The Opposition is demanding to know how the Harper government could bungle so badly the swine flu vaccination program.

During an emergency meeting in the House of Commons last night, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff called the government simply, "incompetent."

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq responded by saying the situation with this pandemic was difficult to predict but they prepared as best they could.

"Six million doses were produced ahead of schedule. As soon as they were available and authorized, they were transferred to the provinces and territories for their rollout. We will see thousands more this week and a million more next week," she said.

She added that thousands of Canadians are getting shots and said there will be enough vaccine by Christmas for every Canadian who wants it.

But the problem for many Canadians this week is that there is now a sudden shortage, just as demand is at its most intense.

That's because vaccine maker GlaxoSmithKline announced last week it will only be able to produce about 400,000 doses of the vaccine this week instead of the million or so doses expected, while it turns its focus on producing non-adjuvanted vaccine for pregnant women.

While there had always been plans to produce the non-adjuvanted vaccine, federal health officials say they didn't expect the production would cause such a huge shortfall in the vaccine for the rest of the public.

Aglukkaq told Canada AM Monday that "GlaxoSmithKline overestimated their ability to produce the adjuvanted vaccine while they focus on unadjuvanted vaccine."

Ignatieff said the Conservatives need to take responsibility for vaccine shortages rather than blame the drug companies.

"Instead of taking responsibility the government blames everybody else, they blame the drug company because they don't have a supply next week; they blame the provinces and territories. 'We don't deliver health care,' they say," he accused.

Aglukkaq rejected the Liberal leader's claim that they are blaming other parties, saying they are using a pandemic plan that was "built on years of collaboration with provinces and territories and the medical community."

Access to vaccine tightly restricted

Meanwhile, long lineups continue this week for flu shots. Some provinces have been forced to close clinics and are warning that supplies of H1N1 vaccine are dwindling.

Provinces such as Alberta and Ontario which once promised to vaccinate anyone who was willing to wait in lineups as long as seven hours, are now imposing tighter restrictions this week.

In Alberta, the remaining doses of a dwindling supply will be used to vaccinate pregnant women and children between six months and five years of age. Later, vaccination programs will focus on people under 65 with chronic health conditions.

In Saskatchewan, health officials say they too have just enough vaccine on hand for pregnant women and children under the age of five, while other high risk groups will have to wait for now.

But they add vaccine will be offered to students from kindergarten to Grade 6 starting later this week. The vaccine is to be in schools by Friday and community clinics will also give shots to primary school children. Immunization clinics for the general public that were supposed to start Nov. 16, meanwhile, have now been delayed.

Nova Scotia is restricting access to shots to four groups: pregnant women, children under five, people in First Nations communities, and health-care workers.

In Ontario, they are limiting the vaccine to just those under five years of age, pregnant women and those with chronic medical conditions. Those caring for those who cannot be vaccinated are also considered high-priority.

"We are restricting for the rest of this week to those high-priority groups," Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews told Canada AM Tuesday. "We will roll out the next phase as we get more certainty about supplies."

She added that the province is on target to get the 2.2 million doses that it now has into Ontario arms by the end of the week.

Also, the Public Health Agency of Canada has begun delivering vaccine without an adjuvant to the provinces and territories to be offered to pregnant women. The plan is to have dispersed almost 225,000 doses by week's end.

With reports from The Canadian Press