The Commons Health committee is set to vote on Wednesday regarding a motion to look into the financial losses incurred by taxpayers due to a vaccine factory located in Public Works Minister Jean-Yves Duclos' riding in Québec City.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the cabinet granted up to $173 million to Medicago Inc. for a facility that quickly shut down and never provided vaccines.“Millions are being wasted and not being accounted for by this government,” Conservative MP Robert Kitchen (Souris-Moose Mountain, SK) told the Health committee on Monday. “That is shocking when we know Canadians who are suffering and struggling to make ends meet.”“The average Canadian that’s out there sits and talks about nickels and dimes,” said Kitchen. Cabinet squandered thousands like nickels and “now they’re talking millions of dollars and they still think they are just dimes,” he said.The Health committee is expected to pass a motion to “hold up to four hours of meetings on the government’s Advance Purchase Agreement for vaccines with Medicago.” The contract called for delivery of up to 76 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines. None were delivered.At different times, the cabinet provided different funding amounts for Medicago, ranging from $150 million to $173 million. However, no assessment or calculation of losses has been conducted.Executives with Medicago, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical Group, announced last February 3 that they were winding up Québec City operations and eliminating 600 jobs.“The business decided to close down,” said Conservative MP Pierre Paul-Hus (Charlesbourg-Haute St. Charles, QC). “We were surprised more than $100 million was spent by the federal government. There didn’t seem to be any oversight.”“Canadians are the ones who have been paying,” said Paul-Hus. “Money has been spent and we don’t know how or why. The company gets millions and then goes back to Japan and the government says, ‘Oh, well, too bad, it doesn’t matter.’ This is serious. There are limits.”Government caucus members acknowledged that the motion was likely to be approved.“It’s good the election is in 2025, so my colleagues have a long runway to be able to get on the soapbox,” said Liberal MP Majid Jowhari (Richmond Hill, ON). “Here we are now with Conservative revisionist history and delay and smoke and mirrors,” said Liberal MP Brendan Hanley (Yukon).New Democrat MP Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway, BC) stated that taxpayers deserve to receive explanations and answers. “Call the Public Health Agency on the carpet here and get them to explain details of how this happened,” said Davies. “Clearly someone made decisions that were wrong and bad and it resulted in a significant loss to taxpayers and we have an obligation as parliamentarians to get to the bottom of it.”“The NDP agrees very much that giving $150 million away to a corporation and getting nothing in return is bad governance,” said Davies. “It cannot happen and we need to get to the bottom of it.”
The Commons Health committee is set to vote on Wednesday regarding a motion to look into the financial losses incurred by taxpayers due to a vaccine factory located in Public Works Minister Jean-Yves Duclos' riding in Québec City.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the cabinet granted up to $173 million to Medicago Inc. for a facility that quickly shut down and never provided vaccines.“Millions are being wasted and not being accounted for by this government,” Conservative MP Robert Kitchen (Souris-Moose Mountain, SK) told the Health committee on Monday. “That is shocking when we know Canadians who are suffering and struggling to make ends meet.”“The average Canadian that’s out there sits and talks about nickels and dimes,” said Kitchen. Cabinet squandered thousands like nickels and “now they’re talking millions of dollars and they still think they are just dimes,” he said.The Health committee is expected to pass a motion to “hold up to four hours of meetings on the government’s Advance Purchase Agreement for vaccines with Medicago.” The contract called for delivery of up to 76 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines. None were delivered.At different times, the cabinet provided different funding amounts for Medicago, ranging from $150 million to $173 million. However, no assessment or calculation of losses has been conducted.Executives with Medicago, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical Group, announced last February 3 that they were winding up Québec City operations and eliminating 600 jobs.“The business decided to close down,” said Conservative MP Pierre Paul-Hus (Charlesbourg-Haute St. Charles, QC). “We were surprised more than $100 million was spent by the federal government. There didn’t seem to be any oversight.”“Canadians are the ones who have been paying,” said Paul-Hus. “Money has been spent and we don’t know how or why. The company gets millions and then goes back to Japan and the government says, ‘Oh, well, too bad, it doesn’t matter.’ This is serious. There are limits.”Government caucus members acknowledged that the motion was likely to be approved.“It’s good the election is in 2025, so my colleagues have a long runway to be able to get on the soapbox,” said Liberal MP Majid Jowhari (Richmond Hill, ON). “Here we are now with Conservative revisionist history and delay and smoke and mirrors,” said Liberal MP Brendan Hanley (Yukon).New Democrat MP Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway, BC) stated that taxpayers deserve to receive explanations and answers. “Call the Public Health Agency on the carpet here and get them to explain details of how this happened,” said Davies. “Clearly someone made decisions that were wrong and bad and it resulted in a significant loss to taxpayers and we have an obligation as parliamentarians to get to the bottom of it.”“The NDP agrees very much that giving $150 million away to a corporation and getting nothing in return is bad governance,” said Davies. “It cannot happen and we need to get to the bottom of it.”