Government Operations Committee on April 24th, 2020

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Francis Drouin]

This meeting is officially open.

I want to thank all of the witnesses who are here today, as well as all the members.

In order to save time, I believe Minister Anand has some opening remarks for this committee, and I will ask her to start right now.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Minister of Public Services and Procurement]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Hello, everyone. Thank you for having me here today.

Before we begin, I would like to thank the people working behind the scenes to make this meeting possible.

I also want to thank our interpreters, who continue to play an exceptional role in ensuring Canadians have the latest information.

I am meeting you today from Ottawa, which is on the traditional territory of the Algonquin peoples.

When we last met in this committee, it is fair to say the world was a very different place. Since then, we have all seen the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak. Our daily lives have been disrupted; our economy has faced challenges, and loved ones are falling ill. We know Canada may be dealing with spikes in infections for months to come. It is clear that we must address our short-term needs and plan for the long term so we are prepared for all possible scenarios.

Through this crisis, our government is committed to doing whatever it takes to keep Canadians safe, protect our economy and get everyone the help they need. We all appreciate the measures Canadians have taken to curb the spread of the virus, and we are especially proud of the doctors, nurses and health care providers on the front lines. Their work is critical, and that is why my department is so focused on procuring the personal protective equipment that Canadians and those on the front lines need.

Our procurement experts continue to work day and night, aggressively buying from all available suppliers and distributors.

It is no secret that we are operating in a highly competitive global environment. The entire world is seeking out the same materials, be they masks, tests, gloves or gowns, and supply chains are stressed at multiple points. This is resulting in a complex procurement environment where there are many risks. Mr. Vice-Chair, allow me to explain our procurement strategy in this unpredictable setting.

The first part is to buy existing inventory immediately at home and around the world to meet our most pressing needs. We are leaving no stone unturned. The second part of our approach has been to place large consolidated bulk orders on behalf of the provinces and territories. This helps us to attract suppliers in a competitive marketplace and keep a steady stream of goods flowing across our border.

Let me take a moment to explain how we are using our online channels to engage suppliers. On March 12, we sent out a call for companies to help Canada fight the outbreak on our online platform Buyandsell.gc.ca. The response has been overwhelming, with more than 26,000 submissions received. I am pleased to say that we have made at least initial contact with all domestic suppliers who have come forward to offer their help. We are aggressively working through submissions, placing priority on the offers for supplies for those most in need that already meet Health Canada standards. We are also making large international purchases.

Our government has called on Canadian companies to ramp up domestic manufacturing. At the same time, companies from across this country have answered the call, and my department is quickly establishing contracts with them. For example, we are finalizing a long-term contract with Medicom out of Montreal to produce tens of millions of N95 respirators and surgical masks annually right here in Canada. We have also established contracts for tens of thousands of ventilators with Thornhill Medical, CAE Inc., Ventilators for Canadians, Linamar, and StarFish Medical, all Canadian manufacturers.

Some Canadian companies are completely retooling their production lines to meet our needs. These are companies like Bauer in Quebec, which has gone from making hockey equipment to making face shields for front-line medical workers. Stanfield's in Nova Scotia is set to provide us with 100,000 medical gowns per week. Irving Oil in New Brunswick is another great example. They have retooled their lines to produce hand sanitizer and will deliver in the coming weeks.

These companies demonstrate the Canadian ingenuity and tenacity that will see us through this crisis. While we are focused on buying the most vital supplies, we are also supporting the fight against COVID-19 through other procurements. These include contracts for nursing services, security, cleaning, as well as air charters to repatriate Canadians. There are also contracts for first nations paramedics and mobilized community shelters, to name a few.

Through all of this, we have significantly changed our approach to buying and accelerating the procurement process, especially when it comes to meeting Canada's urgent needs. We are working around the clock to get contracts in place as fast as possible and in an intensely competitive market.

Underlying our buying effort is close collaboration with provinces and territories, as well as domestic industry players. To this end, I have established a federal-provincial-territorial ministerial table to discuss opportunities for collaborating around procurement in the fight against COVID-19.

I have also had constructive discussions with business leaders in the Canadian medical supply community so that we can continue to address the most pressing procurement issues and work together on a shared path forward.

