he cannot get a vaccination. I have heard the same thing from corrections officers. They are frustrated.

I have heard from families about the quarantine hotels. They are rightfully putting up $2,000 and waiting for their tests, only to watch on the news that the program has been less than consistent with some flights from other countries. These constituents say they are following all the rules, but it does not seem like everyone is. They ask what is going on. Why do they continue to sacrifice when what the government is doing has not been consistent?

A sibling of one of my constituents died in Washington state and my constituent was not able to attend the funeral. In the meantime, that person sees Americans in Washington state already getting their second doses. Indeed, on Facebook I saw my young niece, who is her twenties and going to Western Washington University, get the second jab in her arm. Life is good there. We want the same here in Canada and it is not happening soon enough. Canadians deserve the best because we are the best, but we are not getting the best.

My constituents want their lives back. They want to go to church and embrace their friends and neighbours in their communities again. They want their lives to go back to normal. We have demanded so much from Canadians and they are complying because they want the best for their country. However, when they see their government botch the process time and time again, they begin to ask whether they should follow the rules, whether it is really worth it. That does not sit well with them because, frankly, that is not the Canadian way. Canadians are polite. We have a rule-abiding society. Indeed, it is embedded in our Constitution: peace, order and good government.

My constituents want good government and they are not getting it. That is why they are questioning why they have to give up their right to worship in person, or why they cannot at least worship under the same rules that have applied to the pubs and bars throughout most of the pandemic. They are not allowed that in B.C., and it is not fair, frankly.

Enough is enough. Let us get the vaccinations done. Let us get the shots in their arms. Canadians have had enough, and we need to move forward.

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

12:45 p.m.

Liberal

Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON

Madam Speaker, I appreciate listening to the member speak. He speaks with a lot of passion about his community and the area he represents, and that is always extremely encouraging. However, he only spoke about why this needs to get done. I do not think anybody would disagree with him on that. As a matter of fact, I can pretty much assure him that every member would vote in favour of this motion if it was a reality. Going back to the NDP question that was asked of the previous Conservative member, can the Conservatives explain to us how it is possible to do this?

NDP and Bloc members have talked about the numbers. They have plainly laid out that it is not possible to accomplish what the Conservatives put in their motion. I do not need to hear about the why; I need to hear about the how.

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

12:45 p.m.

Conservative

Brad Vis Conservative Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC

Madam Speaker, we are in the House today because it is incumbent upon the opposition to continue to push and fight for the government to give us a plan on how it is going to move forward. To the NDP and Bloc Québécois members of the House, it is not just the Conservatives saying this. The Minister of Health in British Columbia said that the Liberal delivery of vaccines has been unpredictable. The Auditor General found that the Liberal government failed to test the pandemic response plan with the provinces.

The government is responsible for the sacrifices that Canadians are making, and all they are asking for in return is a plan, a way to move forward, a way to get their rights back.

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

12:45 p.m.

Bloc

Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC

Madam Speaker, obviously, like my colleague from Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, I would like life to go back to normal. Vaccination is the solution, and we agree that mistakes have been made.

However, the Conservatives' motion is unclear. How many doses do they want each person to receive by the May long weekend, one or two? Do they expect 100% or 80% of the population to receive the vaccine by then, or just those who want it? How many doses of vaccine does the Conservative Party want to receive in the next 21 days?

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

12:45 p.m.

Conservative

Brad Vis Conservative Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from the Bloc Québécois for her question.

In my province of British Columbia, I think that less than 2% of the population have received both doses. That is simply not enough.

Yesterday, in British Columbia, the CBC covered the vaccine pop-up clinic in Surrey—Newton. Hundreds of people waited all day long because they were promised a vaccine. However, hundreds of people were turned away when they ran out.

Hope is waning thin. People are frustrated. My young constituents want to play rugby and soccer and get outside and play lacrosse. They want their lives back.

The government needs to be clear with its contracts. It needs to be open and transparent. It also needs to work with our provincial counterparts on a proper plan to get people vaccinated now.

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

12:45 p.m.

NDP

Heather McPherson NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB

Madam Speaker, my colleague speaks with great passion about his riding, and it was a pleasure to hear his intervention.

Of course, like many of my colleagues in the House, I have concerns about the realistic nature of the motion that the Conservative Party has brought forward. However, I want to ask him about something else. He touched on getting vaccines for essential workers and getting vaccines into the arms of those who are most at risk and most vulnerable.

Does he feel the federal government has a role to play here? Should it step in when provinces, like my province of Alberta, have not done a good job of making sure that front-line health workers, teachers, firefighters and first responders are getting vaccinated? Does the federal government have a role to step in at that point?

