12.06.2020 08:44 AM

When you bought your car or your house, did you know what day you’d get it?

Of course you did.

Every first-year law student knows that a key element of every contract is when the contract will be fulfilled. This statement by a Minister of the Crown is rank incompetence, or dishonesty, or both.

And Canadians will unfortunately pay the price.

15 Comments

  1. Christian says:

    Let me get this straight. You are comparing the development and procurement of cars and houses, which we’ve known how to do for 100 or so years and which also have long established supply chains with a brand new vaccine that scientists had to develop from scratch in less then a year and initially, weren’t even sure it was possible. I don’t think thats at all a fair, or even credible, comparison.

    • Warren says:

      I love it when people who are too gutless to use their real name talk about credibility.

    • Dave H says:

      It’s a perfectly fine comparison. The timeline to develop the vaccine may have been initially unknown, but production capacity once developed is certainly very well known and controlled by the manufacturers. The contract could easily have been written, with contracted amounts to be delivered at specific time intervals, with said interval schedule starting from the point the vaccine has been developed. There is no excuse for not having deliverables like that in the contract.

    • Ronald O'Dowd says:

      Christian,

      One does not generally sign a contract that is not date specific. As Warren has repeatedly pointed out, date specific contracts were signed in the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

      However, given this government’s initial disastrous negotiations with the PRC, the Trudeau government was caught flat-footed when a near agreement suddenly became a no-agreement courtesy of higher ups in the Chinese leadership. So, at minimum, a bona fide contract would have at least a best-efforts fulfillment date along with a delivery range. Since contracts seemingly have been signed, each side apparently agreed to that timetable.

      Trudeau’s problem is that his government looks like a bunch of amateurs and yes, incompetents. All of Ottawa already knows that we will never see American vaccines in this country until, at the very earliest, next S-E-P-T-E-M-B-E-R. That’s more than likely the best-efforts date in signed contracts since that’s what came out in the media.

  2. When you buy a condo preconstruction, the date of delivery is can be, and often is, revised.

    • Fred J Pertanson says:

      True, but there is a date in the contract and a clause that says it may be revised. Still better than what the gang in Ottawa negotiated.

    • the real Sean says:

      Agree with Darwin O.. I can’t stand Team Incompetence Inc., but they probably deserve a pass on this one. There probably is a date in the contract. However it seems reasonable that they don’t broadcast the date because it will obviously change and it will just piss people off even more.

  3. Nick M. says:

    When this government can not provide clear guidance, it gives way to uncertainty and anxiety.

    Canadians make a lot of major decisions based on government policies. Do I move to another province, do I try and start a small business now or later, do I go back to school, etc.

    These decisions could lead many to bankruptcy and lost opportunities in life, and these decisions could have been avoided had this government levelled with the public.

    Any Government Politician reading this, please take off your partisan hat for second. I don’t think it is too much to ask for this government to provide *honest* guidelines. Okay, place partisan hat back on.

    This isn’t about partisanship, this isn’t about trying to win with a messaging strategy. For a lot of us Canadians, its knowing we have hit a fork in the road, and require information that can help us choose which path to pursue. I just wish for once, this government understood that.

    • Robert White says:

      The Trudeau Government is not adhering to Informed Consent legislation in the case of SARS-2-nCoV-19 or COVID-19 which is the disease caused by the bioweapon.

      Trudeau’s Liberals don’t have a path to pursue as they are all following dictates of WHO & CDC.
      Moreover, they are not extending information that would enable decision making for average Canadians that are dependent upon the very decision making information that government is withholding.

      The situation is dire from perspective of the population and also government bureaucrats merely following USA & UK governance forward.

      Sovereign decision making has been usurped by this pandemic due to the endemic nature of the problem. And the Epidemiologists in academia are not helping matters as there is little peer-review.

      RW

  4. Steve Teller says:

    In a perfect world, I agree that the Canadian taxpayer should not have been entered into a contract where the deliverable is…uh… fuzzy.

    The problem is that we are competing against dozens of other countries who have made the same sketchy bargain. If we took a “we’ll buy when we get proof” attitude, we would be even further back in the queue than we already are.

    Given the unique circumstances, and the dire straits we find ourselves in economically, I think it’s probably OK that we didn’t get precision on every aspect of the vaccines.

  5. Martin says:

    Apropos of nothing but I have been involved in real estate transactions in the US and, in some states at least, it is quite primitive. Been ranting about it for years. Thank god for the US that they didn’t word their contracts like your typical house deal. In same states, the closing date in a real estate transaction is a “wish date”. This is the kind of language they slip into agreements for the convenience of the banks, title companies and lawyers to allow them to close the deal on their timetable: “the closing will take place in accordance with the standards of the Cattaraugus County bar association”. You need to say that you really, really mean it about the closing date by saying “time is of the essence”. Redundant language but that is the only way to get the attention of the paid help. Then watch them scramble.

    • Martin,

      God help us if the state of the profession in this country is in any way near the top-notch standards and ethics of The Cattaraugus County bar association. LOL.

      Although we do have our share of doozies in this province: that’s why they expressly amended our Civil Code to prevent “honorable” members of the Barreau from having cases thrown out only on the flimsiest of procedural grounds. Lawyers, love ’em or leave ’em! (Preferably both.)

  6. the real Sean says:

    Your livin’ in the past man! Rapid fire opinion without knowledge is why they invented the interweb!

  7. Douglas W says:

    What a hapless bunch.

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