With thousands of COVID-19 vaccine doses set to expire by the end of this month, the federal government and provinces are looking for ways to swiftly get them in people’s arms before they are forced to toss them out.
To minimize more wastage, the federal agency says it has a few options on its hands, including transferring doses between jurisdictions, donating vaccines and reviewing for any pending shelf life extensions.
Health Canada has revised expiration dates multiple times in the last year, as the companies that make the vaccines were able to get better data on how long the vaccines remained viable.
Pfizer’s shelf life was extended from six months to nine months last summer, and Moderna’s from seven months to nine months in December.
“If the shelf life of the doses cannot be extended, they will be disposed of appropriately,” PHAC said.
Managing vaccines
Provinces say vaccine wastage has been minimal so far, but with a slower uptake of booster shots amid a sixth wave, experts are concerned that not enough is being done to get the available doses into Canadian arms.
“We are allowing them to expire without even making an effort to move them forward and we’re not being transparent about it,” said Kerry Bowman, a professor of bioethics and global health at the University of Toronto.
“We need to make a clear decision as to what we need now and we need a management plan, which we have not seen,” he told Global News.
Donations are one option to manage the supply Canadians are not using.
As part of the WHO-led COVAX vaccine sharing facility, Canada has pledged to donate 38 million doses from its own domestic supplies, and another 13 million from doses Canada bought for itself from COVAX but didn’t need.
So far, Canada has only donated 15 million, but demand has fallen this year as supplies to the COVAX pool exceeded the ability of countries to get doses into arms.
1:06 WHO technical lead says countries need ability to purchase COVID-19 vaccines
WHO technical lead says countries need ability to purchase COVID-19 vaccines – Dec 5, 2021
Bowman criticized Canada for falling short on its promises to help low-income countries, saying it “has not been a priority for Canada”.
While wastage in any vaccination campaign is not uncommon as more doses are ordered than needed, the waste during the COVID-19 pandemic has been “a bit higher than normal,” said Dr. Dasantila Golemi-Kotra, an associate professor of microbiology at York University.
She blamed government miscalculation, problematic public health messaging, COVID-19 misinformation and vaccine hesitancy for the low uptake that is resulting in doses left unused.
“There is a need and the efforts have to be made to tell the public that we are not done with the virus.”
2:01 Thousands of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine doses risk expiring, going to waste
Thousands of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine doses risk expiring, going to waste – Aug 2, 2021
Where do provinces stand?
Global News reached out to all 10 provinces and three territories and asked about their current vaccine stockpile, how many doses have been wasted and how they were planning to manage the supply.
Quebec currently has approximately 3.8 million doses of different COVID-19 vaccines. Some 120,000 doses will expire in May, and another 672,000 in June, a spokesperson for Quebec’s Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) told Global News.
By the end of March 2022, 107,501 doses, of mostly Moderna, were destroyed as they had passed the expiration date, Robert Maranda, MSSS spokesperson, said.
Manitoba has roughly 320,000 COVID-19 doses in stock at its provincial warehouse, which are due to expire in May through August 2022, a provincial spokesperson said.
Since the start of Manitoba’s COVID-19 immunization program, wastage has been limited to two per cent.
“Immunization providers in Manitoba order only enough COVID-19 vaccines to meet current demands,” the spokesperson told Global News in an email.
The province began contributing vaccines for redistribution in late July 2021, said a spokesperson for Manitoba’s Labour, Consumer Protection and Government Services Minister Reg Helwer.
As of early March, more than 182,000 doses had been provided by Manitoba for federal redistribution.
In Saskatchewan, as of April 18, there were approximately 300,000 doses in the provincial inventory, with expiry dates ranging between April 30, 2022 to September 30, 2023.
To date, 2.4 per cent or 71,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been wasted due to expiry out of 3,002,735 total doses received in the province, Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Health said.
“The province anticipates minimal wastage from the current inventory potentially due to vaccine exceeding storage time allowances for refrigerated conditions and punctured vials, as well as exceeding the product expiry date,” the ministry told Global News in an email.
To mitigate vaccine wastage, Saskatchewan has been redistributing doses within the province, offering to other jurisdictions or releasing back to the federal government, the ministry said.
2:01 4th COVID-19 vaccine doses in high demand now that eligibility has expanded
4th COVID-19 vaccine doses in high demand now that eligibility has expanded – Apr 7, 2022
As for Prince Edward Island, there are currently 37,000 doses of mRNA vaccines, which will expire in late 2022, and mid-2023.
