Evidence of meeting #14 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was jamieson.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Frank Baylis  Executive Chairman, Baylis Medical
Rick Jamieson  President, FTI Professional Grade
Neil Godara  Vice-President and General Manager, Baylis Medical
Christiane Fox  Deputy Minister, Department of Indigenous Services
Michelle Kovacevic  Assistant Deputy Minister, Federal-Provincial Relations and Social Policy Branch, Department of Finance

1:05 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Sweet

Good afternoon, colleagues.

We will begin now and wait to see if Mr. Dong comes online as we go, but we have our witnesses before us right now.

From Baylis Medical, we have Mr. Frank Baylis, as well as Mr. Neil Godara. From FTI Professional Grade, we have Mr. Rick Jamieson.

We'll begin with opening remarks from Mr. Baylis and Mr. Godara, and then we'll go to Mr. Jamieson. We'll then go to the questions and answers.

Mr. Baylis and Mr. Godara, you have seven minutes, please.

1:05 p.m.

Frank Baylis Executive Chairman, Baylis Medical

Mr. Chair, I believe Mr. Jamieson wants to speak first, if that's okay.

1:05 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Sweet

That would be okay.

Mr. Jamieson, you can go ahead for seven minutes.

1:05 p.m.

Rick Jamieson President, FTI Professional Grade

Sure, I'm happy to do that.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and honourable members.

I'm happy to provide information on how a Guelph company came to produce ventilators. I am the president of FTI Professional Grade Inc. We are the prime contractor for the delivery of 10,000 V4C-560 ventilators. To date, FTI has delivered 7,788, and we expect to complete our contract before the end of December.

Pre-COVID.... I am the co-founder, president and CEO of ABS Friction and Ideal Brake Parts. We've proudly manufactured Canadian-made brake pads, which we export worldwide. Every Ideal box contains a Canadian flag pin in it. We just celebrated our 25th anniversary in business.

COVID-19 has required an extraordinary response from our country's manufacturers. In March, the federal government made a call to action and asked Canadians to help. I immediately realized this was an opportunity for me to step up and help the country.

I was personally motivated to take action and help with the fight, for two main reasons. The first was that, on March 12, I received an email from a family friend in Italy who told us about the total lockdown of the country. Doctors were making unbearable decisions about who would live and who would die. The lack of ventilators impacted the situation. The second reason was that I feared for vulnerable family members. On March 19, I stepped away from my full-time responsibilities at ABS Friction and Ideal Brake Parts to co-found the Ventilators for Canadians consortium.

I put up a website to outline our purpose, to make ventilators. We had the energy, experience and expertise to do the job. This was our moment to serve. At the very beginning, we looked at crowdfunding. We had access to the financial resources for licensing and the engineering talent; however, we had no medical quality system. A number of companies were identified, but two proven medical device manufacturers were shortlisted. After researching numerous options, we approached a U.K. company about a licensing collaboration. During that evaluation, we introduced ourselves to Baylis Medical to satisfy our requirement for a medical quality management system and facility.

Manufacturing a Health Canada-approved medical device is very complex. We determined that Baylis Medical was qualified to take on this project as our subcontractor. The U.K. design fell through because of supply chain concerns and the ventilator's suitability for COVID use. We had put together a very capable team and we pursued other designs.

I reached out to the public service to discuss what we were doing. Soon after, we began the vetting process with the public service and presented our solutions to an expert panel. This was my first public contracting process with any government. On Saturday, April 11, Easter weekend, FTI signed a contract with Public Works to deliver 10,000 ventilators based on Medtronic's PB560 permissive licence. This design has been used for over 10 years and is utilized to treat patients worldwide. Negotiations took place, and a contract between FTI and Baylis Medical was signed on Thursday, April 16. Baylis Medical then began the process of submitting the required documentation to apply for regulatory approval based on the Health Canada emergency interim order.

We received Health Canada approval for the ventilator on Tuesday, June 16. We are the only consortium in the world that has successfully replicated, received regulatory approval for and manufactured the proven Medtronic PB560 ventilator. That's the result of the collaboration between two Canadian companies—FTI and Baylis Medical.