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

12:45 p.m.

Conservative

Brad Vis Conservative Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC

Madam Speaker, the federal government has a responsibility to indigenous Canadians and to federal front-line health care workers. The federal government should focus on getting those people vaccinated first.

The reality is that if we talk to any provincial leader, they will say, as they have said consistently, that they have not received enough vaccines. I believe the provincial governments, irrespective of where they are in Canada, want to get vaccines in people's arms as quickly as possible. I believe the federal government wants to do that too. However, they are not moving fast enough.

We can look at how much money we have spent over the last year and at what we have done. We got the emergency benefits done quickly—

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

12:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès) Liberal Alexandra Mendes

Resuming debate, the hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages.

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

12:50 p.m.

Orléans Ontario

Liberal

Marie-France Lalonde LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages (FedDev Ontario and Official Languages)

Madam Speaker, I would like to inform the House that I will be sharing my time with the member for Central Nova.

I would like to begin by thanking all the residents of Orléans for the support, strength and community spirit they have shown in the past year.

I know that the pandemic has been difficult. Our lives have been affected at many levels. We have been unable to get together, it is difficult to work, and our friends and family are too far away, not to mention that some of us have tragically lost a loved one.

Normalcy still seems difficult and too far off, but I want people to know that we are there for them.

I stand here today conflicted. On the one hand, I am pleased to have the opportunity to set the record straight and reassure my constituents, and indeed all Canadians, that not only is there a robust vaccination procurement plan in place, but it has proven itself effective time and again, from initial negotiation to first deliveries to ongoing relationship building to accelerating doses to, just recently, an announced future deal to continue protecting Canadians. On the other hand, I am disappointed that this oddly partisan attempt at distracting and muddying the waters is the debate the opposition Conservative Party has chosen to engage in.

As a mother, I can tell members that I remember being disappointed when I knew my daughter was testing me, as all children do, when she presented facts to suit her stories, rather than just being honest when she was wrong. I feel much the same way today.

In order to help Canadians better understand the situation and to make sure that the opposition is on board, I think it is important to remind the hon. member and her colleagues of certain key facts. These facts are far too often ignored because they do not reflect in any way the nonsensical idea put forward in this motion.

Here is the first fact: When the Conservatives said that Canada would need a decade to get the vaccine, they were wrong. Here is a second fact: When the Conservatives said that Canada was at the end of a vaccination queue of 2.5 billion people, they were wrong.

Facts matter. It is our duty as members of Parliament to come together, to unite and to contribute to the collective effort needed to put this pandemic behind us.

I do not believe that anyone here is deliberately trying to make the situation worse, and I think that saying so today is dangerous and extreme. Too many of us were unable to say goodbye to family, neighbours, friends and colleagues. In my pre-politics career and every day since then, I have seen countless ways of fulfilling our duty toward our communities and Canadians in general. This motion does not fulfill that duty.

As we have said time and again, fighting this pandemic is, was and will remain our top priority until every Canadian who wants a vaccine has one. This is why the member's flawed timeline is so concerning, as she proposes a motion that does not appear to support the facts.

As part of our vaccine procurement plan, the plan opposition members have so frequently questioned even existing, we have not only delivered doses on time but have in fact exceeded timelines and expectations through constructive relationship-building with our vaccine suppliers. We are aggressively negotiating to continue accelerating doses. These are steps the member's proposal seems to miss.

The fact is that we have accelerated 3.5 million doses into Q1, an increase of more than 58%, and are accelerating 20 million doses by the end of Q2, an increase of 68%.

The fact is that beginning in December, and as of today, over 15 million doses have been delivered to Canada, over 30% of Canadians have received at least one dose and by the end of June, Canada will have received a minimum of 48 million doses total.

It is for these reasons that I challenge the member's choice of date. It is not based on science. I suspect it is not based on knowledge of the global supply chain. Nor would it be founded in knowledge of the scientists and production realities. It may be attention-grabbing, because it is not based on reality or facts and is designed to fail. That kind of partisan ploy is not going to help us meet the challenges of overcoming the pandemic together any faster.

The constituents of the member from Calgary, and indeed all Canadians, deserve better.

More than ever, it is time for us in team Canada to put our nose to the grindstone and focus on the enormous responsibility of ensuring that all Canadians who want to be vaccinated get their shots as soon as possible; to make sure that, in the future, we have protective measures in place against variants of concern; and to consider the recovery not only of Canada’s economy, but also of all the communities that make up each of our ridings.

