Government Operations Committee on April 24th, 2020

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thank you so much for the question.

The first effort we made to make sure we had the ability to reach a broad range of suppliers was to put a call out to suppliers on the Buyandsell.gc.ca website. As I mentioned, we have received over 26,000 responses from suppliers domestically and internationally.

Your question related to the domestic industry. I, like you and probably every member of Parliament around the table, have heard from people who would like to step up. This is characteristic of the approach we are seeing from the Buyandsell.gc.ca website. I want to commend Canadian industry and businesses alike for stepping up in this way. What we are doing after we receive the supply offer is contacting each of these people, which we've done. Then we go ahead and make contracts with some of them.

In addition to PSPC's efforts, ISED is leading the plan to mobilize industry to fight COVID-19. As much as possible, we are trying to secure supplies from Canadian manufacturers so that we can get them into the hands of front-line health care workers as soon as possible. Some key examples are companies like Bauer for face shields, Stanfield's for medical gowns, Irving Oil for hand sanitizer, Medicom for masks, Spartan for test kits, Thornhill Medical for ventilators, and the list goes on as you can see.

We are seeking to ensure the we have multiple supply chains operating at the same time. That means we want to make sure we have domestic sources of supplies as well as international sources of supplies, so that we have supply chains operating in tandem, which is a way of not putting all our eggs in one basket, if you will. It's very important to have complementary supply chains and that's the importance of building up domestic capabilities.

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

I do appreciate that. I don't think any other example underlines the team Canada approach more than having Bauer producing face shields.

Touching on what you were mentioning with Irving, 101 Brewhouse and Distillery, Montis Distilling, Pemberton Distillery and, actually, all of the distilleries in my riding have shown an amazing ability to adapt their businesses, keep their staff on and retool their production to make hand sanitizer that supports the high demand right now. I was hoping you could describe the process that they should go through to get approved to produce hand sanitizer and sell it to the federal government.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Sure. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, we are using a team Canada cross-government approach to procurement. In the first instance, regarding a new business that wants to produce hand sanitizer, for example, ISED is leading the plan to mobilize industry in the fight against COVID-19 and introducing measures to directly support businesses to rapidly scale up production and retool their manufacturing lines to develop products.

Amongst these measures the strategic innovation fund will deliver direct support to Canadian companies for large-scale projects. The innovative solutions Canada project will be helping companies commercialize products more quickly. When businesses are identified by ISED as being equipped to retool and to scale up production, they are supported to ensure that their product will meet the qualifications set by Health Canada. PSPC works directly with ISED to go through a due diligence process leading to a potential contract. It's a collaborative approach among government departments.

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

Thank you.

[The Clerk]

Mr. Weiler, I apologize for intervening, but I have received a message from the interpreters. They're having a lot of difficulty hearing you.

Is it possible for you to hold the microphone closer to your mouth when you speak?

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

Sure. I'll try this and see how it works.

I'll just jump into my next question.

How does public procurement work to address the backlog of tens of thousands of applications to support the government's efforts during this pandemic? What sorts of challenges are you facing in processing those applications?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

As I said, 26,000-plus applications to us and 14,000 domestic submissions have resulted in a large approach being required. We have taken a centralized approach that allows us to assess and triage information in a systematic manner. The information that is provided by suppliers is triaged into four tiers: companies that are in the medical field, companies in other lines of business relating to goods and services that we're looking to procure, submissions from professional businesses but not found in databases that we currently have, and submissions that use public domain emails.

We have reached out to every single domestic supplier that has been in touch with us, but the triaging process is still continuing. I will say that overall I'm extremely heartened by the level of enthusiasm of Canadian business to step up in the fight against COVID-19.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Francis Drouin]

Mrs. Vignola, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you very much.

Thank you for being with us today, Ms. Anand.

I have a few questions for you. I understand that Amazon is lending us their online business platform. However, I wonder why Canada Post is not doing all the distribution.