FTI's approach to utilize the Medtronic permissive licence allowed us to reduce the time to get high-quality ventilators to Canadians from three years to three months. Typically, it takes three years to develop, achieve regulatory approval for and manufacture a medical device. It took us only three months from contract signature on April 11 to first delivery to the Public Health Agency of Canada in mid-July.

Our ventilator is versatile. It has features and benefits to address acute and non-acute hospital care, long-term care and in-home environments. We're extremely proud that FTI has delivered 7,788 ventilators to the Public Health Agency of Canada so they're available for Canadians who need them.

I would like to thank the inspiring group of people who've helped us from around the world, including Medtronic for making its design available, and most importantly the Public Health Agency of Canada, Health Canada, Public Works, and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and others from the government whom I've surely missed and who have guided FTI through this process.

I would like to recognize the honourable members of the committee and parliamentarians for their continued support of Canada's COVID-19 response.

I would be pleased to answer your questions.

1:10 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Sweet

Thank you very much, Mr. Jamieson.

Now we will move to Mr. Baylis and Mr. Godara.

1:10 p.m.

Executive Chairman, Baylis Medical

Frank Baylis

As Rick Jamieson said, in the spring of this year, a terrible situation was unrolling in Europe. People were dying because of a lack of ventilators. Very soon after that, the same situation reproduced itself in the United States of America, our neighbours just to the south, in New York State—a state that touches Canada. People were dying and doctors were beside themselves with having to make decisions about who should be put on a ventilator and who, unfortunately, would not be. That's not a position doctors should be in.

When Mr. Jamieson contacted us and asked us if we would be part of this consortium, our answer was yes, absolutely.

Today, Canadians can feel safe. We are not out of the COVID situation by any stretch, but at least they can feel safe in the knowledge that that situation that happened in Europe and in the United States, where people were left to die because of lack of access to medical equipment, will not happen in Canada. We have played a small part in that, but we're very proud of the role we played with Ventilators for Canadians. We thank Mr. Jamieson for reaching out to us.

The situation that we saw in Europe, particularly in Italy, occurred here in North America. In the United States, people died because of a lack of ventilators. This situation won't occur in Canada. Canadians and Quebeckers can feel safe knowing that there will be enough ventilators for everyone, if necessary. Our work with the Ventilators for Canadians consortium made it possible for us to deliver the ventilators. We're extremely proud of this.

Thank you.

1:10 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Sweet

Mr. Godara, you have another five minutes.

1:10 p.m.

Neil Godara Vice-President and General Manager, Baylis Medical

Good afternoon. Thank you for inviting me to speak today.

My name is Neil Godara and I'm the vice-president and general manager of Baylis Medical's design and manufacturing services division. In that division, I'm responsible for the design, development and manufacturing of complex medical devices typically used in the treatment of spinal pathologies. I also lead our involvement in the V4C-560 ventilator project. My background is in biomedical engineering. I have overseen the design and development of over 100 medical devices across multiple medical disciplines.

Before I speak about the ventilator, I would like to share a little bit about the history of Baylis Medical. Baylis Medical was founded in 1986 by Mrs. Gloria Baylis, a registered nurse. Since then, for over 30 years, Baylis has had a track record of developing and manufacturing leading medical devices in the fields of cardiology, radiology, cancer treatment, and spine pathologies.

Currently, our devices are used to treat patients and improve patient care right around the world. Over the years, we have worked hard to develop a fully vertically integrated organization to support that endeavour. What this means is that we have all the necessary capabilities, from conceiving a device and developing it to getting the regulatory approvals and manufacturing it as well.

In total, we are one of the largest medical device companies in Canada in the field of medical devices, and we are also one of the largest in advanced medical device manufacturing as well. Our products specifically are known for advancing the state of medicine in the areas where we operate and also for being of exceptional quality.

Typically, the devices we make at Baylis are highly complex systems. They are used in very sick patients. They are developed, typically, at the intersection of engineering, basic science and clinical care. As such, because of our background, our team has quite a comprehensive understanding of the activities required to bring a medical device to market towards improving patient care. The part of the business that I oversee specifically deals with developing and manufacturing medical devices for other companies around the world. Inside that department, we develop very complex electrical and mechanical devices that are in fact very similar in complexity to a mechanical ventilator.

It's for those reasons that when Rick Jamieson, the Ventilators for Canadians consortium and FTI reached out to me and asked if we would support their efforts toward supplying ventilators to Canadians, of course our gut reaction was to say yes immediately.

