The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - The Liberals’ Ongoing Vaccine Failure

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprint. It is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your

00:00:09.040 host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton Corps with the likes Brock.

00:00:12.620 Thank you once again for joining us. I know I say it each and every week, but we do have

00:00:16.840 an amazing show lined up for you. I'll get to who our guest is in just one second. But

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00:00:36.380 program, help us push back against the ever-moving liberal agenda. And of course, a friendly

00:00:41.020 reminder, if you can't watch it all today, right this second, please download it later

00:00:45.340 on. Listen to us on platforms like CastBox, iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, you name it.

00:00:50.820 It is out there. Now, to our guest, we welcome back to the show, Michelle Rempel-Garner, the

00:00:56.960 Shadow Minister for Health. She's also the Member of Parliament for Calgary Nose Hill, a friendly

00:01:01.960 face on the show. We thank you once again for joining us.

00:01:05.440 Thanks for having me, Jamie.

00:01:06.820 All right. We're talking vaccines today. We're talking about procurement. We're talking about

00:01:11.280 getting the economy back on track. Let's talk about vaccines first. A new poll coming out today

00:01:16.140 shows 70% of Canadians believe the federal government is responsible for Canada falling

00:01:21.480 behind on these vaccinations. What the heck is going on, Michelle?

00:01:25.800 Well, Jamie, we're a year into COVID. And, you know, around the world, we've seen things

00:01:32.840 like rapid tests, therapeutics and vaccines be developed so that we don't have to just be

00:01:38.640 relying on lockdowns anymore. And I know a lot of people who are probably listening to this

00:01:43.100 are just they've had enough. And so it is the federal government's responsibility to get those

00:01:48.220 tools to the Canadians. Now, you know, I really wanted the federal government to succeed in this

00:01:54.140 because, you know, I wanted us to go back to normal. But the reality is, is that anybody who's

00:01:58.960 listening to this right now, if they wanted to go out and get a vaccine, there's not a lot

00:02:05.120 available in Canada. And that's because the federal government has failed to secure the those

00:02:11.520 life-saving products for Canadians. You know, what we've been focusing on now is figuring out a path

00:02:16.840 forward. And, you know, I'm really glad to be on the show today to talk a little bit about how we got

00:02:21.040 here and where we can go in the future so that, you know, Canadians have some hope.

00:02:26.240 Well, it looks like according to the world rankings, vaccine doses administered per 100 people,

00:02:32.200 Canada is behind, well behind Romania, and it's just ahead by a smidge,

00:02:37.920 China and Russia. So that, what is, what has happened? How did we get to the point where we

00:02:43.340 are being passed by countries and nothing, no disrespect to Romania, but to other G7 countries

00:02:49.800 that are way ahead of Canada? Yeah. And I mean, congratulations to Romania, you know. Absolutely.

00:02:55.740 Absolutely. I, so how did we get here? First of all, I, if you go back a year, I really don't think

00:03:03.060 the Trudeau liberals took COVID seriously. Like you remember sitting in the House of Commons with me

00:03:08.320 where, you know, they were repeating lines, like there's no evidence of, of human to human,

00:03:13.040 human transmission of COVID, that the, you know, the masks don't work. We don't need to close the

00:03:18.860 borders. So I really don't think they were taking it seriously. That's in those critical first couple

00:03:23.700 of months. That's problem number one, because they weren't taking it seriously. I don't think that

00:03:28.880 they approached the question of how do we get vaccines in any sort of way that resembled the

00:03:34.520 type of leadership that you need to get the job done on a project like that. We didn't, most other

00:03:39.940 countries, like if you look at the US, they had Operation Warp Speed, the European Union had these

00:03:45.180 like big, fast moving task forces that got serious about that, that challenge. Canada didn't have a similar

00:03:53.620 group until I think it was the summer. So, and during that time period, the Liberal government

00:03:59.840 decided to invest only with a company that was essentially owned by the Chinese government. And

00:04:06.080 that deal fell through. So what ended up happening long and the short of it is we wasted six valuable

00:04:11.820 months. During that time period, we didn't invest in, in any sort of meaningful way, bolstering

00:04:19.620 domestic manufacturing capacity here in Canada, which meant that we relate to the table negotiating

00:04:25.140 contracts that the world had already negotiated with, with other, you know, the big pharmaceutical

00:04:29.940 companies like Pfizer. And what that meant was, as you're seeing today, we're at the back of the line

00:04:35.120 for receiving vaccines. We're completely at the mercy of other countries who are producing these 0.96

00:04:40.820 vaccines for us to purchase, you know, which is why we're looking at, you know, potential export

00:04:45.420 restrictions from the European Union on vaccines, which is where we get a lot of these vaccines.