We owe it to the people who voted for us to present a clear plan that works, not a plan doomed to failure from the start, designed to advance a political agenda.

I would like to help my colleagues make sure they understand the scientific basis of our plan, the facts that led to our decisions and the realities of this unprecedented situation.

By proposing a plan that has little hope of succeeding, the hon. member is undermining the extraordinary work that has been done to meet the challenges posed by the pandemic. As soon as the first new coronavirus genome sequence was identified in January of last year, scientists in universities and the industry went to work. Governments around the world joined forces to collaborate on an unprecedented scale to develop safe and effective vaccines.

As of today, more than 12 million doses of vaccine have been administered to Canadians across the country. This number will continue to rise rapidly thanks to our approach involving a diverse portfolio of vaccines from seven suppliers, allowing us to provide Canadians with different options and millions of doses of effective vaccines.

Our plan was based on science. Our work was guided by our COVID-19 vaccine task force, made up of experts and industry leaders, which provided scientific and technical advice to make sure that our plan was as robust and flexible as possible to meet the challenges we are facing.

As of today, we have received over 15 million doses to, and more are coming in each week. We are continuing to ask our public servants to go above and beyond for Canadians.

I am very happy to be in the House to debate this, because, simply put, we are more than on track. We will continue the work of getting ahead of the virus. Vaccines are arriving and we are seeing our way through to the other side of the pandemic.

Canadians are co-operating and making sure they follow the public health guidelines in order to slow the spread of the virus during this critical period.

The hon. member across the aisle and her colleagues in the Conservative caucus have chosen to play partisan games, but our government is focusing on fighting the virus and protecting Canadians' safety and welfare.

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

1 p.m.

Conservative

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

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for her speech. It sounded wonderful, but in reality, we have a real problem.

When they attack the motion and say that the plan or option we requested is unrealistic, that is open to discussion. However, the fact is that all the Liberal government has achieved so far is a series of failures.

Think about last year, when the government decided to go into business with China, through CanSino. That was the first mistake. The second mistake was not being transparent about the contracts.

Why did my colleague's government do business with CanSino?

Why are the contracts not more accessible, so that Canadians can see what is happening?

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

1 p.m.

Liberal

Marie-France Lalonde Liberal Orléans, ON

Madam Speaker, I am proud to be able to answer my colleague because this is yet another demonstration of the partisan ploys we are dealing with.

From the outset, we have done whatever it took for Canadians. Let us remember what we were hearing in our ridings. Canadians were faced with an unprecedented pandemic. We offered financial support, and as soon as the vaccines became available, we made them available to Canadians.

As of today, over 15 million vaccines have been delivered to Canada, and over 30% of Canadians have received their first dose.

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

1 p.m.

Bloc

Monique Pauzé Bloc Repentigny, QC

Madam Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to salute my colleague and fellow member of the all-party juvenile diabetes caucus.

The vaccination rollout did not get off to a good start, but we do believe that the government will meet its goal of vaccinating the entire population by the end of September. I also agree with my colleague that the Conservative motion is unrealistic. It really seems to me that we could have spent the day talking about something else. The Bloc makes its own choices.

The fact remains that we are in the middle of a third wave. What is the reason for this? Yes, there have been delays in the delivery of vaccines, there were three months of dithering, and the number of variants has grown, but there have also been flaws in the management of the borders.

My colleague talked about the good parts of the Liberal plan, but there are also shortcomings in this plan, and I would like her to comment on that.

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

1 p.m.

Liberal

Marie-France Lalonde Liberal Orléans, ON

Madam Speaker, I salute my dear colleague. We are both members of this all-party caucus, and it is always a pleasure.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, our actions have prioritized the health and safety of Canadians. Our border measures are among the safest for people, and we have added or enhanced a number of measures in recent months in response to these variants from overseas.

The government wants to protect Canadians. We also need to ensure that Canadians who wish to return to Canada can do so, because that is of the utmost importance. I think that the actions we take together as parliamentarians are important.

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

1 p.m.

NDP

Alexandre Boulerice NDP Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech.

The health and safety of all Quebeckers and Canadians depends on the percentage of our population that is vaccinated. We all have to work together to make that happen as soon as possible.

Our collective safety also depends on vaccination rates in other countries because we are fighting a global pandemic. To make sure the world's poorest countries have access to vaccines, would my colleague be prepared to waive or lift the intellectual property rules that apply to these vaccines?

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

1 p.m.

Liberal

Marie-France Lalonde Liberal Orléans, ON

Madam Speaker, I have mixed feelings about my colleague's question and his proposed solution.

