Pfizer defers vaccine shipments, recommends tax breaks in upcoming budget
Major General Dany Fortin has confirmed that Canada will not receive any Pfizer vaccines in the last week of January.
“We are now seeing that our entire expected shipment is deferred for next week, and then the numbers start to pick back up in the first weeks of February,” he stated. “This week as our shipment was being prepared, there was minimal impact and in fact, we’re receiving 82 per cent of what we had originally planned on receiving. However, next week’s deliveries have been deferred by Pfizer in their entirety. It will start back up in the first two weeks of February.”
The delay occurs amidst an attempt by Pfizer to improve their manufacturing capacity. Minister of Public Services and Procurement Anita Anand states that Canada will still receive the four million dosages it was promised by the end of March.
Despite these hurdles, Pfizer is already thinking ahead to post-COVID world, recommending massive corporate incentives for the pharmaceutical industry in the next federal budget.
“A vibrant and powerful Canadian pharmaceutical sector can play a major position in restarting the economic system and bettering Canada’s self-sufficiency in healthcare, because the nation recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic,” Pfizer reported.
“But for this to occur, Canada should create a fertile and hospitable surroundings to retain and appeal to financial exercise and generate extra self-sufficiency.” However, Pfizer seeks more than just simple cuts to corporate income tax rates.
CTV News reports that Pfizer has pitched the following:
Improve existing legislative tax measures such as increasing the Manufacturing & Processing (M&P) credit which decreases the federal corporate income tax rate;
Repeal or postpone the planned phasing out of the Accelerated Investment Incentive beyond 2023, which offers tax relief on newly-acquired eligible property assets; and
Expand eligibility to certain tax credits so that they are refundable to multinational enterprises, not only to Canadian-controlled private corporations.
“Improvements to tax incentives cannot, alone, succeed in retaining and attracting economic activity in the healthcare sector but they are important building blocks. The overall business environment must be attractive, including clear and predictable tax outcomes," reported Pfizer Canada president Cole Pinnow.
