Liberals introducing new bill to meet country-wide rapid test needs

The Liberal government is slated to introduce a new bill Monday to respond to COVID-19 rapid test needs across the country.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau provided a bit more detail about the bill’s contents, beyond its title “An Act respecting certain measures related to COVID-19.”

“We’ll be introducing legislation to ensure we continue providing as many rapid tests as possible to the provinces and territories,” he said earlier in the day.

The Liberals earmarked $1.7 billion to secure rapid antigen testing supplies in their December fiscal and economic update.

To expedite parliamentary approval of that funding, Government House Leader Mark Holland explained on Monday that the government has extracted that specific pledge from the broader economic and fiscal update bill to get the process moving.

Earlier this month, the government announced that 140 million rapid additional rapid tests would be delivered to the provinces and territories by the end of January. They were to be divided up on a per-capita basis.

That shipment was on top of a fulfilled request of 35 million rapid tests in December.

Some provinces and territories have complained that shipments have been slow to arrive as demand increased during the recent surge of COVID-19 cases across the country.

With a file from CTV News’ Rachel Aiello