Let me turn to the international supply chain. While contracts are put in place and domestic production ramps up, we still need to bring in internationally sourced materials and much of it is coming from China. While we have experienced challenges, we have had some successes. A number of planes have continued to come from China. We have set up a procurement approach to bring in supplies from China to ensure that quality products get here with as little delay as possible. Our government is also working with American officials to ensure that vital supplies continue to flow across our border.

One federally chartered plane returned to Canada without its intended cargo, but I can confirm that those goods have arrived in Canada. During the same 48-hour period, four other federal planes landed in Canada with cargo. Over 10 planes from China have returned to Canada with supplies overall.

It is important to note that in this procurement process the federal government is not the only party at the table procuring supplies for this country. Provinces and territories, as well as health care centres themselves, are securing supplies on their own, and we are collaborating with them to make sure that they have the transportation to bring those shipments home.

Once shipments arrive in Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada inspects and validates all supplies for quality. The same is true for the supplies we produce across Canada.

We have had some quality issues with supplies that have not met the standards set by the Public Health Agency of Canada. Quality issues, while unwelcome, should not be unexpected given the surge in global demand for these goods. While we are buying at a faster pace, our priority remains making sure that we get safe, effective supplies to health care providers. After our orders pass inspection, only then does the Public Health Agency turn their focus to getting supplies to where they are needed across the country.

To help us with domestic distribution, we have contracted with Amazon Canada, one of the companies that answered our call to action. Let me be clear about their role. Amazon is currently providing use of their online business platform to help manage the inventory and allow provinces and territories to directly order supplies.

Canada Post and Purolator, which are both business partners of Amazon Canada, will handle all warehousing and delivery. This is all at cost without profit. This agreement is important to ensuring that masks, gloves and other vital equipment are provided to front-line health care workers as quickly as possible.

This is truly a team Canada approach with all hands on deck, and we are making steady progress. Things like surgical and N95 masks are now being delivered and distributed to provinces and territories. On ventilators, deliveries will be rolling out as early as next week. The Public Health Agency has already deployed 400 ventilators to the provinces and territories from the national emergency stockpile.

When it comes to testing, we have contacts in place for rapid test kits. We will continue to seek out and purchase swabs and reagent required for conventional testing. Reagent is in short supply around the world, and I'm pleased to say that under very difficult conditions, we brought a shipment of the important base chemical back to Canada. LuminUltra, a company in New Brunswick, is now producing reagent with that chemical.

I want to convey to you as a committee that we are taking new steps to be more transparent and to keep Canadians up to date with our work. We are launching an online report today detailing the progress that we are making on procuring key COVID-19 supplies.

Through all of this, my department continues to deliver its most critical services, such as processing payments through the Receiver General and maintaining federal buildings and infrastructure, but our most important task right now is the urgent procurement of vital supplies in the fight against COVID-19. We have significantly shifted our internal resources towards that effort.

I would like to personally thank everyone at PSPC who is keeping our business going, especially those who are helping to meet Canada's medical supply need in a difficult and challenging time.

We are making real progress, but we must continue to be vigilant. We must be realistic, and we must recognize that these are unprecedented and unpredictable times with unpredictable markets.

I want Canadians to know that we will continue to do whatever it takes to get supplies into the hands of those who need them most as quickly as possible.

Thank you very much.

I'm very happy to take your questions.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Francis Drouin]

Thank you, Minister Anand.

We will now go to six-minute rounds.

I want to apologize to my Conservative colleagues. I don't know who is up first, but whoever that person is has six minutes.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Paul Cardegna]

If I may, Monsieur Drouin, it will be Mr. McCauley leading off for the Conservatives, according to the list I have.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

You are doing a great job filling in, Mr. Drouin.

Minister, thanks very much. I appreciate your comments. I echo your comments about the translators; they are doing a fantastic job in difficult circumstances.

Minister, I want to start with a quote from your predecessor, Minister Qualtrough. On April 12 she said Canada's strategic stock of PPE was not a priority. I wonder if you could explain why.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thank you so much for the question.

I will say that the handling of the national stockpile is not within the purview of the PSPC. It is within the purview of the Public Health Agency of Canada.

I did hear those comments that my predecessor made, and my focus from day one has been to fulfill the orders that have come in from the Public Health Agency of Canada, which had been given to them from the provinces and territories. Every single day and night the team at PSPC has been procuring those orders that have been coming in.

That's the approach we're taking. It's aggressive. It's proactive. We are really working hard to fulfill provincial and territorial orders.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I appreciate that, but again, PSPC does have a major role in maintaining the stock.