Is Canada Post's platform unable to do what Amazon's does?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thank you very much for your question. The health and safety of Canadians is our top priority. That is why we are committed to ensuring that front-line healthcare providers get vital supplies as quickly as possible.

As you mentioned, we signed an agreement with Amazon Canada, in conjunction with Canada Post and Purolator, to help manage the distribution of personal protective equipment and supplies purchased by the federal government. They play different roles. Amazon has an online platform.

Amazon puts on that platform the items that we are going to distribute. The provinces and territories can place orders on that platform, which are then distributed by Canada Post.

So they play different roles, and Canada Post does not have the platform needed to play the same role as Amazon.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

That is clear, but my question remains: did Canada Post's platform not allow it to play that role? Was it absolutely necessary to use Amazon, which is a foreign company?

What would it have taken for Canada Post to be able to handle the entire distribution process?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

It is very important to specify that it is Amazon Canada. It is not exactly a foreign company. It is a Canadian company that works with other Canadian companies. All three companies are providing these services at cost, without making a profit.

It's at cost, without profit, and they're all Canadian companies. Amazon Canada is a Canadian company.

Is there anything else?

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Yes.

We have already talked about warehouses being emptied for communication reasons. I believe it also has something to do with logistics. Recently, we learned that two planes left China completely empty. We now know that there was a traffic jam outside the airport.

However, my question remains: what are you doing now to ensure that this kind of situation never happens again?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Thank you very much for your question.

It rained last weekend, which made things very difficult, but only one flight chartered by the federal government was involved.

We have taken other measures to make sure the planes can take off more easily. First, we have two terminals at the airport. The first is for Cargojet and the second is for Air Canada. We are diversifying our approach in China. Second, through the embassy there, Deloitte Canada and Boloré Logistics are helping us with procurement. So we have already done a lot of things to make sure this problem doesn't happen again.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Francis Drouin]

Thank you, Minister. That's all the time we have.

Colleagues, before I go to Mr. Green, I will keep time and try to show you when you have a minute left so you can see it on the screen.

Mr. Green, you have six minutes.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you very much. I'm going to pick up where my friend Mr. McCauley left off as it relates to the role of the minister in the national emergency supply stockpile.

I understand the stockpiles have been disposed of in accordance with the Treasury Board directive on the disposal of surplus material. Am I to understand that the disposal of surplus items that would go through the GCSurplus portal would be within the Buyandsell framework? Are you aware of or is your ministry involved in selling the surplus items?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I'm sorry, I'm having a hard time understanding the question. Am I in charge of the items that would be disposed of in the stockpile? Is that the question?

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

That's correct. Yes.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I am not in charge of expired items. That is within the realm of the Public Health Agency of Canada.

I believe you referred to the Regina stockpile, so I'm wondering if I could make a comment on that.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

I haven't actually referred to that as of yet. I'm speaking generally.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Okay.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

I just wanted to make sure that you were responsible for the selling of these items, not the expired ones, but the selling of the surplus items.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

What I'm responsible for is procuring the items; that's buying the items that come into Canada.

Once they come into Canada and they are placed in the warehouse, they are inspected by the Public Health Agency of Canada. My department does not have a role in that inspection. They are then distributed out to the provinces in accordance with a formula that Health Canada reached with the provinces and territories on the basis of an 80-20 split. Again, that is nothing that I have control over, but I will turn to my deputy minister, Bill Matthews—

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

That's fine. I'll accept that. I only have six minutes.

I would just like to know this. At what point did you know, as the minister, they had been disposed of? We know we only found out about this stuff because somebody who didn't get a contract took a picture of it in Regina. There are many other facilities. I'm just wondering when, in your conversations as minister, you became aware that our stockpile had been depleted and that critical supplies had expired and been disposed of.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Well, we do run GCSurplus for surplus goods that departments want to get rid of, but we would not sell expired goods.