00:04:49.300 So we're not in a great position right now. You know, and I really, I think that our team,

00:04:54.980 our party has done a really good job of saying we can't continue on this path, we need to admit

00:05:00.180 that there's a problem, and then work to fix it. So that's been the focus of our team across our

00:05:07.400 caucus, as you well know, over the last several months. And, you know, I'm glad to see that there

00:05:13.840 is some movement, we need to succeed in this. But, you know, I, the Trudeau government should be held

00:05:20.800 to account. I worry, Jamie, that like, you know, clearly, they failed on vaccines.

00:05:26.400 I want them to succeed. But, you know, if they failed on vaccines so far, I worry about the

00:05:33.440 economic recovery and what comes next. And I think, you know, I would just encourage anyone

00:05:38.480 who's listening to this, regardless of how you vote, to really be holding the federal government

00:05:42.640 to account for better.

00:05:43.680 Perfect. I'm going to get on the topic of recovering with the economy in just one second.

00:05:49.060 But the other piece of the puzzle, too, and you mentioned it earlier on, is the ability to

00:05:55.540 create and produce our own vaccines domestically. And there have been a number of companies that

00:06:03.500 have expressed willingness to do that here in Canada. But they've been, their requests have

00:06:08.360 been basically falling on deaf ears in Ottawa. And one of the companies, I don't, you don't have

00:06:13.340 to mention that specifically, but there's one company in Calgary that has tried to reach

00:06:17.280 out many times to the federal government that said, yes, we can take over the facility in

00:06:20.840 Montreal, we can have vaccines coming out of that facility, and nothing.

00:06:27.380 Yeah, no, it's, it's certainly a challenge. I mean, I don't understand why the strategy from

00:06:34.480 the federal government was just to try and get vaccines from other countries. I mean, it doesn't

00:06:39.720 take a rocket scientist to figure out, like, even just looking back at the start of the pandemic,

00:06:44.780 countries around the world were hoarding personal protective equipment. Remember, we had all that

00:06:48.800 trouble getting masks and gloves, and we, to a certain extent, we still are. So vaccines shouldn't

00:06:54.440 have been a stretch to imagine like we need our own capacity. We actually just had the company that

00:07:00.040 you referred to, the Providence Pharmaceuticals out of Calgary, they have the capacity to produce

00:07:06.520 the type of vaccine that is, according to recent data, the most effective against emergent variants.

00:07:15.120 And, you know, the testimony that they had at committee was really quite shocking in that,

00:07:18.640 you know, we asked them, what, did the federal government take your call? And the answer was

00:07:24.400 just one word, it was no. And that's crazy. So I don't know who was giving the advice and who was

00:07:31.520 taking the advice to only be looking at, you know, purchasing from other countries, we should have

00:07:37.340 been bolstering this. And is it possible? Yes, the United Kingdom, they were in the same boat we were

00:07:42.660 at the start of the pandemic, they invested, they scaled up technology, and now they're producing

00:07:46.900 their own vaccines and distributing it. So, you know, I, again, I think that this is a question of

00:07:53.660 leadership. I don't think that Justin Trudeau, he clearly didn't have the leadership capacity to

00:07:58.080 manage through this. We need strong leadership to address these challenges so that we're not in the

00:08:04.300 same, having the same conversation in a year. And to your point as well, like, we also need to be

00:08:09.380 talking about recovery. And these two things go hand in hand. All right, let's talk about recovery,

00:08:13.980 because even right at the beginning, if anyone's been following along piece by piece, and it's been a

00:08:18.280 very long year, I think what you said at the beginning is true, people are sick of the lockdowns.

00:08:23.620 If we were, if we were going right back from the beginning, in addition to the border being closed

00:08:29.820 right away, you and our previous health clinic, Matt Jenneru, were talking very loudly and very often

00:08:35.960 about rapid tests. And this is a very important piece to this reopening of the economy.

