Evidence of meeting #18 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 question.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Bill Matthews  Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Les Linklater  Associate Deputy Minister, Human Resources-to-Pay Stabilization, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Evan Siddall  President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
Lori MacDonald  Senior Associate Deputy Minister, Employment and Social Development, and Chief Operating Officer for Service Canada, Department of Employment and Social Development
Clerk of the Committee  Mr. Paul Cardegna

5 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski

Good afternoon, colleagues and ministers. I will call this meeting to order.

Colleagues, I think most of you by now know the drill at these meetings, so we don't have to go over it in great detail, but I will advise all of our witnesses, including the ministers.

When you are making your statements, I would ask that if you begin your statement or question in one official language, please keep speaking in that official language and do not alternate between English and French. This would be of great assistance to our interpreters.

Second, for those of you who may be asked by the minister to answer a specific question, if you have the earbud type of microphone, please make sure you keep that type of microphone within one or two inches of your mouth so that our interpreters can hear your audio levels as best as possible.

Finally, colleagues, since this is the third time that Minister Anand has appeared before this committee in the last two or three months, I would like to go to questions as quickly as possible. I would, therefore, ask for consent for the following motion:

That the speaking notes presented by the Minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada be taken as read and appended to the evidence of today's meeting.

That would allow us to go directly into questions. Do I have consent from colleagues to accept that motion?

(Motion agreed to)

[See appendix—Remarks by Hon. Anita Anand]

We will start with a six-minute round of interventions, beginning with Mr. McCauley for six minutes.

June 9th, 2020 / 5 p.m.

Conservative

Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB

Ministers and deputy ministers, welcome back.

Minister, I'd like to start with you, please.

In your opening statement that you submitted to OGGO, you state that PSPC is buying aggressively and ramping up domestic production. When will Medicom start producing the N95s and have them available?

5 p.m.

Oakville Ontario

Liberal

Anita Anand LiberalMinister of Public Services and Procurement

Thank you so much for inviting me here today, and thank you for the question.

The contract with Medicom for surgical masks and N95 masks—

5 p.m.

Conservative

Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB

When will the N95s start being produced, please?

5 p.m.

Liberal

Anita Anand Liberal Oakville, ON

The surgical masks will be produced toward the end of July, and the N95s will begin production at the end of August.

5 p.m.

Conservative

Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB

We heard from the Department of Industry just last week that it would not be until the end of the year.

Which is correct: the end of August or what the Department of Industry says?

5 p.m.

Liberal

Anita Anand Liberal Oakville, ON

Again, I want to mention that our—

5 p.m.

Conservative

Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB

Minister, please just answer the question. I'm not interested in any monologuing. We have a short amount of time. Please, just get to the answer.

5 p.m.

Liberal

Anita Anand Liberal Oakville, ON

I am proceeding in a way that is professional. If you could allow me to finish the answer that I start, I would very much appreciate it.

Thank you.

The contract is, in our knowledge, going to begin production at the end of July for surgical masks and the end of August for N95 masks.

5 p.m.

Conservative

Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB

How many masks will be imported into Canada by the end of July, please?

5 p.m.

Liberal

Anita Anand Liberal Oakville, ON

Mr. McCauley, the contracts for N95s are multiple, and we are expecting millions of masks, N95s, to be imported.

5 p.m.

Conservative

Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB

How many, please, by the end of July?

5 p.m.

Liberal

Anita Anand Liberal Oakville, ON

The importation of the masks is going to continue to ramp up. For a precise number, I will check with my deputy minister, Bill Matthews, to clarify.

5 p.m.

Bill Matthews Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services

Thank you, Minister.

I'll add some context to that. The vast majority of N95 masks that we're receiving between now and the end of July are imported from overseas, with the exception of the 3M ones, which come from the U.S.

With regard to 3M, it is roughly 500,000 a month, but in terms of masks delivered to date, as of last week for our N95s, we were showing at about 12 million—

5 p.m.

Conservative

Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB

By the end of July, how many N95 masks will we have imported?

5 p.m.

Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services

Bill Matthews

I'm getting there, Mr. Chair. I'm just doing some math in my head.

At the end of last week, we had 12 million N95s imported and accepted. Then, for June and July, we're looking at our target of about an additional 20 million per month, so that should give us our numbers of 40 million plus the 12 million already received.

5 p.m.

Conservative

Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB

On your website, on April 23, you said that the orders for N95s were for 155 million. On May 26, it was updated to show.... The orders actually dropped to 107 million, and then June 2 it was 121 million.

What happened to the 33.6 million masks between April 23 and June 2?

5:05 p.m.

Liberal

Anita Anand Liberal Oakville, ON

We are operating in an incredibly intense global environment where demand for N95s is at an extreme peak. Our fluctuations and our numbers reflect that global demand, and there are times when we do have to revisit contracts. As a result, our numbers on our web page, in which we are being fully transparent with our orders and our deliveries, do fluctuate.

I will ask my deputy—

5:05 p.m.

Conservative

Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB

That's fine. Those are just cancelled orders, I assume.

5:05 p.m.

Liberal

Anita Anand Liberal Oakville, ON

Excuse me, it's not specifically—

5:05 p.m.

Conservative

Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB

Let me please continue. I'm going to take back my time. Thank you.

Of the masks that have been imported into Canada so far, we know there was a large amount that were contaminated or subpar.

What percentage of the masks that have been brought in, to date, have not been acceptable by Canadian standards, please?

5:05 p.m.

Liberal

Anita Anand Liberal Oakville, ON

Perhaps I could just clarify.

It's not that the masks that have been brought in to date do not meet Canadian standards. It's that the Public Health Agency of Canada deemed them not to meet standards for delivery to front-line health care workers. Health care workers are our utmost priority in terms of procuring PPE—

5:05 p.m.

Conservative

Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB

Of the N95 masks that have been imported, what percentage have been deemed by PHAC as not being acceptable for our nurses and our doctors?

5:05 p.m.

Liberal

Anita Anand Liberal Oakville, ON

Of the masks that have come into Canada, that is about two million.

5:05 p.m.

Conservative

Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB

Okay, what percentage have not...? We heard that it was eight million of a delivery. Now you're saying it's two million.