Last week, Canadians were told Pfizer was NOT going to be able to ship our life saving COVID19 vaccines to Canada due to ‘production issues’.
This week Pfizer began to aggressively lobby Canada for HUGE tax breaks saying ‘it’s a great way to bring back the Canadian economy after the pandemic.

Canada will not be getting any new Pfizer-BioNTech deliveries next week, Major-General Dany Fortin confirms. The government was previously expecting a 75% drop in deliveries due to capacity upgrades at Pfizer’s European plant; Fortin says the move will have ‘considerable impact.’

— CBC News Alerts (@CBCAlerts) January 19, 2021

Pfizer Canada has been pushing feds for tax breaks for months. And we aren’t getting our vaccines on time from them. And there’s this. https://t.co/0lfpKrVvSB pic.twitter.com/WvS3x92YfE

— Andrew Morris (@ASPphysician) January 20, 2021

Pfizer is lobbying Ottawa for tax breaks. It’s open extortion.

— Curious Brian The Renaissance Man (@Biesseman) January 20, 2021

Global: Pfizer Canada is pitching the federal government to bring in new tax breaks and change related corporate tax policies, suggesting the feds need to do more to incentivize pharmaceutical companies to invest domestically in a post-pandemic world.

Specifically, Pfizer is proposing that in the upcoming federal budget, the government “maintain or reduce corporate income tax rates,” and offers a series of suggestions of ways to do so.

The company suggests that the federal Liberals provide certainty about how Canadian tax rules, regulations, and policies will be “fair, clear and predictable,” particularly in how they apply to scientific research and development as well as contract manufacturing.
The company makes the case that a strong pharmaceutical sector can play a role in Canada’s economic restart and recovery post-pandemic but in order for that to happen, the government has to create a “fertile and hospitable environment” to retain and attract that investment.

It also notes that Canada will be competing for that investment with other countries who are implementing tax policies that attract manufacturing, research and development facilities looking to set up new locations and offer high-skilled and well-paid jobs.

The policy recommendations are detailed by the Canadian arm of the international pharmaceutical giant, in a pre-budget submission provided to the House of Commons Finance Committee.

“Pfizer and others in the health and life sciences industry have been at the forefront of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, we also wish to be at the forefront of helping with the economic recovery,” said Pfizer Canada President Cole C. Pinnow in the submission.

“Improvements to tax incentives cannot, alone, succeed in retaining and attracting economic activity in the healthcare sector but they are important building blocks. The overall business environment must be attractive, including clear and predictable tax outcomes.”

Here’s how I read that.

“We better get tax breaks or we won’t set up shop in Canada ever”

“We need way bigger tax breaks because we have all the vaccines and it would be really nice [wink, wink if Canada didn’t tax us like they tax everyone else.” 

“It’s not a ‘tax grab’. It’s not about making the worlds richest Biopharma company richer, it’s about helping Canada build back their economy.”

Are we actually supposed to believe the month long delay in delivering vaccines Canadians have bought and paid for has NOTHING to do with Pfizer’s attempt to obtain massive tax breaks from the Government of Canada, while we are FUCKING DYING?

Maybe.

Based on merit alone Pfizer can eat a flaming bag of dicks  Why would a company who pooched the second delivery of vaccines, bought and paid for, be given tax breaks for doing a shitty job?

Imagine if you ordered bedroom set on online and a week later, the bed shows up without the mattress.  You call them to inquire and they say, “Listen, we’ll send you the mattress, BUT we need another $200 because we’re part of the economic engine helping to bring back Canada’s economy”.

You’d shit all over them.

Pfizer is worth $203 BILLION, USD,  and they’re making BILLIONS in surplus revenue from this Vaccine so the very notion they are lobbying for tax breaks right now makes me nauseous.  Throw in the non delivery of life saving Covid Vaccines for our elderly/front line workers due to ‘production issues’ and you have what my friend Pat Finelli calls ‘A cock up,’ and it smells like shit.

Hey Pfizer, while you’re trying to jerk off shareholders, we are dying.  200 Canadian Tax payers died yesterday and 5700 tested positive for as YOU lobbied our government for tax breaks while breaching you’re contractual duties, and it’s a bad look, intentional or not.

I hope the ghost of Jonas Salk, who invented and GAVE the polio vaccine away, visits your shareholders in the night, like the ghost of vaccine makers past, for the rest of their miserable, shitty lives.

Dean