By Elishya Perera
MONTRÉAL, Québec (CWBN)_The opposition in the House of Commons attacked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday (Nov 25) over the government’s plans to purchase and distribute Covid-19 vaccines.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe claimed that the reality is quite the opposite of the assurance provided by the Prime Minister. “I was very concerned and frankly, quite troubled to hear the prime minister’s comments yesterday that Canada may be at the back of the line when it comes to receiving a vaccine,” he said.
On Tuesday, Trudeau said that his government has signed advance purchase contracts with overseas companies to provide hundreds of millions of doses of vaccines and is prepared for distribution once a safe and effective one is made available. “We’re looking forward to being able to vaccinate Canadians in the coming months,” the Prime Minister added.
Nevertheless, the opposition pressed the Liberals as to when will the vaccine be available and the government’s plans for distributing them.
“Did you even bother to negotiate the right for Canada to manufacture these vaccines at home? Did you? Do we have the ability to do this and when are Canadians going to get these vaccines?” Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner inquired.
“The member opposite was asking what happened to domestic manufacturing in Canada; the Conservative government happened[…]” Trudeau shot back. He said that Canada does not have the ability to produce a vaccine domestically and pointed out that some of the leading pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers, Johnson & Johnson and Merck, closed their manufacturing operations in Canada between 2007 and 2012.
Meanwhile, Minister for Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc said that none of the viable vaccine candidates has been approved by regulators in Canada, Europe or the US, and promised that Canadians will be informed of the plan set up by the government to vaccinate Canadians quickly, safely and effectively in the coming days and weeks.
“The contracts say that we will start to receive the first doses of these vaccines in January and it will ramp up over the months of 2021,” he said.
Edited by Kaveesha Fernando
