Public Accounts Committee MPs Vote to Review Unredacted COVID Vaccine Contracts

A syringe is filled with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in British Columbia on April 10, 2021. Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP, File

MPs on the public accounts committee have voted unanimously to view unredacted copies of COVID-19 vaccine contracts signed between vaccine manufacturers and the federal government.

“Following united opposition pressure, the Public Accounts Committee has just ordered the production of contracts between the Government of Canada and vaccine manufacturers for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines. Now let’s see if the Liberals comply,” said Conservative MP Garnett Genuis on Twitter on March 23.

The same day, cross-party MPs on the public accounts committee unanimously voted to undertake a study of the COVID-19 vaccine contracts between Public Services and Procurement Canada and pharmaceutical companies Moderna, Sanofi, Pfizer, Medicago, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and Novavax.

Within 15 days of the vote, Public Services and Procurement Canada must produce an unredacted copy of each of the contracts and forward them to the clerk of the committee. When the committee members view the contracts, no personal phones or recording devices will be permitted in the room, and no notes will be taken out of the room.

The initial motion to review the vaccine contracts was done in response to two auditor general reports released last December, which related to the government’s procurement of COVID-19 vaccines.

Auditor General Karen Hogan found that while the government had acted urgently to procure 169 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, a total of 35.3 million doses have expired or could soon expire, while another 29.7 million doses are sitting unused in federal, provincial, and territorial inventories.

Previously, Liberal MPs on the public accounts committee wanted MPs to sign a non-disclosure agreement before viewing the vaccine contracts. The amendment to the Feb. 13 motion to view the contracts free of redactions was introduced by Liberal MP Anthony Housefather on Feb. 16.

Housefather argued that because the vaccine contracts were signed at the beginning of a pandemic when “companies were being told to rush vaccine production,” the products were not tested in a “normal way” and the conditions between the federal government and pharmaceutical companies were different. The committee ultimately rejected Housefather’s amendment.

Pushback From Pharma Execs

Before the vote on March 23, executives from the pharmaceutical companies argued in their opening statements to the committee that the vaccine contracts contained commercial and technical information that needed to remain confidential.

Najah Sampson, president of Pfizer Canada, had said the MPs’ request to view the confidential agreements with the government sent a “very concerning signal about how this country upholds its contractual obligations, and could challenge its reputation as a reliable partner for future contracts across all business sectors.”

Patricia Gauthier, president and general manager of Moderna Canada, said that the company’s delivery of mRNA vaccines to the Canadian government was predicated on two “good faith principles”—transparency with the government, and the protection of intellectual property and confidential commercial information.

Conservative MPs on the committee rejected the executive’s claim that allowing the committee members to review the unredacted contracts would harm the intellectual property of the companies. Genuis said as the “chief accountability committee in Parliament,” the public accounts committee needs to review the documents and provide recommendations to Parliament.

Conservative MP Kelly McCauley told the Epoch Times that the pharmaceutical executives had put out “veiled threats” that Canada would lose out on investments if “11 MPs, without any writing tools or any way to document or copy these unredacted documents, in a locked and secured room, were somehow able to leak the information.”

McCauley added that while the Liberals had previously attempted to block the committee from seeing the unredacted documents, “common sense prevailed and they realized there was no ability for MPs to leak information.”

“I’m disappointed we had to go this route, with the Liberals blocking our attempts to see [the contracts], and I’m equally disappointed in the misinformation and false narratives put forward by the vaccine companies,” said McCauley.