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Trudeau pushes back against Premier Ford’s criticism of federal vaccine procurement

Mar 31, 2021 | 6:56 PM

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is pushing back against Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s accusation that the federal government’s procurement of COVID-19 vaccines is a joke.

Trudeau says he has assured all premiers for weeks that Canada would have six million doses by the end of March and Ottawa has exceeded that goal.

He says 9.5 million doses will have been delivered by the end of this week.

Trudeau made the comments during a virtual Liberal fundraiser tonight with Procurement Minister Anita Anand, who is in charge of securing vaccines to immunize Canadians against the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

He says Anand has worked “unbelievably hard” and done an incredible job getting vaccines.

Earlier this week, Ford blamed discrepancies in the per capita distribution of vaccines across Ontario on the federal government’s inability to secure a consistent supply, an effort he called “a joke.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 31, 2021.

The Canadian Press