The province anticipates that less than 100 doses of vaccine will expire later this month, according to Dr. Heather Morrison, P.E.I’s chief public health officer.
“We will be exploring options in neighboring provinces to reallocate expiring doses to see if they can be used before their expiry date,” she told Global News.
“Some wastage is difficult to avoid given the demand for some vaccines is very low (e.g., AstraZeneca and Janssen),” Morrison said, adding that the province aims to keep wastage to a minimum.
“In the coming months, we do not foresee any other vaccine wastage, due to product expiry.”
2:02 Approximately 10% of COVID-19 vaccines wasted or expired: Alberta Health
Approximately 10% of COVID-19 vaccines wasted or expired: Alberta Health – Nov 17, 2021
In Alberta, to date, approximately 13 per cent of the doses that the province has received from the federal government have been wasted or expired.
“Some wastage is inevitable with the current COVID vaccines, as unused doses from multi-use vials must be discarded after 12 hours, and we are supplying more than 1,000 locations across the province in order to maximize access and help get more Albertans vaccinated,” Alberta Health told Global News.
“A large number of locations serving relatively small numbers of patients each day per site means more wastage,” the emailed statement added.
Canada’s most populous province, Ontario, did not provide any data about its current vaccine supply and wasted doses.
In an emailed response to Global News, Bill Campbell, a spokesperson for Ontario’s Ministry of Health said: “We continue to monitor and ensure vaccines are focused in areas of need while also working with our federal partners to explore opportunities to donate additional vaccine doses.”
Vaccine data transparency
Despite multiple requests, Global News did not get a response from British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick by the time of publication.
Experts say there should be greater transparency when it comes to disclosing vaccine information.
Both Bowman and Golemi-Kotra suspect the secrecy with wastage numbers stems from provinces not wanting to look bad.
“It doesn’t reflect well on the provinces that so much of these vaccines were acquired, and yet many were left unused,” said Golemi-Kotra.
2:27 Ontario won’t say how many AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine are at risk of expiring
Ontario won’t say how many AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine are at risk of expiring – May 28, 2021
Bowman said Canadians have a right to know how much the government paid for the vaccines and what the disposed doses are going to cost.
He believes disclosing this information could in fact help bolster the vaccinations campaign and increase uptake.
Nova Scotia RCMP say their investigation into two suspicious deaths earlier this month has concluded that one man died by homicide and the other by suicide.
The bodies of two men, aged 40 and 73, were found in a home in Windsor, N.S., on Sept. 3.
Police say the province’s medical examiner determined the 40-year-old man was killed and the 73-year-old man killed himself.
They say the two men were members of the same family.
No arrests or charges are anticipated, and the names of the deceased will not be released.
RCMP say they will not be releasing any further details out of respect for the family.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
For the first time in their history, members of the Cree community of Nemaska received a visit from a sitting Quebec premier on Sunday and were able to share first-hand the story of how they were displaced by a hydroelectric project in the 1970s.
François Legault was greeted in Nemaska by men and women who arrived by canoe to re-enact the founding of their new village in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, in northern Quebec, 47 years ago. The community was forced in the early 1970s to move from its original location because members were told it would be flooded as part of the Nottaway-Broadback-Rupert hydro project.
The reservoir was ultimately constructed elsewhere, but by then the members of the village had already left for other places, abandoning their homes and many of their belongings in the process.
George Wapachee, co-author of the book “Going Home,” said community members were “relocated for nothing.”
“We didn’t know what the rights were, or who to turn to,” he said in an interview. “That turned us into refugees and we were forced to abandon the life we knew.”
Nemaska’s story illustrates the challenges Legault’s government faces as it looks to build new dams to meet the province’s power needs, which are anticipated to double by 2050. Legault has promised that any new projects will be developed in partnership with Indigenous people and have “social acceptability,” but experts say that’s easier said than done.
François Bouffard, an associate professor of electrical engineering at McGill University, said the earlier era of hydro projects were developed without any consideration for the Indigenous inhabitants living nearby.
“We live in a much different world now,” he said. “Any kind of hydro development, no matter where in Quebec, will require true consent and partnership from Indigenous communities.” Those groups likely want to be treated as stakeholders, he added.
Securing wider social acceptability for projects that significantly change the landscape — as hydro dams often do — is also “a big ask,” he said. The government, Bouchard added, will likely focus on boosting capacity in its existing dams, or building installations that run off river flow and don’t require flooding large swaths of land to create reservoirs.