What we knew then, and it has proven to be true, was that our existing structures, our expertise and our experience aligned very closely with the technical requirements for building ventilators. To realize that, what we had to do was move a great deal of our resources over to this initiative. Starting in April, after we began, we moved a large portion of our engineering team, supply chain team, regulatory affairs, quality affairs, our physical and manufacturing operations, intellectual property, legal, and our human resources teams—all these folks were moved over to support the ventilator effort since mid-April. Since we started manufacturing, our manufacturing teams have been working 24 hours a day, seven days a week toward supplying the ventilators to FTI en route to the Government of Canada.

To date, as mentioned by FTI, we have supplied nearly 8,000 ventilators in support of Canada's COVID-19 efforts, and we're extremely proud to have played a role there.

I would like to take a moment, on behalf of the hundreds of employees of Baylis and the many teams around the world that have supported us in making this, to say that we've had access and talked to many front-line workers and we are completely moved and overwhelmed by their efforts to support Canadians and those who are suffering from COVID during this pandemic.

For what it's worth, we are very grateful for having this chance to serve our country in this time of need.

Thank you.

1:15 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Sweet

Thank you, Mr. Gordara.

I'll now give the floor to the first speaker.

Mr. Paul-Hus, you have six minutes.

1:15 p.m.

Conservative

Pierre Paul-Hus Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Jamieson and Mr. Baylis, thank you for your comments.

However, I want to remind you of the question that we want answered today. There was obviously some form of collaboration to ensure that a $237-million contract was awarded to Baylis Medical indirectly through a shell company. We can agree that Mr. Jamieson's company—

1:15 p.m.

President, FTI Professional Grade

Rick Jamieson

Excuse me, Mr. Chair.

Unfortunately, I'm not getting any interpretation simultaneously.

I apologize. I don't know what he just said.

1:15 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Sweet

We'll work on that for a second.

Mr. Paul-Hus, would you try the question again, so our IT team can work on getting translation to Mr. Jamieson?

1:15 p.m.

Conservative

Pierre Paul-Hus Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC

Okay. We can perform a test, before I start again.

1:15 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Sweet

Did you get translation on that, Mr. Jamieson?

1:15 p.m.

President, FTI Professional Grade

Rick Jamieson

I did not.

1:15 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Sweet

Mr. Jamieson, at the bottom of your screen there should be an icon with interpretation. Do you have it selected to English?

1:15 p.m.

President, FTI Professional Grade

Rick Jamieson

I did not have it selected.

What do I have to do?

1:15 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Sweet

Select English.

1:15 p.m.

President, FTI Professional Grade

Rick Jamieson

Okay. My apologies, folks.

1:15 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Sweet

Give us a test now, Mr. Paul-Hus.

1:15 p.m.

Conservative

Pierre Paul-Hus Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC

Good afternoon, Mr. Jamieson. Can you hear me properly?

1:15 p.m.

President, FTI Professional Grade

Rick Jamieson

I can hear you perfectly.

1:15 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Sweet

Mr. Paul-Hus, I will refund you the time. Go ahead and pose your question.

1:15 p.m.

Conservative

Pierre Paul-Hus Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good afternoon, Mr. Jamieson, Mr. Baylis and Mr. Godara.

We're here today because we're very uncertain about how this $237-million contract was awarded. It's clear to everyone, at least to us, that Mr. Baylis, after finishing his term as a Liberal member of Parliament in October 2019, found a way to obtain the contract through the shell company created by Mr. Jamieson. I think that we're all great Canadians and that we all want to save our country. However, the fact remains that this issue involves $237 million in taxpayers' money.

Mr. Baylis, when did you first speak to Mr. Jamieson?

1:20 p.m.

Executive Chairman, Baylis Medical

Frank Baylis

Mr. Jamieson established the consortium. Someone in the consortium knew a person in our company and contacted that person. The person in our company suggested that the person in the consortium speak to Mr. Godara. Another person then called Mr. Godara. That's how it all started. Mr. Godara spoke to Mr. Jamieson. Afterwards, Mr. Godara told me that these people wanted us to get involved in their consortium. He gave my telephone number to Mr. Jamieson, and Mr. Jamieson called me.