Representatives from all three levels of government announced joint funding to expand Canada’s vaccine manufacturing capacity in Toronto on Wednesday morning.
The federal government will spend $415 million on the partnership with Sanofi Pasteur Ltd. Ontario’s government will contribute $55 million to the project.
For its part, Sanofi will spend more than $455 million as well as create and maintain 1,225 highly-skilled jobs in Canada. The company will also invest at least $79 million a year to fund Canadian research and development.
“We are now never going to have to rely on any country … so thank you for this,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said during the announcement.
The Toronto Star was first to report the multi-million dollar deal with the French pharmaceutical company, which already has a facility in the city where it produces influenza vaccines.
“Today is an actual, tangible demonstration that we’ve all learned lessons from the pandemic and are doing something about it,” Toronto Mayor John Tory said.
The new money will build an “end-to-end influenza vaccine manufacturing facility,” said a federal release, and is expected to create some 300 high-quality jobs in Toronto.
The new facility is expected to be up and running in 2027, and will have the capacity to produce “enough vaccine doses to support the entire Canadian population within approximately six months of the World Health Organization (WHO) identifying a pandemic influenza strain,” the release continued.
“The investment will enable Sanofi to bulk manufacture Fluzone High-Dose Quadrivalent Influenza Vaccine, a flu vaccine approved for people 65 years and older, at its historic Connaught site in Toronto,” a provincial release said.
The government officials will likely take questions about the COVID-19 pandemic, which appears to be worsening again Wednesday. Ontario now has more COVID patients in intensive care than ever before, according to a daily document provided to hospitals.
On Monday, Ford warned Ontarians to not make any Easter plans ahead of the holiday weekend and hinted that more restrictions could be on the way later this week to deal with a third wave of the pandemic experts have warned is out of control.
The City of Toronto, meanwhile, continues to see the highest number of COVID cases anywhere in the province.