Madam Speaker, we have known since the beginning of the pandemic that testing and tracing were key components of dealing with COVID. We knew that back in early 2020, yet by the end of 2021 the federal government had procured only 120 million rapid antigen tests for that whole time. That sounds like a big number, but it is not when we consider we have 38 million Canadians. That is about three or four tests per Canadian. In January the government announced that it would deliver 140 million tests by the end of the month, but as of January 21, it had only delivered about a third of that. I am in favour of having many more tests, but as Canadians across the country know, they are having difficulty accessing rapid tests and PCR tests.
This is a large amount of money. The government's spirit is in the right place, but how can it assure Canadians that these big numbers will actually result in tests being procured and distributed to Canadians where they need them?