December 10, 2020
Statement from Premier Brian Pallister on the First Ministers' Meeting Discussion on COVID-19 and Vaccines
I raised with the prime minister the importance of ensuring that sufficient vaccine is available to First Nations who live both on and off reserve to ensure that everyone who needs the vaccine has access to it.
We know that First Nations who live off reserve have twice the number of active COVID-19 cases than on reserve.
We do not want to disadvantage First Nations people who live off reserve by creating inequities in accessing a COVID-19 vaccine.
I did not get that clarity today.
While we succeeded previously in securing additional vaccine allocation for remote and isolated communities in Manitoba, the prime minister did not confirm that this would extend to Manitoba’s very large off-reserve population.
We will continue to press the federal government on this important issue to ensure that First Nations people, on and off reserve, have access to the vaccine so that no one feels obliged to move from Winnipeg, or any urban area, to northern Manitoba to get a vaccine and risk moving COVID with them.
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