(Response to question raised by the Honourable Peter Harder on November 30, 2021)

Canada recognizes that there continues to be great need and high demand globally for safe, efficacious and WHO-approved COVID-19 vaccines. Canada is prioritizing sharing doses via the COVAX Facility to ensure efficient distribution and to maximize impact. COVAX provides a one-stop mechanism that weighs global needs and priorities based on access, epidemiological concerns, and absorption capacity.

COVAX uses a transparent equitable allocation framework to determine where doses are sent. The delivery schedule is dependent on the agreement between COVAX and partner organizations, manufacturers, and recipient countries. In the majority of cases, doses donated by Canada to COVAX are delivered directly to recipient countries from manufacturers.

Canada is working closely with COVAX to finalize donation agreements as quickly as possible and to confirm with manufacturers when doses will be available for delivery.

Canada has ensured complementary financing to cover the ancillary costs for all doses donated through COVAX. These funds cover the freight, syringes, diluent, and indemnity and liability costs associated with these doses. Canada is one of only three countries to ensure full funding of ancillary requirements for donated doses.

(Response to question raised by the Honourable René Cormier on December 1, 2021)

Canada has been a strong supporter of AIDS programming globally over the past two decades. The Government of Canada is providing $930.4 million between 2020 and 2022 to support the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and $20 million in core funding to UNAIDS between 2017 and 2022.

With the support of donors like Canada, tremendous results have been achieved, while more still must be done. Thanks to efforts led by the Global Fund, new HIV infections among adolescent girls and young women have dropped by 41% since 2010 in the 13 priority countries where the HIV burden is highest. In addition, the global rollout of HIV treatment over the past decade has saved millions of lives: UNAIDS estimates that 16.6 million AIDS-related deaths have been averted over the last two decades.

Canada continues to promote and defend the comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights of those most at risk of HIV, including key populations. Canada remains committed to end AIDS by 2030 and is proud to be hosting the 24th International Conference on AIDS in Montreal in July.

(Response to question raised by the Honourable Marty Klyne on December 14, 2021)

Carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) is an area of significant opportunity for Canada. It is an essential part of the transition towards a prosperous net-zero future, and will help key sectors compete in a low-carbon global economy.

The advancement of the CCUS industry in Canada will facilitate the creation and retention of jobs in a variety of existing industries and emerging sectors, including heavy industries (such as cement and steel), oil and gas, forestry, electricity, and hydrogen. As such, these jobs will be distributed across the entire country, and draw upon many of the skill sets that are currently commonplace in those sectors.

Through Budget 2021, the Government of Canada committed to providing $319 million to support research, development and demonstrations that would improve the commercial viability of CCUS technologies. This will help Canada achieve its goal of net zero by 2050, while being a global supplier of choice for cleaner energy and innovative new technologies.

The scale-up required in the deployment and adoption of the CCUS technologies will increase high-value employment opportunities in engineering and research, design, and development, and jobs supporting project construction, operations and maintenance.

(Response to question raised by the Honourable Peter Harder on December 16, 2021)

Canada has been a leading international donor to end the acute phase of the pandemic. Canada has committed over $1.3 billion for the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, a critical international partnership to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines which the Prime Minister has championed alongside other world leaders since May 2020. Canada is among the top five donors to the ACT Accelerator to date and remains committed to continuing to support this important global initiative in 2022.

The mandate letter for the Minister of International Development and Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada outlines the government’s commitment to reinforce international efforts to ensure that people around the world have access to health interventions to fight COVID-19, including by donating at least 200 million vaccine doses to vulnerable populations around the world through COVAX by the end of 2022 and providing additional funding for enhanced testing and vaccine production capacity in developing countries.