{"id":124587,"date":"2020-12-02T17:32:42","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T14:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/anita-anand-talks-up-ottawas-pandemic-purchasing-plans\/"},"modified":"2020-12-02T17:32:42","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T14:32:42","slug":"anita-anand-talks-up-ottawas-pandemic-purchasing-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/anita-anand-talks-up-ottawas-pandemic-purchasing-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"#Anita Anand talks up Ottawa’s pandemic purchasing plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Anita Anand talks up Ottawa’s pandemic purchasing plans<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n Politics Insider for Dec. 2: The procurement minister shows off the country’s pandemic purchases, the Department of Finance loses its top bureaucrat and watch out for salmonella-spreading hedgehogs\n <\/div>\n
\n Welcome to a sneak peek of the\u00a0<\/em>Maclean\u2019s\u00a0Politics Insider\u00a0news<\/a>letter.\u00a0Sign up to get it delivered\u00a0straight to your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n

It took a pandemic and a prolonged spat about vaccine preparedness<\/strong> for the federal government to show off a shopping spree that produced a pile of new freezers<\/strong>. Yesterday, Procurement Minister\u00a0Anita Anand<\/strong> told reporters her department has procured 126\u00a0cold and ultra-cold storage freezers, 34 of which are already on Canadian turf. They\u2019ll eventually store up to 33.5 million doses<\/strong> of COVID-19 vaccine, which\u2019ll be administered using syringes, needles, gauze, swabs the feds have already bought. Anand\u2019s point: Canada didn\u2019t start preparing for the vaccine rollout yesterday. The feds are on it.<\/p>\n

Those assurances mean little to Conservatives in Ottawa. At a press conference, finance critic\u00a0Pierre Poilievre<\/strong> claimed<\/a> Canada would fall \u201cbehind billions of other people around the world\u201d in getting inoculated. The party\u2019s leader,\u00a0Erin O\u2019Toole<\/strong>, berated Prime Minister\u00a0Justin Trudeau<\/strong> in question period for failing to sign contracts with vaccine manufacturers fast enough (watch their fiery exchange<\/strong><\/a>). At her presser, Anand disagreed. She said Canada was \u201cone of the first countries\u201d to sign with Moderna<\/strong>, the fourth to sign with\u00a0Pfizer\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>and the first country with no domestic manufacturing capability to sign with\u00a0AstraZeneca<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

(Check out the\u00a0Maclean\u2019s<\/em> vaccine tracker<\/strong> that monitors each leading candidate\u2019s progress.)<\/p>\n

The feds have premiers nipping at their heels. Earlier this week, Ontario Premier\u00a0Doug Ford<\/strong> said he was touching base himself<\/a> with the manufacturers as he searched for answers on when Ontarians will see a vaccine.\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s something going on,\u201d said Ford. \u201cEither someone isn\u2019t being honest or there is incompetence, maybe both.\u201d<\/p>\n

Premier app<\/a>roval:<\/strong> Speaking of the first ministers, the\u00a0Angus Reid Institute<\/strong> posted its latest provincial approval ratings<\/a>. See if you can guess, before looking at the chart<\/a>, which\u00a0premiers have the highest and steadiest ratings\u2014and which are now dipping. Suffice to say dissatisfaction is growing<\/strong> on the Prairies.<\/p>\n

Paul Rochon<\/strong> will soon be out as the deputy minister at the Department of Finance. The\u00a0National Post<\/em> broke the news<\/a> that Rochon, the FinMin\u2019s \u201cright-hand man\u201d<\/a> who was appointed<\/a> to the influential post by former prime minister\u00a0Stephen Harper<\/strong> in 2014, will leave within two weeks. The timing of Rochon\u2019s departure note to staff, sent the day after the government\u2019s fiscal update, is conspicuous<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

More than a century after he died fighting the First World War, Pvt. John Lambert<\/strong>\u2018s remains were finally identified<\/a> by Veterans Affairs Canada. Lambert, a Newfoundlander who at 16 years old lied about his age to enlist in the army, died of his wounds on Aug. 6, 1917 during the\u00a0Battle of Langemarck<\/strong>. In 2016, his remains were unearthed and last November, they were identified after \u201chistorical, genealogical, anthropological, and\u00a0DNA<\/abbr>\u00a0analysis.\u201d He\u2019ll be buried at the New Irish Farm Cemetery in West-Vlaanderen, Belgium\u2014which is visible thanks to\u00a0this 360-degree tour<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Monday, as the fiscal update hoovered up all the federal headlines, Treasury Board President\u00a0Jean-Yves Duclos<\/strong> tabled the annual tomes known as the Public Accounts of Canada<\/a>. This is where every cent of government spending is accounted for, from billion-dollar transfers to the cost of lost USB keys. Volume III<\/a> is where you\u2019ll find a line-item listing of all $2.6 billion in settlement payouts<\/strong>\u2014$2 billion of which is under the umbrella of Indigenous Services Canada. Deep in the same volume, the National Research Council notes the theft of 31 laptops<\/strong>, valued at $41,485 that\u2019ll never be recovered.<\/p>\n

Exporting bureaucracy:<\/strong>\u00a0Global Affairs Canada is hiring a contractor<\/a> that can help transform Peru\u2019s civil service<\/strong> into a professional, non-partisan outfit that looks a little more like Canada\u2019s public service. The RFP positions Peru as a potential economic powerhouse hindered by its own largest employer: the government. \u201cGiven the size and duration of its exceptional economic growth in the past 15 years, Peru could have made significantly more progress, however, the country has not reached its potential owing to many factors, including an inefficient civil service.\u201d Cue the jokes about Canada running an efficient government<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Someone at the Public Health Agency of Canada isn\u2019t<\/em> working exclusively on the pandemic. A public alert yesterday reminded Canadians that hedgehogs might give them salmonella<\/strong><\/a>. \u201cKissing and cuddling a hedgehog can spread\u00a0Salmonella\u00a0to your face or mouth and make you sick,\u201d reads the notice, which says 32 cases have been reported since 2017\u2014and the U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control is\u00a0investigating similar outbreaks<\/a>. Wise words from the bureaucrats: \u201cHedgehogs may not be the best choice for every family.\u201d (The $320-million box office haul<\/a> of this year\u2019s\u00a0Sonic The Hedgehog<\/em><\/strong>, released on the eve of the pandemic,\u00a0might prove a certain spiky hero is fun for the whole family.)
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