Government Operations Committee on May 15th, 2020

[Éric Dagenais]

The Public Health Agency of Canada works very closely with the provinces in identifying their PPE needs. There are regular surveys of their stockpiles as well as what we call their “burn rates“, and we try to forecast when they are going to run out of specific types of PPE, so we know ahead of time.

Once we receive the PPE, we do a thorough quality assessment to make sure that the PPE that we distribute to front-line workers is safe in the COVID setting. Then through our work with Canada Post and Purolator, we quickly expedite the PPE to the provincial distribution points. They, in turn, expedite the product to hospitals.

[Patrick Weiler, Liberal, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

How often are you sending shipments to provinces and territories?

[Éric Dagenais]

On a quasi-daily basis.

[Patrick Weiler, Liberal, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

How does this compare to past experiences?

[Éric Dagenais]

Maybe, Sally, you can talk about past experiences.

[Sally Thornton]

In our past deployments, we have had a couple a year, not many a day. In terms of the volume, the magnitude, the dollar value, we are in a completely different world. It is exponentially greater than what we have experienced in the past.

[Éric Dagenais]

Mr. Chair, just as a point of reference, a province told me this week that it was using, in two weeks, the number of gowns it normally uses in a year.

[Patrick Weiler, Liberal, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

That's incredible.

At this time I'd be happy to transition to Ms. May.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Ms. May, you have about one minute, 30 seconds.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Thanks.

I want to get the questioning back to Ms. Thornton.

Thanks to all the witnesses for being here and thanks for all the work you're doing in these extraordinary circumstances.

Going back to decisions to close so many warehouses that occurred back in 2012, was this associated with any budget cuts to the Public Health Agency of Canada? What drove a decision to shut down warehouses in locations you're not able to disclose?

[Sally Thornton]

It was not actually related to a specific budget cut, but we do look at ongoing optimization. Our goal in situating where and how many warehouses we have is driven first of all by being able to reach all the communities in Canada within 24 hours. A lot had changed since our initial structure for those nine cities—the transportation by air, rail and trucking changed—so we were able to have the same reach with facilities in six cities. Closing down the warehouses was just dependent on how much space we needed and where they were, but no, it was not driven by a specific cut.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Is there any time left, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

You have 10 seconds.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Patrick.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

We'll now go to Mr. Aboultaif for four minutes, please.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Mr. Chair, I would like to give one minute to Mr. McCauley and I will continue after that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Mr. McCauley, you have one minute.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I'll need only about half of that.

Thanks, Mr. Aboultaif.

Mr. Matthews, I have a very quick question. I want to get back to Medicom. It was given a sole-source contract. Did the fact that its directors or ownership are extremely generous donators to the Liberal Party play any role in its being granted the sole-source contract instead of other companies that could have been looked at to provide the masks more quickly for Canadians?

[Bill Matthews]

The contract was based on its ability to stand up domestic manufacturing capability quickly and its experience in this field. It was based on quality and speed, so it was—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

That's fine.

That's all I have, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Aboultaif.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Thank you.

In Mr. Matthews' remarks, the KN95s are called “masks”; in the NESS's remarks they are called “respirators”. Which is which?

[Bill Matthews]

To label it properly maybe I'll—

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Are they masks or respirators?

[Bill Matthews]

The proper terminology is N95 respirators, I believe, but maybe my friends at PHAC would—

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Is that what you use on the purchase order?