Senator Gold: Thank you. That is a very good set of questions. I will certainly make inquiries and be pleased to report back when I get an answer.

Hon. Larry W. Smith: Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. Senator Gold, in November 2020, with respect to Bill C-9, I asked Minister Freeland whether or not the government was using fiscal anchors or, as she put it, “guardrails” to guide spending decisions at that point and time.

The minister reiterated the fact that funding spent to fight the COVID-19 pandemic would be “limited and temporary.”

The question I ask this time around, since we are in version three and four of the COVID outbreak, is very simple: What fiscal anchors, if any, are being used to guide the government’s current spending decisions? Could you please provide us with specific examples?

Senator Gold: Thank you for your question. The Government of Canada is confident that the measures they have put in place — as have been outlined and will continue to be made public in the months to come leading up to the next budget — are the right measures to protect the Canadian economy from the vicissitudes and the forces buffeting it from around the world, as well as to provide a strong platform for Canada’s recovery.

[Translation]

Senator Tannas: Thank you. I agree. It’s time. We need to commit to ourselves, and maybe that’s the Christmas feeling we get out of this — that we commit to ourselves that when we do not have our backs to the wall, we will soberly and carefully come up with a proposal for that kind of statement and that kind of interaction with the House of Commons, such that we really do break this incredible cycle we’re in; being forced to surrender our job for time.

Hon. Leo Housakos (Acting Leader of the Opposition): Would Senator Tannas take a question?

Senator Tannas: Indeed.

Senator Tannas: I will.

Senator Tannas: I must be running out of time, but yes, I will.

[Translation]

Senator Simons: Would the senator take another question?

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, when shall this bill be read the third time?

Hon. Hassan Yussuff: Honourable senators, with leave of the Senate and notwithstanding rule 5-5(b), I move that the bill be read the third time now.

The Hon. the Speaker: Senator White, would you take a question?

Hon. Diane Bellemare: Would the honourable senator take a question?

Senator Downe: Yes.

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Senator Batters, do you have a question?

Senator Downe: Thank you, Senator Batters. There are a couple of things. First, we got a very different bill from the House of Commons than our committee studied. Senator Tannas covered that in detail, so I won’t repeat it.

The second is, and I say this with the greatest respect for Senator Gold, whom I like very much personally, but he’s not a member of the cabinet. If he was a member of the cabinet, his words would carry more weight than they do as Government Representative in the Senate, and it is a division of authority and responsibility that has to be considered as well.

Hon. Pierre J. Dalphond: Would Senator Tannas take another question?

[English]

Senator White: I will.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your very important question, senator.

The government is aware of the studies done by the professors you mentioned. I am friends with Professor Gold. We are not related, by the way.

As I’ve said many times, the government is working with its partners and with international organizations to ensure that everyone in the world can get vaccinated quickly. There are several possible ways to get there, and looking at intellectual property rights is one of them. The government is in talks with its partners to, quote, unquote, “change the rules” on intellectual property, in particular with respect to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, which was signed under the auspices of the World Trade Organization.