Justin Trudeau

[Health, November 25th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, as my hon. colleague knows, we signed agreements with as many companies as possible to get as many doses of the vaccine as possible for Canadians.

We know that that is how we are going to get through the pandemic. We will continue to work with experts to make sure that the vaccines are safe and that Canadians can have access to them as quickly as possible.

I want to point out that three very promising vaccines are currently being examined by Health Canada so that they can be delivered to Canadians as quickly as possible.

[Health, November 25th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to explain to my hon. colleague that we did sign a number of agreements with different companies because this is a new vaccine and we do not yet know which one will be most effective for a particular age group, nor do we know how difficult it will be to manufacture or deliver.

That is why the government listened to the experts. We signed agreements with many companies to ensure that when the vaccines are available, Canadians will receive safe doses so that we can put an end to this pandemic.

[Health, November 25th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, every step of the way, we have trusted experts and scientists to make the right decisions to keep Canadians safe. We have followed that advice. We have made sure that we are delivering for Canadians.

I would ask the member opposite, who understands how important it is to protect every single life, why the Leader of the Opposition took part in events in Alberta without masks or distancing, why his colleague, the MP for Lethbridge, downplayed, this week, the number of deaths in Alberta, or why the MP for Niagara West compared COVID to the flu just a few weeks ago.

On this side of the House, we respect science.

[Health, November 25th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, every step of the way, we have worked with the top experts in this country to ensure that Canada is as best positioned as possible to get through this pandemic. That is why we have invested in pharmaceutical companies and have invested to restore Canada's biomanufacturing capacities, after 10 years of the Conservative government saw most of the manufacturers leave this country.

We are continuing to invest in science and research, despite the years of neglect by the previous government. We will ensure that Canadians get vaccines as quickly as possible. We will get through this pandemic together.

[Health, November 25th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, from the start of the pandemic and at every step, we relied on the experts, scientists, and those who have worked with vaccines and vaccine procurement for years. We relied on the experts. They provided the best vaccine plan of any country. We will continue to work with them to ensure that these vaccines get to Canadians as quickly as possible.

We will do that with a concrete plan to help Canadians. We will get through this pandemic together.

[Health, November 25th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, we have faced all kinds of challenges and issues since the start of the pandemic. We had to move quickly to deliver assistance to all Canadians via the CERB, the emergency wage subsidy and support for small businesses.

We had to deliver PPE across the country. We had to work with the provinces to help them protect their citizens. We worked with experts to secure the best vaccine contracts of any country in the world. We will keep working with the experts and we will keep our promises to Quebeckers and Canadians.

[Official Languages, November 25th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I have a hard time taking the Conservative Party seriously when it comes to protecting French.

Will they commit to appointing only Supreme Court justices who can speak French?

That is a commitment that we in the Liberal Party have made. As a Liberal government, we have fulfilled that commitment three times, and we will continue to do so.

Will the Conservative Party commit to only appointing Supreme Court justices who can speak French?

[Official Languages, November 25th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, we will always continue to protect and promote our official languages.

That is why we amended the long-form census to enumerate all rights holders. That is why we supported Ontario's French-language university and developed a historic $1.7-billion plan to support our communities. That is why we have only appointed bilingual judges to the Supreme Court, something that the Conservatives refuse to do. As we said in the throne speech, we are committed to protecting French in both Quebec and the rest of Canada, and we will continue to work on modernizing the Official Languages Act.

[Official Languages, November 25th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, this government has an excellent Minister of Official Languages who has been working hard for the past several years to protect French across the country and especially in Quebec.

In the latest throne speech, we mentioned how important this is, so I can assure members that we will be moving forward with the long-awaited modernization of the Official Languages Act.

[Health, November 25th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, Canada has the best portfolio of vaccines purchased in the world, including two domestic vaccine candidates, VIDO-InterVac and Medicago, but the member opposite was asking what happened to domestic manufacturing in Canada. The Conservative government happened to domestic manufacturing.

In 2007, AstraZeneca and Bristol Myers closed their Canadian manufacturing operations. In 2010, Johnson & Johnson and Merck's Montreal research centres closed their facilities. In 2011, Teva closed one of its Canadian manufacturing operations. In 2012, AstraZeneca, GSK and Sanofi announced closings and layoffs.

That is what happened to manufacturing—