There might be perfectly valid reasons for this- I am not sure to what extent the government could or would want to force it to fast-track.
The FDA is already reluctant to use trials from jurisdictions that may be very different demographically. When the trials are marginal, confused, and confounded, the chance of a FDA approval become negligible.
If the AZ US trial pops out good data, you can expect a speedy EUA application.
Canada put all their eggs in the CanSino vaccine even though they knew they had a bad relationship with China. This summer China conveniently blocked all progress and Canada was left scrambling. Blame Trudeau not the US.
Article
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/canada-locks-in-20...
After securing 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, they exercised an option in early Jan 2021 for another 20 million.
Article
https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2020/12/16/why-did-...
Canada has purchased 40 million doses from Moderna, and expects delivery of up to 168,000 doses before the end of December 2020
Article
https://nationalpost.com/news/world/canada-the-biggest-hoard...
Canada the biggest hoarder of COVID-19 vaccine pre-orders in First World, NGOs say
Canada only bought doses from other companies after CanSino fell through in summer 2020 putting them at the back of the line.
https://nationalpost.com/news/moderna-chairman-says-canada-n...
“ Early last year, Canada also signed an agreement with Chinese vaccine-maker CanSino for a vaccine trial, but that deal fell apart. CanSino had initially agreed to bring its vaccine candidate to Canada for testing.Critics have accused the federal government of failing to move swiftly to secure agreements with the likes of Pfizer and Moderna because it was focused on that failed deal.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56035306
My sister is a pharmacist in Toronto. She is personally vaccinating people right now as we speak. She said as of last week Ontario only had 200,000 Astra Zeneca vaccine doses allocated to it until April. 200,000 for 15 million people. She says that maybe Ontario may get more on Friday via the US sending more AZ but there’s no information about anything else. Until a few days ago, AZ could not be given to anyone over 64 which caused a lot of confusion and anger. And then Ford said in a conference that they were letting people get the AZ vaccine but they didn’t let the pharmacies know ahead of time, causing even more confusion.
My mom who is in her 80s, her second dose of Pfizer was just recently pushed out by 4 months because they don’t have enough supply. My aunt who is in her 70s couldn’t register (until recently as I mentioned) for a shot because they didn’t have any supply for her age range.
So no, Canada doesn’t have the doses it needs. It’s last in line because they started negotiating months after every other country and only after CanSino deal crumbled.
And yet, Canada is substantially behind the EU on receiving doses, despite putting an order in more than a month earlier.
Given that the US only came to the agreement two weeks before Canada, I don't think Trudeau was sitting on his hands, waiting months for the CanSino deal to fall apart, before exploring alternative options. Seems to be a bit of an exaggeration by the Tories.
Biggest problem of Canada? There’s no local manufacture. And yes you can blame the liberals for that. Your anti Chinese talking point is not based in facts.
But because the first of those four deals fell through (and because the countries manufacturing vaccines bought in other deals are prioritizing their domestic markets), politicians of all party affiliations now have an excuse to grouse.
The drugmaker must apply for emergency use authorization before it can't be approved in the first place. They still have not applied for EUA as of today.
Tell that to Canada. They were securing doses from day one and still suffered from delayed shipments and now have to contend with countries of manufacture forbidding export. What really pisses me off is that the US Gov had 30 million doses of Astra for several months and it it isn't even approved for use. Why hoard it when you can save lives in other countries while you have no intention of using it soon if ever? Sure they might get their approval in May or June but by then I expect the other manufacturers to have ramped up to cover everyone everywhere.