PM sidesteps questions on how Ottawa will ensure vaccine makers meet delivery targets,
PM declined to discuss penalties to ensure delivery of vaccines
What happens if vaccine companies fail to deliver their guaranteed number of doses to Canada on time?
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won’t say.
Amid ongoing delays in vaccine deliveries, and a new poll showing Canadians losing faith in the Liberals’ handling of the vaccine rollout, Trudeau declined to answer questions from reporters Friday as to whether there are penalties or other measures in Canada’s contracts with vaccine makers to ensure they deliver their doses on time.
Trudeau said he has had direct conversations with the CEOs of Pfizer and Moderna, the two companies whose COVID-19 vaccines have so far been authorized for use in Canada. He repeated that Canada is still expecting a total of 4 million Pfizer doses and 2 million Moderna doses by the end of March.
The CEOs “have repeatedly assured me that Canada will receive those doses that we were promised,” Trudeau said Friday.
“We are very much on track. Those doses will begin to accelerate and come in the hundreds of thousands in the coming weeks, to ensure that we hit those targets for the end of March.”
The federal government has not released the contracts it has signed with vaccine makers, saying confidentiality clauses prevent it from doing so.
Federal ministers also refused at a news conference Friday to confirm if there are penalties or incentives to ensure the deliveries are on time.
Ottawa says vaccine deliveries will significantly ramp up starting in the second quarter, with Trudeau promising that all Canadians who want a vaccine will get one by the end of September.
But vaccine shipments have been hit with production and delivery problems in recent weeks, resulting in Canada receiving less doses than previously expected.
In Pfizer’s case, retooling at its Belgium production plant has led to delays.
There are also issues with Canada’s next shipment of Moderna doses, the week of Feb. 22. The government does not yet know how many doses it will receive. Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, the military commander heading up Ottawa’s vaccine rollout, said Thursday that the delivery will be less than the 249,000 doses originally expected.
Canada received 180,000 Moderna doses this week, less than the 230,000 initially expected.
There’s also the possibility of a third vaccine, from AstraZeneca, being approved within days by Health Canada.
The British-Swedish company’s vaccine — which has already been approved in the European Union, United Kingdom and India — has been in the Health Canada approval process since October.
Ottawa says it has procured 20 million AstraZeneca doses, although it’s unclear when those would start arriving following Health Canada approval. Fortin said Thursday that contingency plans are being drawn up.
Trudeau said Friday he spoke this week with the CEO of AstraZeneca, who assured him the company will fulfil its commitment to Canada.
The federal government is also expecting 1.9 million AstraZeneca doses from the global vaccine-sharing initiative COVAX by June, pending approval from both Health Canada and the World Health Organization, with potentially 500,000 doses arriving before the end of March.
Canada invested $440 million in COVAX last fall, half to secure up to 15 million doses of vaccines for Canada and half to buy vaccines for low- and middle-income countries that can’t afford vaccines on their own.
The government has faced criticism for taking vaccines from COVAX rather than leaving them for lower-income countries, but Trudeau defended the move.
“When wealthier countries invest in COVAX, half of that funding is for funding at home and the other half is to buy doses for low- and middle-income countries,” Trudeau said. “In other words, our contribution was always to access vaccine doses for Canadians as well as to support lower-income countries.”
A new poll from Abacus Data released Friday found that 42 per cent of respondents thought Ottawa has done a “poor/terrible” job when it comes to ordering vaccines the country needs, while 48 per cent said the government is doing terribly at making sure Canadians receive the vaccines in a timely fashion. Speaking to the Ontario Chamber of Commerce on Friday, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole argued that without more vaccines, there is no end in sight for lockdowns that have been imposed across the country.
“Without vaccines, there is no plan to reopen and rebuild our great country,” he said.