Government Operations Committee on June 5th, 2020

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I mean in April, in March-April.

[Mitch Davies]

I was referring to conversations with Medicom that date back some time. I would say that there have been conversations and a dynamic exchange with—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I'm referring to March and April. Did any other large-scale North American companies approach Industry Canada offering to make PPE in Canada or to provide North American-made PPE?

[Mitch Davies]

As a general question, of course, we've had conversations with many companies, so I would think the question as to what the deputy minister for PSPC said would have to depend, of course, on the precise question that was answered. We would want to go back and make sure we're checking our records to provide the most accurate response.

Of course, many companies have approached government, and government has approached many companies, given the scale of the challenge to pursue opportunities for Canadian production and to see if we could bring those projects forward.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Okay. Have we—

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Unfortunately, Mr. McCauley, you'll have to wait for the remainder of your questions until the next round.

Mr. Davies, I just have a quick reminder: When answering questions, please keep the microphone as close to your mouth as possible for audio levels. We're having a bit of a difficult time hearing you.

[Mitch Davies]

Okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

We'll now go to our next six-minute intervention.

Mr. Jowhari, you have six minutes.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Let me start by welcoming you, Mr. Davies, to our committee. It's good to see you. Let me also acknowledge the great work the department has done in helping us mobilize both industry and research in Canada.

In your opening remarks, you talked about the different mechanisms available to us and to the department, which the department has effectively used: i.e., IRAP, SIF, the innovation superclusters and innovative solutions.

My colleague Mr. McCauley also probed into the funding and the various organizations that have been granted this funding, whether it's funds or a grant. Can we take a step back and talk about the criteria the department uses under these programs, either to do a sole-sourcing or to evaluate the organization that is reaching out to us, either for research or for retooling?

[Mitch Davies]

I would just make the distinction that the department is not directly involved in procurement. That's obviously under the care of another ministry, but we certainly have used criteria to ensure that the work we've put forward into our own programming and those in the portfolio would lead to the outcomes that Canada was seeking.

I would say, first of all, that in evaluating proposals, the main question was timeliness and the ability of companies to deliver and to provide a complete supply chain response. Given the tightness in markets around the world, it was very important for us to deliver on domestic capacity in respect of the full supply chain. We were also interested in the speed with which the response could be mobilized. That was very important, particularly when we evaluated the number of proposals for ventilators to be built in Canada.

All this work turned on delivering on time and to a specification that we have as low a risk as possible of having the overall supply chain fail to deliver the goods, which is really the purpose of having a made-in-Canada effort running in parallel to our international procurement effort.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you for that response.

To summarize, it was the timeliness and how fast they can move and retool for an organization to be able to deliver those goods. Naturally that's related to the industry. How about the research? I believe over $1 billion has been assigned to help us develop a vaccine and some testing. What criteria did the department use in its evaluation? I understand you guys aren't doing the procurement, but you're partnering and you're providing those. What criteria did you use there?

[Mitch Davies]

Very importantly, in research, just one component of a very large portfolio of research support is delivered through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. In that case, those funds would be allocated based on scientific peer review. They would be assessing a range of proposals and obviously making recommendations for funding. That's not the direct responsibility of our department.

In terms of funding from the strategic innovation fund, for example the funding that's been announced for vaccines and therapies, at the moment we are establishing scientific industry advisory bodies to provide advice to the department on the best opportunities to pursue. That is ongoing. It's important that we establish strong merit in choosing which projects will advance so they withstand scrutiny and deliver the results and outcomes that Canadians expect.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Let's continue on that path. When the allocation of $115 million for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research was announced, a portion of that went into developing test kits. In your submitted opening remarks, you talked about the point-of-care test kit. I understand there are three different methods of testing: the lab test, the point-of-care test and the serological test.

Can you expand on the point-of-care test kits and the advancement that's been made in that category specifically?

[Mitch Davies]

A significant program that we undertook in point-of-care test kits was through innovative solutions Canada, to bring forward new technologies from Canada to deliver point-of-care testing with more rapid testing and rapid turnaround, to try to compress the time scale between testing and getting an outcome. A number of projects were announced recently. Again, those projects were selected through a merit review, through a scientific and manufacturing analysis—

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Quickly, can you highlight how the point-of-care test kit supplements the lab test, specifically in remote areas?

[Mitch Davies]

Large-scale testing is largely run through provincial labs, obviously with a very high throughput. That's the number we read about in the media; daily testing is based on those lab tests. The point of care in rural and remote communities depends on being able to provide a result in place. A number of test kits are approved for this use and are very important to provide answers where you don't necessarily have the logistics to move the samples to a major centre and then bring back the results. You want to be able to provide that information in the community itself.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you. I'm out of time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much. We'll now go to our six-minute round.

Mr. Lemire, the floor is yours.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My first question goes to Mr. Davies.

Now that you have a little time to catch up, do you consider that Canada was ready to face the COVID-19 crisis. which we could basically see coming? We could see that the virus was beginning to be transmitted more and more in a number of countries.

Were we ready to face this pandemic?

[Mitch Davies]

Mr. Chair, in answering the question, I'll be very humble in that I wouldn't wish to extend my expertise in terms of Canada's overall capacity and capability to respond and to make all the policy and implementation decisions to respond to the virus. Our task in ISED was to mobilize our industry, our research and our companies to be able to respond and create a made-in-Canada response.

We've made considerable progress—I've shared the numbers with the committee—in terms of the number of proposals we've been able to advance and the amount of production that has been turned to PPE. A number of commentators have shared information on that. It's been very important to provide a diversification of support in Canada for the equipment we need, and also provide good jobs. Obviously, it has also been very critical to manage the risk around tight supply chains and constraints in the world we face, where everyone is chasing the exact same sort of products.

That's our area of expertise, and I would stick to that in framing our response in terms of where we're at.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

In your remarks, you mentioned a number of…

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Excuse me, Mr. Lemire.

Mr. Davies, once more, if you could, try to keep the microphone about two inches in front of your mouth. Our interpreters are having quite a bit of difficulty picking up your audio feed.

Monsieur Lemire.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

In your remarks, you mentioned a number of support programs for industry and innovation, including the Industrial Research Assistance Program, the Strategic Innovation Fund, Canada's superclusters, Innovative Solutions Canada, and several others.

Do you have the feeling that those programs have been well used? In a situation of recovery and long-term vision, which are likely to become permanent, in your view?

[Mitch Davies]

I would say that it was identified at the earliest stage that these industrial support programs and research and development programs would be key tools to mobilize Canada to respond to COVID. In fact, I would highlight the support that we've been able to generate through the innovation superclusters across Canada, which have now dedicated some $55 million to a variety of projects that are very critical in terms of meeting the needs for critical equipment and also to develop solutions to the challenges that we're now facing. These programs came into use, and they have been able to channel their support to this current challenge and have been quite effective in that regard.

I would also say that the NRC IRAP network, which is a long-standing, very solid network across the country with over 200 advisers, has been very helpful in connecting supply and demand and unlocking the potential of our innovators to solve the problems we're facing here in Canada.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Based on the way in which you see industry today, June 5, could you tell me where our shortcomings lie in your opinion?

In which areas are we less strong, in terms of our production and our capacity to respond to needs? That includes health and other sectors of our economy.

Could you tell us about some of the gaps in the programs?