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OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday morning he was hopeful Canada’s vaccine timelines could be moved up, but offered no assurance the vaccine rollout here won’t be completed months after the United States.

But late on Wednesday afternoon, a national panel of vaccine experts recommended extending the interval between the two doses of a COVID-19 shot when faced with a limited supply.

Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization’s updated guidance is for the administration of all COVID-19 vaccines currently approved for use in Canada. It says extending the dose interval to four months will create opportunities to protect the entire adult population against the virus within a shorter timeframe.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday evening America would have enough vaccines delivered to cover the entire population by late May. The rollout of those vaccines into arms will follow, but America is still likely to be able to vaccinate its entire population months ahead of Canada.

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Trudeau’s long-held timeline is to have all Canadians vaccinated by the end of September. He held to that target at his Wednesday morning press conference, but said with vaccine deliveries being moved up and new candidates being approved, it is possible the timeline could be moved up.

“We’re very optimistic that we’re going to be able to accelerate some of these timelines,” he said. “We’re going to continue to do everything we can to allow our population to get through this challenge as quickly as possible,” he said.

Trudeau said COVID has had a much more devastating impact on the U.S. and that will have a significant impact on the recovery.

“Obviously, the pandemic has had a very different course in the United States with far greater death tolls and case counts and that has had its own impact on the American economy,” he said.

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner, the party’s health critic, said the government should be providing a clearer, more detailed explanation of its vaccine plan, to help businesses have confidence about what comes next.

“We don’t have any of that data. We don’t actually know what the realistic time horizon is for delivery of vaccines,” she said.

With Canada set to be months behind the U.S., United Kingdom and potentially other countries in the rollout, Rempel Garner said the government should be offering information about what else it will do to ease the pandemic in the meantime.

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“I think we’ll have a problem on compliance and certainty for business reopening, so this is why we’re saying look, be honest with Canadians, and then let’s work together to come up with a plan B,” she said. “COVID fatigue is a real thing. There’s a lot of frustration.”

Trudeau announced that both the government’s rent subsidy for small business and the wage subsidy will be extended into June as the pandemic continues. The extension of the rent subsidy is forecasted to cost an additional $2.1 billion and the wage subsidy will cost the government an additional $13.9 billion.

Finance Minister Chyrstia Freeland said the government would continue to support businesses with the goal of keeping the economy moving so it can resurge quickly when restrictions are lifted.

“Our government will continue to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to help Canadians through this bleak time, to prevent economic scarring and invest in a way that allows us all to come roaring back,” she said.

Biden moved up his timeline to May, from what had been the end of July, after announcing the U.S. government had approved a third vaccine candidate from Johnson and Johnson. Canada is expected to approve that vaccine soon.

Canada received 500,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the first shipment in a total of two million doses expected before mid-May, on top of a further 20 million doses expected between April and September.

Despite all the recent vaccine announcements, Trudeau said it was too early to formally move up the deadline, because there could still be issues with manufacturing or deliveries.

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“These are new processes for new vaccines that are being manufactured in the millions and even billions in order to cover everyone on Earth,” he said. “We’ll be facing continued challenges, which is one of the reasons why we made such a deliberate effort to sign more deals with more different companies than many of our fellow countries.”

While the Biden administration has said it won’t ship vaccines from the U.S. to other countries until all Americans are vaccinated, Trudeau said Biden knows the challenge is global.

“It was very clear that they understand, like us, we know that you don’t get through this pandemic, anywhere, not fully, until you get through it everywhere.”

— With files from The Canadian Press

• Email: rtumilty@postmedia.com | Twitter: ryantumilty

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OTTAWA – Canada’s agreement with COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer Novavax has been released in regulatory filings, showing the drug maker has set delivery schedules, but also has broad leeway to miss them for a variety of reasons.

Novavax was the fifth vaccine maker to submit their COVID-19 vaccine to Health Canada for regulatory approval and could be given the green light as early as April. The company has a deal to provide at least 52 million doses and as many as 76 million doses of its two-dose vaccine to Canada.

All of Canada’s seven vaccine contracts have been kept confidential since they were signed last year and the government has fought moves in parliament to force the disclosure of the contracts. The released contract is still heavily redacted, with all the details on price, deliveries and penalties for missed timelines for Novavax blacked out.

The contract, filed with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, does specifically acknowledge there are many problems that could prevent the company from making its deliveries on time.

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“Customer acknowledges that the delivery schedule may change due to several variables. Including but not limited to speed of clinical trial enrolment and accrual of events, manufacturing delays and/or timing of regulatory approval,” reads the contract. It also specifies the delivery schedule is an “estimate only.”

Under the deal, Novavax is set to deliver vaccines monthly to Canada and like other vaccine manufacturers has quarterly targets, though the specifics of those targets are redacted from the deal. The government agreed to pay up front for the vaccines, in part because the company agreed to manufacture doses ahead of regulatory approval so they can be moved out quickly after the vaccine is approved.

The company’s CEO has said they could produce as many as 150 million doses per month starting in May. They have also signed deals with the United Kingdom, United States and several other countries, but Canada is one of the biggest orders.

If Novavax misses targets it has the opportunity to catch up and if they continue to fail Canada has the ability to cancel the agreement. Canada paid an upfront payment, but it is unclear how much Canada would be out if it cancelled the contract.

The deal does specify the company has to make “commercially reasonable efforts” to deliver on the contract, a phrase, which also exists in the company’s contracts with U.K. and Australia, though its specific definition is redacted.

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On deliveries, the U.K. and Australia’s contract includes similar language, but the U.K deal includes lots of specifics on the company’s commitment to attempt to manufacture the vaccine in British facilities.

The company has also signed a deal to produce its vaccine on Canadian soil, at the National Research Council’s under construction facility in Montreal, but that was not part of the original agreement.

The Montreal facility is expected to take until late December to actually produce doses, and Canada’s first shipments are expected to come from other countries.

The regulatory documents include the detail that the company is committed to go further and will expand its presence in Canada

“The MOU also includes a broader intention for the Government of Canada and us to work together to increase our Canadian presence,” reads the filling. “We will explore a range of partnership opportunities for us to expand vaccine production in Canada, including partnerships with Canadian contract manufacture.”

• Email: rtumilty@postmedia.com | Twitter: ryantumilty