00:08:42.400 Absolutely. I mean, when I started asking questions about rapid testing in September, the,

00:08:47.440 the first, you know, response, it was very flippant, I got from the health minister was,

00:08:52.020 well, nobody has applied. And it's like, well, these, these things are in the precious commodities

00:08:58.080 around the world. And Canada is a relatively small market, we have a very complex regulatory process,

00:09:03.420 the government should have been going out and sourcing these valid, vital tools. And now I just

00:09:08.540 don't understand why they haven't been deployed in areas where, you know, they're prone to outbreak,

00:09:15.140 especially given the questions that we have on vaccine rollout. So, you know, why isn't the

00:09:21.260 federal government taking some leadership on ensuring that they're deployed in, let's say,

00:09:26.180 long term care facilities, or food processing plants, or that they're available to, you know,

00:09:31.720 even firefighters associations, I met with the Calgary area, you know, fire, firefighter union. And,

00:09:38.940 you know, right now, if somebody has any symptoms, they basically have to shut down an entire fire

00:09:43.840 hall for two weeks. So, like, there's tools at our disposal that are much more effective,

00:09:49.660 and more efficient than just mass lockdown. And here we are. And I, what I, what I don't like is

00:09:58.020 that the government is asking Canadians to sacrifice more, when in fact, they should be doing better

00:10:03.100 themselves. And I just, I think, you know, we've had a lot of really cold, dark days, certainly here

00:10:08.760 in Alberta, I'm not sure about you, Jamie, people are tired, people, mental health is a concern, people

00:10:14.560 have lost their lives and businesses, we need a path forward. And, you know, just these continued

00:10:20.120 delays, it's not acceptable, we need a real plan. And, you know, I'm, I'm looking forward to the

00:10:26.500 leadership that our party leader could bring to that question, but also that our team, I know that

00:10:30.320 our team of caucus would not be taking no for an answer, or saying this is good enough. And that's,

00:10:38.840 that's step number one. Absolutely. And it, you know, we talked about the recovery, and we need

00:10:45.300 the small businesses to be there when they, when the, when the lockdowns start to ease up, or when

00:10:52.240 we have vaccinations, or when we have rapid deaths, but we need them to be there. Let's talk quickly

00:10:57.060 about your province, and the kicking that it continues to get by this federal government,

00:11:02.280 Keystone XL pipeline, just to name one in a series, the LC 69, the tanker ban, we're talking

00:11:08.680 recovery, you need the anchors of our economy to be strong. And this government seems to have

00:11:12.840 a real disconnect as to the lives that are being impacted by these decisions in Ottawa.

00:11:20.200 Yeah, I mean, I just, I think there's a lot of people in my community who feel like

00:11:26.120 parts of the country don't care about them. And I mean, it's easy to get to that conclusion,

00:11:32.620 given all the things that you just mentioned. I mean, I mean, it's almost feels like Ottawa has been

00:11:37.840 on a campaign against Alberta. And at a time when, you know, there's a lot of global uncertainty,

00:11:44.320 to put it mildly, you know, you look at the tensions that we have with countries like China

00:11:48.800 and Russia, the, you know, the recent political turmoil that the US has gone through, this is a

00:11:54.720 time for our country to be united. And certainly not at least acknowledging that Alberta was in a

00:12:01.820 massive, you know, economic crisis going into COVID should have been step number one,

00:12:07.060 we've seen no acknowledgement of that from this Prime Minister. And that's, you know, people are

00:12:12.260 furious out here, as they should be. But, you know, for me, it's, it's, yes, Trudeau is the problem.

00:12:18.480 I also hope that people in every part of this country will stand up for my province, I want,

00:12:23.940 I want other provinces to champion my province, I don't want people just to look at the workers in my

00:12:29.360 community and go, Oh, your jobs are dirty, or this or that. It's, we're either united or we're not.

00:12:33.500 And we're coming to a point in our country's history, where we need to decide who we are,

00:12:39.260 and standing up for the right of the people in my community to work in their chosen jobs,

00:12:45.180 is part of that conversation. So this is a time we need to get really serious about recovery across

00:12:51.180 the country, every job matters. But with particular care and concern for the people in my province,

00:12:56.380 who have worked so hard to support our private, our country through equalization,

00:13:01.460 through the production of energy, it's time that the country stands up for us. We've been there for

00:13:07.940 the country for forever. And let's remind Canadians, wherever they are watching, listening to this

00:13:13.660 program, that a strong Alberta means a strong Ontario, strong Ontario means a strong British

00:13:18.760 Columbia, if we're having clean tech development, and innovation coming from British Columbia,

00:13:23.320 we're having manufacturing in Ontario, we're having strong resource development in Newfoundland,

00:13:28.520 it all comes together, we are unified by that. But you can't do it when policies are being

00:13:34.420 implemented in Ottawa by an ideological Prime Minister that is intent, I think, on hurting our

00:13:42.240 resource industry. And it could be mining in Northern Ontario and British Columbia as well.

