Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates plans to work with the Canadian government to finance the testing of possible AIDS vaccines, CTV News has learned.

The announcement is expected to be made when Gates visits Ottawa next Tuesday, to address the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper endured harsh criticism last summer when he decided not to attend the International AIDS Conference in Toronto.

Health Minister Tony Clement delivered a speech during the conference's opening day, but a group near the stage booed and chanted "Where is Harper?"

Hoping to undo the political damage caused by his absence, Harper will pledge $110 million for the AIDS program, while the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will offer at least $28 million.

The money will develop a Canadian facility to manufacture promising AIDS vaccines for clinical trials. It will most likely be located in the Toronto area.

Dr. Mark Wainberg, an AIDS specialist at McGill University, said the planned funding decision is welcome news.

"They do now recognize the urgency of the AIDS situation worldwide," Wainberg told CTV News.

Wainberg co-chaired the AIDS Conference, during which he told attendees Harper's absence was a mistake that put him "on the wrong side of history."

On Thursday, he said the funding will mark "a well-intentioned attempt to respond in a positive way." Although, he added that an effective AIDS vaccine could be years away, and using money to actually develop a vaccine should be a higher priority.

Critics have also accused the Conservatives of doing little to stop the spread of AIDS, such as resisting calls to support a safe-injection site in Vancouver and set up others across Canada. The facilities give drug users access to clean needles.

The government has also shut down a pilot project that gave prison inmates clean tools for tattoos. Advocates said inmates would otherwise have a higher risk of contracting AIDS and hepatitis C, which could then be spread into the general population after their release.

A draft evaluation of the project found that the cost of treating an inmate with HIV was 50 times more that that of a tattoo session.

"I think it's fair to say that a vaccine is a politically easy issue," said Joanne Csete of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.

She added: "We need leadership to move forward in those areas or we are going to lose more lives."

With a report by CTV's Roger Smith