Peter Black

Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Jan.31, 2024

Members of the House of Commons standing committee on health will be able to see the unredacted vaccine supply contract between the federal government and the now-defunct Quebec City-based Medicago biomedical research and manufacturing company.

A spokesperson for Health Minister Mark Holland confirmed the contract would be made available in compliance with the committee’s request in a motion passed at a Jan. 19 emergency meeting Conservative party members had requested. 

Alexandra Maheux, director of communications for the minister, said in an email to the QCT, “As always, we will uphold the request of the committee.” She said the committee clerk could provide further information on when the contract would be made available. 

Conservative MPs have been demanding to see the unedited contracts with Medicago to find out what happened with millions of federal dollars accorded to the company during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When the race was on to develop a vaccine, the federal government invested $173 million in Medicago to develop its homegrown, plant-based serum. The company also got a $150-million non-refundable advance to speed along production of its vaccine. 

Medicago eventually developed a vaccine that was approved by Health Canada, but by then other manufacturers had captured the market as vaccination campaigns intensified. What’s more, the World Health Organization refused to approve the Medicago vaccine because tobacco giant Philip Morris had a stake in the project through Mitsubishi, the Japanese parent company. 

In February 2023, Mitsubishi shuttered Medicago, including a massive $245-million plant under construction in Beauport. Since then, the federal government has recovered some $40 million of its investment, and the company’s research and intellectual property has been secured and farmed out to other Canadian companies.

The Conservatives, in tandem with the Bloc Québécois, have been seeking answers from the government since The National Post reported in November “that the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) wrote off $150 million last fiscal year for an ‘unfulfilled contract by a vendor’ with no expectation of recovering the money.”

Using a committee order normally reserved for emergency sessions, the Conservatives convened the Jan. 19 meeting which passed an amended motion, supported by Liberal and NDP members, to produce the unredacted document.

The Conservatives had wanted all documents related to Medicago to be made public without restrictions, with six days of committee hearings with government witnesses scheduled to study them.

The document, once produced, will be available for viewing by committee members for a week, but “under the supervision of the clerk and [on condition] that no personal mobile, electronic or recording devices of any kind be permitted in the room that week; and that no notes be taken out of the room.”

Charlesbourg–Haute-Saint-Charles MP Pierre Paul-Hus was a substitute member of the committee debating the motion. The Conservatives on the committee released a statement afterwards condemning the “cover-up coalition” for not releasing unredacted documents related to the federal government’s dealings with Medicago.

A Liberal member of the committee, Marcus Powlowski, criticized the Conservatives for calling an emergency meeting to discuss the Medicago dealings instead of what he described as more pressing issues, such as the opioid crisis or a women’s health study.

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The Medicago plant in Beauport was closed last February as it was nearing completion. 

Photo from QCT archives via CBC