00:13:46.080 It just doesn't have to be natural gas and oil.

00:13:48.500 Absolutely. And I just, you know, I think, Jamie, this is a question of leadership. You know,

00:13:55.560 we, right now, I feel like, like, this crisis that we're in, a lot of people like haven't gone

00:14:01.720 through a crisis like this in our country, blessfully so, like, like, we've been so blessed

00:14:07.320 as a nation to have long periods of economic stability and peace. And like, this, this is a

00:14:11.720 major upheaval. But I just don't think that Trudeau understands that I think, you know,

00:14:17.320 he went into being a Prime Minister for the Vogue cover spreads for the, you know, international

00:14:22.820 speaking gigs for the we charity tours, right? This is a time where he needed to sit down and say,

00:14:28.720 okay, forget how we do everything, forget, take no off the table, we are getting a vaccine,

00:14:35.540 we're getting rapid tests out. I'm not pointing fingers at other people, I'm taking this

00:14:39.480 responsibility on myself. I mean, like, it's sort of this Churchill moment, in a lot of ways that

00:14:44.660 we're just not seeing that leadership from, from him with regard to, you know, how he's managing

00:14:50.100 the country. And so I do think that we need, you know, somebody who can lead. And at a minimum,

00:14:59.440 Trudeau needs to realize, like, what he's doing is not cutting it, coming out of Rideau Cottage,

00:15:05.120 and, you know, smiling and giving, you know, lies to the Canadian public, and then having that carried

00:15:11.440 on CBC every day, that is not going to get us out of this. This is serious. And I know we're treating

00:15:18.020 it seriously within our party. But people want hope. And that's what we have to give to them

00:15:24.180 across levels of government right now.

00:15:27.000 Michelle, I know you have to go question periods coming up, you got a couple questions, I don't want

00:15:31.600 to keep you too long. I don't know how else you can build on that. But I always give the guests the

00:15:36.340 final word. The floor is yours. I know I kind of took it away from the health part of it. If you

00:15:41.800 want to bring it back to there, talk about kind of the vaccines, the kind of rapid tests, the economic

00:15:47.420 part of it. If the floor is yours.

00:15:50.960 Yeah, I just, you know, Jamie, I think getting messages out like this, it's so important. And just

00:15:55.560 to anybody who's listening, again, if, especially if you're listening to this, and you know, you're not

00:16:00.440 really politically active, this is a time to be politically active. This is a time to demand better from

00:16:05.380 government, from everybody who's elected, because we, we can't afford another year of inaction.

00:16:12.600 And I just, I really hope that Canadians understand what's at stake with vaccines, with the recovery,

00:16:17.960 with all of these things. And just, just say enough is enough from, from, from the Trudeau

00:16:22.620 liberals. We need better. And that's what we're going to fight for today.

00:16:26.200 I couldn't say it better myself. Michelle Rempel-Gardener, the Member of Parliament for

00:16:29.600 Calgary-Nose Hill, the Shadow Minister for Health. We always appreciate your friendly,

00:16:33.900 familiar face on the show. You will welcome back anytime. And we do really appreciate your

00:16:38.400 message and your enthusiasm for not only getting Canada back on track economically,

00:16:43.180 but health-wise as well. Awesome. Thanks, Jamie. All right. Make sure you stick around for

00:16:47.380 question period. It'll be shared on Erin O'Toole, our leaders page very shortly. And in regards to

00:16:52.980 this program, we do appreciate you coming on. We do appreciate your, your, your participation in

00:16:58.980 the show, but we also need to remind you to like, comment, subscribe, share this program,

00:17:03.920 help us push back against the ever-moving liberal agenda. If you cannot watch us all

00:17:07.720 right this second on Facebook, please download us, listen to us on platforms like CastBox,

00:17:12.320 iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, you name it. It is out there. New content every single Tuesday,

00:17:17.720 1.30 p.m. Eastern time. We thank you so much for joining us. Remember,

00:17:21.180 low taxes, less government, more freedom. That's the blueprint.

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - February 18, 2021

The Liberals’ Ongoing Vaccine Failure

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