I am proud that our country, Canada, has contributed over $220 million to the COVAX program to honour its commitment to help other countries. I know that Minister Gould and our government—

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

1 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès) Liberal Alexandra Mendes

I would remind the hon. parliamentary secretary not to use other parliamentarians' names.

Resuming debate. The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

1:05 p.m.

Central Nova Nova Scotia

Liberal

Sean Fraser LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and to the Minister of Middle Class Prosperity and Associate Minister of Finance

Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure, as always, to participate in debate in the chamber, albeit virtually. Of course, the reason I am here virtually is a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has recently thrown my home province of Nova Scotia into a lockdown that will last at least a couple of weeks.

The past year and a half or so has been immensely challenging. Families have struggled to find child care when their workplaces shut down. Folks have lost loved ones who have passed, unfortunately and tragically, as a result of this pandemic. Young people have had years of sporting events, graduations and social relationships interrupted and it has cast, frankly, bleak prospects on their potential for short-term economic opportunities.

We know that all these challenges, and this pandemic more broadly, will end with a vaccine, and the vaccine strategy of the Government of Canada is what this motion today purports to be all about. Unfortunately the motion on the floor today seems as much about an attempt to score partisan points than it does to actually advance public health.

The motion seems to rely on misinformation, either in word or in spirit. It further ignores the very important need of supplementary public health measures to complement a vaccine procurement strategy if we are to bring an end to the COVID-19 pandemic with minimal impact on human health, on economic outcomes and on civil liberties for the people who are living through months-long lockdowns in other parts of Canada.

Over the course of my remarks, I hope to touch on the current status of the vaccine deployment in Canada, comment on the rollout of the strategy from the beginning and then discuss a bit of the importance of those other public health measures.

When it comes to the current status, despite claims throughout the course of this pandemic from my Conservatives colleagues and friends, including the leader who said that Canada was at the back of the line or their health critic who predicted Canada would not have vaccines until the year 2030, Canada currently sits third in the G20 in terms of the number of doses that have been delivered to our country per population.

To date, more than 30% of Canadians have received a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. I am very pleased to share that just recently my mom and dad were two of those Canadians who did receive their first dose. About 15.7 million Canadians so far have received a dose and we predict that by the end of June, we will be in the ballpark of 50 million doses administered across Canada.

Is this perfect? No, However, when I look at the international comparators, it is actually quite good. The reality is that we are on track to have everyone in Canada, who would like one to receive their first dose, vaccinated by the end of June and have everyone be fully vaccinated by the end of September. With any luck, we could potentially be slightly ahead of that schedule.

In particular, regarding the Pfizer vaccine, which has in some ways become the workhorse of the government's portfolio of products, we anticipate that through the month of May we will have about two million doses per week, and more as we head into June.

That gives a snapshot of where we exist today, but to get to where we are today was not by coincidence; it took a lot of work. To see the Conservative motion on the floor, arbitrarily saying that within about three and a half weeks everybody should be vaccinated, without explaining how to get there, says to me that the motion was never intended to be taken seriously but instead was intended to grab headlines. Therefore, let me walk members through what took place to get us here.

The motion accuses the government of delaying the procurement of vaccines, which is ironic to me when the Conservative leader did not even mention vaccine procurement in the House of Commons until the very end of October. By that time, we had already been well under way. I remember speaking to some of my colleagues, from different parties in fact, as far back as March 2020 about the importance of investing in research to discover a vaccine for an illness that did not exist much more than a year and a half ago.

I think it was March 11, 2020, when the Prime Minister made the first announcement of a billion dollars toward combatting COVID-19, which included public health supports for the provincial governments, the purchase of PPE and $275 million toward research, including the development of vaccines.

By April, the Prime Minister had announced a further billion dollars, the “Plan to mobilize science to fight COVID-19”, I believe it was called. Similarly, in that fund, significant funding was dedicated toward the development of vaccines.

At the same time, we were working to develop as many contracts with pharmaceutical providers from around the world to hedge our bets as to whether we could produce a vaccine domestically, given we started out without the biomanufacturing capacity to do so within Canadian borders. We wanted to ensure we gave ourselves every opportunity to have access to the very first vaccines that Health Canada could approve. That is precisely what we have done.

By July and August, we had signed deals with Pfizer and Moderna to deliver tens of millions of doses to Canada. It was shortly after that when the opposition leader started to say that we would be at the back of the line, which actually provoked the corporate head of Moderna, I believe, to state publicly that Canada was near the front of the line for 20 million doses of their product. We were blessed to have the talent at Health Canada to consider these very quickly and approve them. In fact, by December, Canada was among the very first countries in the world to receive any doses.

