WAITING FOR A VACCINE

Trudeau plays down fact other countries will get first doses of COVID-19 shot

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sought to reassure Canadians on Tuesday that COVID-19 vaccines will start to arrive in the coming months even as he acknowledged that other nations are likely to start inoculating their citizens first.

“One of the things to remember is Canada no longer has any domestic production capacity for vaccines,” Trudeau said during his regular COVID-19 news conference outside his home in Ottawa.

“We used to have it decades ago, but we no longer have it. Countries like the United States, Germany and the U.K. do have domestic pharmaceutical facilities, which is why they’re obviously going to prioritize helping their citizens first.”

At the same time, Trudeau underscored the importance of getting inoculations to Canadians. “We know we’re not going to get through this pandemic without a vaccine,” he said.

The federal government has signed orders for millions of doses from a variety of foreign pharmaceutical companies in recent months, he said, and Canada has been pushing the international community to ensure equal access for all.

“The very first vaccines that roll off an assembly line in a given country are likely to be given to citizens of that particular country,” he said.

“But shortly afterwards, they will start honouring and delivering on the contracts that they signed with other countries, including with Canada. We’ve secured millions of doses of the vaccines of the various vaccine candidates around the world.”

The expectation is that doses will start to arrive in Canada in the first few months of 2021, he added.

At the same time, Trudeau said, “we’ve begun to invest once again in ensuring that Canada will have domestic vaccine production capacity because we never want to be caught short again, without the ability to support Canadians directly.”

The federal government announced in August that it was contributing $120 million over two years to build a biomanufacturing facility in Montreal that includes the National Research Council.

Trudeau said it will take time for Canada’s own vaccine-production capability to get up to speed.

Conservative health critic Michelle Rempel Garner blasted the Liberals for not moving faster on that front. She also called on the government to provide a timeline for when Canadians can start to see vaccines.