According to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, the $100 her government intends to charge most Albertans who want to be vaccinated against COVID-19 is just an “administration fee” to cover the current cost of a dose of the vaccine.
Ms. Smith claimed in a news conference last Thursday that the average cost over the past three years has been $110 per dose – paid by the federal government, it should be noted. This, according to the premier’s arithmetic, adds up to “about $284 million in Alberta alone that has been destroyed.”
On her weekend radio show, she said $135 million worth of doses had to be discarded just last winter. And she predicted other Canadian provinces, all of which continue to provide the vaccine to their citizens at no cost as a public health measure, will be shocked at what it costs.
This, of course, is nonsense. They all already have a pretty good idea what it’s going to cost them.
So is $110 a dose, or $100 a dose, even close to the true cost of administering the vaccine?
A lot of Albertans don’t trust the premier to give them an honest accounting of what Alberta is going to be paying now that Ottawa is no longer footing the bill for the vaccine. But from what little we know about past prices, it’s hard to see how the true per-dose cost could be anything like $100.
Cast your mind back to 2020, when the Trudeau Government was pursuing its ultimately successful strategy to procure enough vaccine for all Canadians, at a cost of $9 billion in the April 2021 budget, and was encountering criticism from political opponents that they were paying too much.
Mind you, this was before Canadian Conservative political parties had gone all the way down the Qanon rabbit hole and emerged as full-blown MAGA anti-vaxxers, so a reasoned debate was still possible.
In June 2021, a Canadian Press story revealed that while the cost of most vaccines was being treated as a trade secret by Ottawa, one accidental leak provided a little information. “The only cost per dose revealed so far was released by accident when the price for the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine was accidentally left in an email included in a package of documents released to the health committee,” the story said. “That email said Canada would pay $8.18 per dose of AstraZeneca, which would amount to $163 million for the 20 million doses ordered.”
Other stories the same year, reported different per-dose prices for different COVID vaccines.
According to one, Moderna was selling its vaccine in the United States for $15 US a dose, Pfizer its for around $24, up from $19.50 US in previous deals. European countries paid higher rates, in part because they were buying smaller volumes.
OK, five inflationary years have passed and Alberta is doing whatever it can to keep the amount of COVID vaccine purchased as small as possible – at least 250,000 doses fewer than were administered last year. But even given those factors – and even if you add in fixed health system costs, which you shouldn’t – how is it possible this could have turned into $110 a dose?
However, another 2021 story said the EU had been paying $2.15 US a dose for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine the year before. A 2024 study suggested Vietnam was managing to distribute a COVID vaccine for $1.73 a dose!
Without an honest accounting, Albertans are within their rights to suspect this is no “administrative fee.” This sounds like a tax, and a punitive one like the “sin taxes” on alcohol and tobacco that are devised to discourage the use of the product.
Surely it is not unreasonable to tell the UCP – with no apologies whatsoever to Pierre Poilievre – that it’s time for them to Axe the Vax Tax!
Alberta NDP MP calls for Ottawa to enforce Canada Health Act on COVID vaccine access
Heather McPherson, once again Alberta’s only NDP Member of Parliament, has demanded that federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel “uphold and enforce the Canada Health Act” to make Alberta’s UCP Government to axe the vax tax.
“I urge you and your government to engage Alberta directly to push for universal no-cost access to COVID-19 vaccines, including for all children under 12,” she wrote in a letter to the minister. (Children under 12 have now been excluded from being administered the vaccine by the UCP.) “I also encourage the federal government to consider supports or enforcement measures when provincial decisions undermine national health priorities and the principles of the Canada Health Act.”
The Alberta government’s plan contravenes the federal legislation, she argued, “by creating barriers based on income and geography.”