I will not deny there was a slight delay at the beginning of this year in the delivery of vaccines. However, I should point out that there was a very good reason for that slight delay. The Pfizer plant in Belgium, which has been manufacturing the tens of millions of doses being delivered to Canadians, shut down temporarily so it could ramp-up production to deliver a greater number of doses in a shorter period of time going forward. That is exactly what we are seeing today. Now we are receiving millions of doses by the week, and we are funding the provinces directly, including the $1 billion that was included in the recent budget, for the administration of vaccines within communities and provinces across Canada.

It is important to recognize that we cannot rely solely on vaccines to fight this pandemic. This disease did not exist in human populations anywhere a year and a half ago. We need to implement other public health measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while vaccines are being deployed.

We know there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but if I can leave the audience that may be tuned in today with one message, it is to listen to the public health advice in their communities to protect themselves, their neighbours and their public health system.

From the beginning, we have been focused on some of these other measures, including support for PPE delivered to front-line workers and communities, rapid testing, which is being deployed in my home province of Nova Scotia faster than anywhere in Canada, and the safe reopening of communities part way through the pandemic in between the first and second waves so people could find an opportunity to go back to work and earn a paycheque without putting their health at risk. Of course, we put in serious income supports for households and businesses to ensure they could afford to do the right thing and stay home when that was what was necessary to protect the health of their communities.

In the jurisdictions that have adopted a zero-COVID strategy, which I am the biggest advocate for, we have seen the greatest public health and economic outcomes. Before the spike with the recent third way in Nova Scotia, I will note that we had seen the return of 100% of the jobs that went missing during this pandemic. Our communities were able to enjoy a quality of life that had become rare across Canada and, in fact, the entire world. Importantly, the jurisdictions that have adopted a zero-COVID approach have also seen the fewest restrictions on their civil liberties. If we do the tough but smart thing right off the bat, we have the best outcome and we can enjoy the most freedom in our communities compared to those that do half measures and have terrible outcomes.

This motion seems to lament the use of lockdowns in particular. I am blessed to live in Nova Scotia. Until recently, I could take my daughter to swimming lessons. I could go to a restaurant with friends. We would be careful. We would space ourselves out. We would wear masks, except when we were seated at the table. We could go to a gym if we wanted to. Because we have seen an uptake in cases over just a couple of days, the premier has, in my view, made the right decision to lock things down again, and the public response has been beautiful. People are following the rules, wearing masks, staying home and we are already starting to see a downward trend in the number of cases. I sincerely hope this trend continues. I hope everyone continues to follow public health advice so my home province of Nova Scotia can continue to set an example for the world.

The light at the end of the tunnel is within view. If we dig in now to protect our health and the health of our neighbours, we can get through this and come out at the back end of this pandemic stronger than we were before.

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

1:15 p.m.

Conservative

Dan Albas Conservative Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC

Madam Speaker, my colleague gives a much different perspective being from the province of Nova Scotia. He chimed in on something with which I will agree. First, we should be listening to public health authorities. He also said that if we did what was hard first, then we could get better results and it would make it easier.

New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan and South Korea all instituted very similar policies to his own province to try to keep COVID outside, but his own government has failed. It failed at the border. If we look at British Columbia, we have the highest rates of people hospitalized today because of the COVID-19 variants, which Dr. Henry has said have caused that.

Will the member stand in his place and admit that his government failed to keep COVID out of our country, that those variants that are spreading exponentially are causing the problems and that his government does not have enough vaccine to stem it?

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

1:15 p.m.

Liberal

Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS

Madam Speaker, I will agree with the hon. member that the variants present an immense risk to populations and communities across Canada, but I would urge him to tone down the soaring rhetoric to try to score political points.

I will point out that the vast majority of spread in Canada is the result of community spread. I will point out that we restricted non-essential travel from the beginning of the pandemic and have bumped up those efforts since, including mandatory quarantine for those re-entering.

I would also point out that there is a misunderstanding of what was actually done in Atlantic Canada. We have not prohibited entry into the Atlantic provinces throughout this pandemic. We simply have put severe restrictions on what people can do once they get here.

I would urge provinces right across Canada and in jurisdictions around the world to adopt an approach where people, if they are travelling, are required to stay home once they arrive or to avoid non-essential travel altogether. That has been the advice from the beginning of this pandemic, which both my home province—

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 vaccinesBusiness of SupplyGovernment Orders

1:15 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès) Liberal Alexandra Mendes

Questions and comments, the hon. member for Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d'Orléans—Charlevoix.