I looked at your own departmental plans that you published on March 12. Even though this was well past the start of the COVID-19 crisis, there is no mention in your departmental plans of PPE supplies and priorities around that. I'm just curious as to why.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Once again I want to emphasis that the orders we are placing and the approach we are taking to procurement in very difficult international circumstances characterized by extremely high demand is that we are taking requests from the Public Health Agency of Canada. We are going above and beyond the orders they are providing to us.

Questions relating to the national emergency stockpile should be directed to the Public Health Agency and Health Canada. That is not within our purview.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Because you are the main purchaser, is there not some mechanism where PSPC looks and says, ”Jeez, we haven't ordered anything in six years; perhaps we need to follow up”, or is it merely passing the buck to another department?

A follow-up question to that is, when did you actually start the purchasing in a major way? The reason I ask is that, when we started the daily phone calls with Health, I think in the second week or the first week after we rose from sitting, I asked a question about respirators. We were told on the call from the department that we're not buying any respirators and we don't need them. The very next week, I think it was March 26, I asked a question about PPE, and the comment came back—this was from all the government departments sitting around the phone—that we are not buying any more PPE and we don't need it.

Here we have your predecessor saying that ensuring the national stockpile is not a priority. It's not listed once in your departmental plans, although I do note that banning plastic straws is a priority, but not the PPE. Then we have the government itself in the conference calls to members of Parliament stating, almost up to the end of March, that respirators and PPE are not needed.

When did we decide they were needed? When did we start the major purchasing?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I will note that there are multiple questions in that intervention. I'm going to do my best to respond to them, and I hope you will allow me the time to do so.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Yes, and I will repeat them if you need clarification.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I'm just hoping you will allow me the time to do so.

The first question relates to what you referred to as “passing the buck”. It's quite the contrary. We are engaged in intense cross-government collaboration and cross-provincial and -territorial collaboration. From the outset, we have been working directly with provincial and territorial governments to inform our bulk-buying approach.

In fact, I'm in regular contact with my provincial and territorial counterparts to ensure that we are meeting their needs. I have had a call every two weeks with them to ensure that we are meeting their needs—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Can we get to answering the questions, please, and not a monologue, Minister?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Pardon me?

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I'm sorry. Can we get to answering the questions, please?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

The question related to whether we were passing the buck, and I'm trying to suggest that it's quite the opposite. It's a collaborative approach—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Okay. Can we move on to the next one, about when we started the major purchasing?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

The second part of your question related to ventilators and the purchases of ventilators. In terms of ventilators, you have to recognize that there is a set of ventilators already in Canada, 5,000 to be exact. That's quoting from our chief medical officer, Dr. Theresa Tam.

In addition, we have procured 500 ventilators, which are being distributed out to the provinces. On top of that, we are building up domestic supply for 30,000 ventilators from domestic corporations. We are purchasing in bulk, in addition to the existing stockpile of ventilators.

You have to remember, when you are asking about additional purchases, that there were ventilators already in existence in Canada—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I know that. I'm asking when we started the process of buying more.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Furthermore, if I could continue, the process of purchasing equipment exists not only at the federal level, but provinces and health care centres are also buying their own PPE. Getting the information about federal numbers is only part of the story, which I am filling in, but the provinces and health care centres also tell part of this story, and it's a collaborative approach that we are taking.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Do I have any more time, Mr. Clerk?

[The Clerk]

Unfortunately not. There are only about 10 seconds left.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Okay. I will fill in five more questions in those 10 seconds.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Francis Drouin]

Thank you, Mr. McCauley.

I will remind colleagues that because we are online and going through video, it's really hard if two people are speaking at the same time, especially on a video conference, so perhaps we could let the person finish answering or asking the question.

I will now move to Mr. Weiler, for six minutes, please.

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

Thank you, Mr. Vice-Chair.

Good morning, Minister. We really appreciate your taking the time out of what must be incredibly busy days to appear before our committee.

I want to jump right into some questions. I have been speaking to many business owners and leaders in my community, such as John Ryckman, who is interested in using his own business, Edge Catering, to supply meals to those in need during this pandemic. Other individuals and businesses are using 3-D printers to manufacture face shields and other PPE.

Can you describe our government's efforts to support local suppliers or individuals who are helping to address the COVID-19 response?