Louis Beaumier, executive director of the Trottier Energy Institute at Polytechnique Montreal, said Legault’s visit to Nemaska represents a desire for reconciliation with Indigenous people who were traumatized by the way earlier projects were carried about.
Any new projects will need the consent of local First Nations, Beaumier said, adding that its easier to get their blessing for wind power projects compared to dams, because they’re less destructive to the environment and easier around which to structure a partnership agreement.
Beaumier added that he believes it will be nearly impossible to get the public — Indigenous or not — to agree to “the destruction of a river” for a new dam, noting that in recent decades people have come to recognize rivers as the “unique, irreplaceable riches” that they are.
Legault’s visit to northern Quebec came on Sept. 15, when the community gathers every year to remember the founding of the “New Nemaska,” on the shores of Lake Champion in the heart of the boreal forest, some 1,500 kilometres from Montreal. Nemaska Chief Clarence Jolly said the community invited Legault to a traditional feast on Sunday, and planned to present him with Wapachee’s book and tell him their stories.
The book, published in 2022 along with Susan Marshall, is filled with stories of Nemaska community members. Leaving behind sewing machines and hunting dogs, they were initially sent to two different villages, Wapachee said.
In their new homes, several of them were forced to live in “deplorable conditions,” and some were physically and verbally abused, he said. The new village of Nemaska was only built a few years later, in 1977.
“At this time, families were losing their children to prison-schools,” he said, in reference to the residential school system. “Imagine the burden of losing your community as well.”
Thomas Jolly, a former chief, said he was 15 years old when he was forced to leave his village with all his belongings in a single bag.
Meeting Legault was important “because have to recognize what happened and we have to talk about the repercussions that the relocation had on people,” he said, adding that those effects are still felt today.
Earlier Sunday, Legault was in the Cree community of Eastmain, where he participated in the official renaming of a hydro complex in honour of former premier Bernard Landry. At the event, Legault said he would follow the example of his late predecessor, who oversaw the signing of the historic “Paix des Braves” agreement between the Quebec government and the Cree in 2002.
He said there is “significant potential” in Eeyou Istchee James Bay, both in increasing the capacity of its large dams and in developing wind power projects.
“Obviously, we will do that with the Cree,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
NEMASKA – For the first time in their history, members of the Cree community of Nemaska received a visit from a sitting Quebec premier on Sunday and were able to share first-hand the story of how they were displaced by a hydroelectric project in the 1970s.
François Legault was greeted in Nemaska by men and women who arrived by canoe to re-enact the founding of their new village in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, in northern Quebec, 47 years ago. The community was forced in the early 1970s to move from their original location because they were told it would be flooded as part of the Nottaway-Broadback-Rupert hydro project.
The reservoir was ultimately constructed elsewhere, but by then the members of the village had already left for other places, abandoning their homes and many of their belongings in the process.
George Wapachee, co-author of the book “Going Home,” said community members were “relocated for nothing.”
“We didn’t know what the rights were, or who to turn to,” he said in an interview. “That turned us into refugees and we were forced to abandon the life we knew.”
The book, published in 2022 by Wapachee and Susan Marshall, is filled with stories of Cree community members. Leaving behind sewing machines and hunting dogs, they were initially sent to two different villages, 100 and 300 kilometres away, Wapachee said.
In their new homes, several of them were forced to live in “deplorable conditions,” and some were physically and verbally abused, he said. The new village of Nemaska was only built a few years later, in 1977.
“At this time, families were losing their children to prison-schools,” he said, in reference to the residential school system. “Imagine the burden of losing your community as well.”
Legault’s visit came on Sept. 15, when the community gathers every year to remember the founding of the “New Nemaska,” on the shores of Lake Champion in the heart of the boreal forest, some 1,500 kilometres from Montreal. Nemaska Chief Clarence Jolly said the community invited Legault to a traditional feast on Sunday, and planned to present him with Wapachee’s book and tell him their stories.
Thomas Jolly, a former chief, said he was 15 years old when he was forced to leave his village with all his belongings in a single bag.
Meeting Legault was important “because have to recognize what happened and we have to talk about the repercussions that the relocation had on people,” he said, adding that those effects are still felt today.
Earlier Sunday, Legault had been in the Cree community of Eastmain, where he participated in the official renaming of a hydro dam in honour of former premier Bernard Landry.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
