Industry committee  Yes, I'm happy to answer, Joanne. The task force was constructed in May of 2020 and held its first meeting on June 16, 2020. Until that time there were other groups that were also advising the government. For instance, the chief science officer, Dr. Mona Nemer, has other committ

Industry committee  The committee was established in early June. As Joanne indicated in her opening remarks, an extraordinary amount of work was done by these volunteer experts in the immediate months thereafter. As soon as the appropriate due diligence could be done both by committee members and th

Industry committee  It's not quite factually correct. The task force was asked to review SIF proposals and international candidates. As Joanne mentioned, CanSino Biologics was one of a number. There were 19 international companies looked at. There were 24 Canadian companies that were examined. CanSi

Industry committee  I think, Madam Chair, with great respect, CanSino was not at the heart of the Canadian strategy, by any means. It was a much more balanced approach. The task force, as Joanne and Mark indicated, recommended strongly for a diversified portfolio across both vaccine platforms and co

Industry committee  CanSino was initially recommended. Then, when further evidence materialized, the advice was given not to recommend pursuing it.

Industry committee  Perhaps I could jump in. Thank you, Joanne. Madam Chair, a very exhaustive effort was done to make sure that the conflict of interest protocols used by the task force were equivalent to those of all major granting bodies. We looked carefully at what CIHR had done. We looked at

Industry committee  All that is disclosed is where the advice of the task force has been acted on by the government. Ministers received a full list of all of the declarations for every item of advice.

Industry committee  We looked at all the other task forces, including Warp Speed. What Canada is doing is largely equivalent to what everybody else is doing. There's a great deal of confidential business information, and that necessitates that meetings be held in confidence, the same as almost every

Industry committee  The conflict of interest protocols went into effect at the very first meeting on June 16. Everybody was bound by them in all of the deliberations between June 16 and the August 5 announcement. They were being adhered to rigorously. The announcements on August 5 for Pfizer and Mo

Industry committee  Yes, indeed. Everything is documented. All of the minutes of the meetings are kept, and letters are sent to ministers, initially Hajdu and Bains, now Hajdu and Champagne. There's full transparency of the decisions the government takes. The task force drew an important distincti

Industry committee  Maybe I could answer briefly. Madam Chair, the honourable member mentioned Medicago. There was direct support, in the order of about $173 million, I think, provided by the Government of Canada to support Medicago. As Joanne indicated, at every opportunity pairing up internation

Industry committee  I'm afraid, Madam Chair, I can't speak fully to what the Americans are doing, and how they can do it. What I can say is that in virtually every case when we interviewed a biomanufacturing company, a vaccine company, it was necessary for the members of the task force to sign non-d

Industry committee  No, we do not.

Industry committee  All of that advice and detail is provided by the task force to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry and the Minister of Health.

Industry committee  I think that—