A traditional vaccine candidate was happening between a tiny Canadian group and a Chinese group. It didn't pan out.

At the same time Canada had placed orders for literally hundreds of millions of vaccines from the major pharmas, doing so before almost anyone (your claim about shipment dates is just as factually deficient, as an aside).

Canada was ill prepared for a pandemic because it relied upon free trade and allowed for the hollowing out of medical manufacturing. Hopefully a lesson has been learned.