Evidence of meeting #12 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was masks.
A recording is available from Parliament.
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Arianne Reza Assistant Deputy Minister, Procurement, Department of Public Works and Government Services
I would only add that it was accurate.
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Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Thank you very much.
We'll now go to Mr. Jowhari for five minutes, please.
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Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll be sharing my time with MP Weiler.
I have one follow-up question for Madam Thornton.
You indicated in a response to a question that one of our colleagues raised today.... You took exception by saying that your department or the NESS operated within its mandate and within its funding. We've heard over the last few hours about how the mandate of the NESS has changed and how you've responded.
You also mentioned that the budget for the NESS is about $3 million. With the new evolving mandate—and you responded by saying how it's evolving—do you have the sufficient funding to be able to not only get us through this, but also position us for our future?
After the answer, I'll yield the rest of the time to Mr. Weiler.
Thank you.
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Vice-President, Health Security Infrastructure Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada
The government, writ large, has been very good about making sure that we have the appropriate funding to do what needs to be done. The Public Health Agency of Canada is relying on a number of different partners to do so, including the Canadian Armed Forces and other folks from within the federal family who are joining us on assignment.
We're a relatively small organization of about 2,000 people for the whole agency, and within the NESS, it really is, originally, 18 people and an operational budget of $3 million. We were not structured to do something of this magnitude. We do now have the capacity. It's been borrowed, and it will be funded. I also suspect that, as a result of this, both the mandate and the funding of the NESS will be informed by the process, and what our expectations are, going forward, will be changed radically.
I would flag, though, that it's not just within the federal family in terms of the national emergency strategic stockpile. It's the system. It's the working with our provinces and territories, understanding what's happened in the jurisdictions, understanding their needs and determining who is respectively responsible, who will purchase, and where things will be stockpiled. So, I think there's a much greater oversight, monitoring and management role. At the end of the day, I suspect that the purchasing and the stockpiling will rest with provinces and local governments where it's probably best positioned.
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Conservative
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Liberal
Patrick Weiler Liberal West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC
The minister recently announced an advisory group for COVID procurement. I was hoping that you could tell me a bit about what the goal of the supply council is and what the experience has been to date.
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Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
It's fairly new. The committee has met one time, and it is really about engaging with outside experts in terms of getting advice on procurements and the supply system as a whole. We have quite a varied background of industry players there. The first meeting was very much a sharing of experiences that they're seeing in their own industries in terms of PPE, and we shared our experiences. Given the experience around the table, it'll be a very useful dialogue to have with that committee in terms of any advice that it might have going forward and any observations that it may wish to share with us.
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Liberal
Patrick Weiler Liberal West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC
Great.
For this supply council or anyone else, have there been specific raw materials identified that will be critical to procure an order to continue to produce PPE in Canada?
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Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
That's a great question, Mr. Chair.
That is part of the discussion. It's one thing to say you can manufacture in Canada, but it's another thing to say you can get the raw materials to manufacture in Canada. There's the capability and the raw materials, and the companies need both at their disposal to succeed in their endeavour.
When you look at gowns, the material necessary to make gowns is in really short supply. Health Canada, knowing that, actually approved two additional types of materials that are used and are now approved for gown making. The Canadian gown-manufacturing industry that has stood up is largely relying on these two new types of materials.
The other one that's popped up is a chemical that's necessary for a reagent, and so essential for the testing process. Initially it was in short supply, but we managed to bring some over from China. Now we have some Canadian manufacturing happening of a reagent as well. So you're seeing these types of things pop up. You can't have a discussion about manufacturing in Canada without talking about where the supplies are coming from.
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Liberal
Patrick Weiler Liberal West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC
Great.
Mr. Chair, how long do I have left?
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Liberal
Patrick Weiler Liberal West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC
I'll leave it at that then.
Thanks.
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Conservative
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Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Thank you.
My questions are for Mr. Matthews.
The written copy of your speech indicates that a call was made to suppliers on May 4. Just before that, you talked about motor carriers.
Did the May 4 call pertain to motor carriers?
Was it not possible to know before May 4 that there would be a need for additional carriers? I would like to determine whether your department was thinking ahead.
Finally, to date, how many responses have you received to your request for proposals?
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Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
I have a couple of points.
We often use a request for interest to gauge industry interest in terms of its ability to respond, so that was sent out. Then we went to the next step, which is a formal request for proposal. That proposal has now closed. We have had responses, which we are now evaluating. I believe we've had around five submissions, which we will go through and assess, and then we'll go through the normal procurement process and award a contract soon thereafter.
The reason for the actual work, itself, is that we, effectively, have hit a point where one plane per day coming out of China requires an awful lot of logistical supports. We can forecast a surge of materiel coming into our warehouse in China, and we're planning to make sure that we have adequate supports for goods to flow out of the warehouse onto planes and into Canada. To deal with that surge, we have temporarily put in a five-flight contract with UPS, which is very successful in upping the goods coming out. Then we decided that we should, maybe, put something more permanent in place in case there will be more surges to deal with.
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Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
You mentioned that Medicom is to provide masks and other supplies for 10 years. You had to extend the term of the contract to 10 years in order for Medicom to accept it because of matters relating to the investment.
With regard to Sterling Industries in Concord, Ontario, is it a matter of 15 million masks and face shields? Why does that company not need to consolidate its affairs? Why does it not have a long-term contract?
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Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
It depends on the investment required, Mr. Chair, to actually get something up and running.
When you look at hand sanitizer, there were existing plants in Canada that could, effectively, change very quickly, without a lot of expense, to start producing that. When you look at gowns, they require a bit of investment, and so they were looking for some volume. For something like a brand new facility, with heavy manufacturing equipment, they needed it to be for a substantial duration to make it worth their while.
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Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
How many face shields did Sterling Industries make per year before you granted the company a contract?
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Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Ah. This was Medicom...I thought we were speaking about....
Sorry. I'm having—
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Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
I will repeat my question.
Medicom got a 10-year contract because it needed to consolidate its investments for various reasons. Other companies, such as Sterling Industries in Concord also had rather large contracts. We are talking about 15 million face shields. However, the duration of the contract is not indicated.
Did that company not need to consolidate its investments and infrastructure? Was it already producing 15 million face shields a year or was it producing fewer than that?
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Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
No, they're certainly producing more now. The question of the duration of contract was more about the investment required to change the production line. In Concord's case, just to compare the two, you wouldn't have seen the level of investment required in their physical structure to start producing that volume of masks, whereas with something brand new, where you're bringing in new machinery and have new buildings, you require a much more substantial investment.
