Finance committee  Thank you for the question. In the legislation, it is prescribed that every use of the authority to stand up a new entity requires Governor in Council approval. The government of the day would need to approve the stand up of a corporation once a proposal is put forward.

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. The intent of the facility is very much to complement the private sector and offer partnership opportunities to companies that might not otherwise have manufacturing partnerships. Between pandemics, one of the roles of the facility will be to produce

Finance committee  It will certainly be part of the facility's mandate. It's certainly something we're looking at and it's part of the analysis of options in the long term.

Finance committee  The terms “drugs” and “devices” were selected to be part of the legislation because they're defined in the Food and Drugs Act. As the name suggests, “drugs” refers to your typical vaccines and therapeutics. “Devices” was included to be very pragmatic. When the facility produces v

Finance committee  Yes, the intent would be to produce the vials and syringes into which the vaccine will go once it's manufactured.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good evening. Clause 261 is a proposed amendment to provide the National Research Council with the ability to incorporate and stand up arm's-length entities such as not-for-profit organizations. Under this amendment, the NRC would be able to establish s

Finance committee  Yes, it is. That's the subject of the next clause as well.

Finance committee  Clause 262 is a proposed amendment to enable the National Research Council to manufacture and produce medical products such as vaccines on a larger scale to respond to pandemics and other public health needs. Currently, the NRC is authorized to produce medical products on a smal

Finance committee  Currently, as announced earlier this year, the National Research Council is negotiating a manufacturing agreement with the U.S. biopharmaceutical company Novavax, to produce their vaccine candidate at the facility.

Finance committee  From the NRC perspective, we're conducting the analysis on the options right now to assess what type of public-private partnership this would best fit underneath. We are looking at various examples and best practices, such as the U.K. Vaccines Manufacturing and Innovation Centre.

Finance committee  I understand. Thank you for the question. There are no current plans to use the amendment for other cases. The intent of the amendment is very much focused on enabling the operationalization of the biomanufacturing centre. Once it's operational, the member is correct that it wo

Finance committee  Go ahead, Christine.

Finance committee  Yes, go ahead, Christine. Thank you.

Finance committee  The legal advice from our Department of Justice colleagues has been that the National Research Council Act wording is interpreted to provide the NRC with the authority today to produce medical products on a smaller scale—things like clinical trials, as noted. The advice was on th

Finance committee  I'll just offer one or two points and then turn to my colleague Christine to expand. To answer the question, there was not a specific quantity identified as part of the legal opinion. It's more of a qualitative interpretation of the current legislative text in the National Resea