Moe ‘quite troubled’ by Trudeau’s comments about vaccines

Scott Moe took a jab at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over COVID-19 vaccines Wednesday.

During a media conference, Saskatchewan’s premier said he was “quite troubled” by comments made Tuesday by Trudeau, who suggested residents of other countries likely would be inoculated before Canadians — in large part because there isn’t enough domestic production capacity in this country.

“This is quite the opposite of the assurances that the prime minister has been providing us as Canadians for a number of weeks and even a month or two now,” Moe said. “He had previously indicated that when a vaccine is ready, his government has contracts signed to procure sufficient quantities of the vaccine for all Canadians and in a timely manner.”

Moe, who took part in the media conference by video while he self-isolates after a potential exposure in Prince Albert, pointed viewers and listeners to a media release on Trudeau’s website.

There, the prime minister lays out the contracts and the number of doses the federal government has lined up from three companies that have vaccine candidates.

“The comments that were made by the prime minister were troubling — and they should be troubling for all Canadians, to say the least,” Moe said. “They raise serious questions about these contracts that have been signed.

“What are the delivery dates in the contracts? Why would the federal government sign contracts that put Canada and Canadians at the back of the line? Will the vaccine be distributed to provinces on a per-capita basis as we’ve been told would happen? And most importantly, when will we start to receive the vaccine in our respective provinces?”

Moe said Saskatchewan Health Minister Paul Merriman asked those questions during a conference call Tuesday with his federal and provincial counterparts. Moe said Merriman didn’t get answers to any of those queries.

“So we will continue to press the prime minister and the federal government to provide greater clarity and to do our part to ensure that all Canadians, including those in Saskatchewan, have access to a safe, effective vaccine and have access to one in a timely manner,” Moe said.

The vaccines being made by AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna are still in the testing stages, but each has shown promising results in early testing. Trudeau has said Canada has contracts with all three manufacturers for doses.

Moe said Saskatchewan has been asking the federal government to provide funding to Saskatoon’s VIDO-InterVac to help with the manufacture of vaccines, but that funding has been slow in coming.