CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

Hello everyone.

Thank you for being here tonight.

Minister LeBlanc and I just ended a very productive First Ministers’ Meeting, our 23rd since the pandemic began. 

Today’s meeting gave us a chance to talk about the work we’ve done together fighting the pandemic, and how we’re helping Canadians and Canadian businesses during this crisis.

Job one remains keeping people safe.

This has been our government’s focus right from the start of the pandemic.

That’s why today, we started our meeting with a presentation about vaccine rollout from Dr. Tam, Major-General Fortin, and President Stewart of the Public Health Agency of Canada.

In just a few moments, Dr. Tam and Major-General Fortin will provide more details about what they presented to the premiers.

Yesterday, Health Canada approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as safe and effective.

We now have a green light on getting shipments delivered and vaccines out to Canadians.

The first 30,000 doses are expected to arrive on Canadian soil in just a few days.

To all Canadians:

If you’re feeling relieved and hopeful – you’re not alone.

This is the good news we all needed.

But remember – this is only the first step in what will be a massive project over a long winter.

I announced to the premiers that the federal government will be covering the cost of these vaccines, as well as the supplies needed to administer them.

Not only will doses be free for Canadians, but provinces and territories won’t have to use their funding to pay for this vaccine.

The Public Health Agency of Canada, Pfizer, and the provinces and territories are working together to finalize preparations for the 14 vaccination sites.

Our government is also enhancing the Public Health Agency of Canada’s IT systems.

The new IT platform for national vaccine management will add to existing systems to ensure that the vaccine is rolled out across the country quickly and effectively.

As I told the premiers, over the coming weeks and months, it will be critical that we continue working together.

We are ready to launch an unprecedented immunization campaign, but I trust our expertise and I know our plan is solid.

Vaccines are safe and effective.

Serious side effects are incredibly rare.

In the very unlikely event of an adverse reaction, though, we want to make sure that Canadians have fair access to support.

So today, I can announce that we’re creating a federal support program around vaccine safety for all Canadians and for all vaccines.

This includes COVID-19 vaccines that will be rolled out soon.

This program is based on the model Quebec has had in place for the last 30 years, and follows the lead of all other G7 countries.

Today, the premiers and I discussed what else we need to do while we roll out vaccines.

The federal government has already covered the cost of billions of pieces of personal protective equipment and millions of rapid tests that we’ve sent to the provinces and territories.

We’ve also provided tens of billions of dollars in funding to the provinces and territories, including through the Safe Restart Agreement and the Safe Return to Class Fund.

This money is for everything from strengthening health care to improving ventilation in schools.

Eight out of every 10 dollars spent to protect and support Canadians through this crisis has been spent by the federal government.

And as I have said to the premiers at our previous meetings, we will continue to work with them to ensure that this help gets to the people who need it.

We are always concerned with ensuring the safety of Canadians, making sure that the middle class, and those working hard to join it, receive the support they need, and laying the foundation to rebuild an economy that is stronger than ever.

And finally, during our meeting, the premiers and I discussed health care funding.

Each week, we’re seeing record COVID-19 cases.

In many regions across Canada, all – or nearly all – hospital beds are occupied.

Our government has already invested in health care workers and in additional support for the health system.

Our priority is to ensure that everyone can continue receiving effective and high-quality care when and where they need it.

As I told the premiers, I know the past months have been very difficult for everyone.

We had a very good conversation, and I proposed many concrete steps during our meeting on the work with the premiers moving forward.

First of all, we all recognized how important it is to support seniors during this pandemic. The challenges that have been laid bare in our long-term care homes require more resources and more work together to deliver for our seniors who are worried. And families who are worried about them. So I proposed moving forward with the provinces and territories on sharing best practices and delivering new federal resources to ensure that our seniors are best protected, and I certainly hope to work with the premiers on that in the coming weeks.   

We talked about the cost of prescription drugs, which is increasing across the country. People are concerned about pharmacare. We also made commitments to move forward on pharmacare. We’ve already made commitments on high-cost prescription drugs. We’ve made commitments on working on a national formulary. And I look forward on working with premiers who are ready on a universal pharmacare system that can make a huge difference, when Canadians are worried about pharmacare, vaccines, and that side of health care. We made a commitment to work together on that.

We know that collection of data and digital transformation of our health care systems is increasingly important. Collaboration between different regions and jurisdictions is going to be important in order to deliver the best, modern health care, including virtual care, necessary to Canadians and there is much we can do to collaborate on that. I look forward to working with the provinces and territories on better use of technology and better coordination of data.

We also talked about long-term system health funding. It’s going to be important that the federal government, as I said, steps up and increases its share of the cost of health care with the Canada Health Transfer. We are going to do that and I look forward to conversations over the coming months about how we can increase it. Premier Legault suggested that our Finance department leaders work together to reach an agreement on the next stages of support, but I’m also looking forward to working with the provinces to deliver a better health care system for all Canadians for years to come. Of course, our focus remains, right now, getting through this pandemic and as I said multiple times to the premiers, we will be there to support them with extra health care costs linked to this pandemic. Whatever it takes, for as long as this pandemic lasts.

We also need to take lessons on public health from what was happening through this pandemic. We talked about the lessons we learned from SARS in Toronto twenty years ago that were applicable during this pandemic, and how we should already start collecting best practices and looking at what public health agencies have learned during this pandemic – to make sure we are ready for whatever the universe throws our way in the coming years or decades.

And of course, we committed to continual, ongoing First Ministers’ collaboration. This was our 23rd First Ministers’ Meeting and I, committed to continuing to meet with them regularly to talk about the things that matter to Canadians – from our health care systems, to the rollout of vaccines that obviously is top of mind for Canadians, and on which we continue to collaborate extremely well.

We’ve been working together because this is just what Canadians do. We’re there for each other.

It was a very good meeting, and there are many concrete steps that I hope we can start working on together.

From the first days of the pandemic when people delivered supplies to elderly neighbours, to the summer when farmers worked hard to get food to our plates, to this winter when people are staying home to protect the most vulnerable – Canadians have each other’s backs.

We’re in this together.

And together, we will defeat COVID-19.

Before I pass it over to Minister LeBlanc, I also want to recognize that it has been two years to the day since Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were arbitrarily detained in China.

Our priority as a government continues to be securing their immediate release.

Mr. Spavor and Mr. Kovrig, and their families, have shown truly remarkable perseverance in the face of an unimaginable situation.

I want to thank all of the countries around the world that have expressed support on this issue.

Mr. Spavor and Mr. Kovrig must be released.

Thank you.

On this first night of Hanukkah, I wish everyone Chag Hanukkah Sameach and pass the floor over to Minister Leblanc.