MPs PASS MOTION TO SEE VACCINE CONTRACTS
Unknown if government will comply
Opposition party MPS have succeeded in passing a motion requiring the Liberal government to give them access to contracts with seven COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers.
but whether the documents will actually be released to the health committee, and in what form, remains unclear. When asked whether the government will comply and make the agreements available, a spokesperson for Procurement Minister Anita Anand didn’t respond by deadline.
On Friday, the health committee voted 6-5 in favour of a motion, introduced by Conservative MP John barlow, for the documents to be made available to the committee. Five Liberal MPS voted against it, while the Conservative, NDP and bloc members were in favour. barlow initially introduced the motion on Feb. 12, but the committee wasn’t able to hold the vote that day due to a Liberal filibuster.
The Liberals have maintained that the vaccine contracts are covered by confidentiality clauses, and violating those could put the delivery of Canada’s COVID-19 vaccines at risk.
Following the vote, NDP MP don davies said on Twitter that the motion is “great for transparency, accountability and democracy.”
However, even if the documents are released, it remain s to be seen whether they will be made available publicly or only to MPS who sit on the health committee. barlow’s motion is in two parts: it states that if the committee law clerk has already received the agreements as part of a massive trove of documents the government was ordered to disclose by the Commons in October, then the contracts should be prioritized and published. but if the contracts aren’t among those documents, the committee would ask the government to make the agreements available to the committee so members can see them in camera.
Anand’s spokesperson did not answer when asked whether the government has already submitted the documents to the law clerk.
Anand has said the confidentiality clauses apply to the entire contracts, and that she has reached out to the vaccine manufacturers to discuss what can be disclosed.
At the Feb. 12 health committee meeting discussing barlow’s motion, Liberal MP Marcus Powlowski argued Canada shouldn’t be antagonizing vaccine manufacturers by pressing for the contract details.