Government Operations Committee on April 14th, 2021

[Bill Matthews]

Going from memory, I think Canada was in the top three with both, but I'd have to go back and check. We were at the table very quickly with both Moderna and Pfizer. I think the countries where the vaccine is actually manufactured were obviously at the table as well around a similar time, but we were second or third, and we had started negotiations with those companies back in early last year, in May or June.

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

Thank you for that.

I want to touch on some of the questions on PPE as well.

I was hoping you could let us know what share of our spending on PPE has gone towards domestic PPE overall as part of our procurement.

[Bill Matthews]

We touched on this earlier, and I apologize that my mental math was very bad. Roughly, of the $9.5 billion or so on PPE, about $4.3 billion, or 40%, is domestic. I believe it was Mr. Green who asked that question. I think I cautioned him about the inaccuracy of my $600-million estimate, so my caution was appropriate.

The disclosures around those contracts do include HST in the dollar amount, which I believe was another question Mr. Green asked.

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

Thank you for clarifying that.

I know there were some measures during the pandemic to also provide opportunities to indigenous-owned businesses to provide PPE. I was hoping you could give us some more information about how that went.

[Bill Matthews]

It went forward through a couple of different avenues. One, some contracts were awarded directly to indigenous businesses. Thermometers come to mind as one example. Then we also did some competitions that were open only to indigenous businesses, two in particular around masks. We had a very successful procurement around masks that was open only to indigenous-owned businesses, and that resulted in contracts as well.

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

That's great.

How is PSPC connecting with indigenous-owned businesses? Are there ways in which it is proactively seeking out the types of businesses that could offer this type of service, to help them with retooling to be able to do that? How would these businesses find out about these types of procurement opportunities?

[Bill Matthews]

I think there are two obvious points to make here.

Number one is through information on PSPC's website, which is open to any organization, so that's there, but for specifically targeting under-represented groups, we have an Office of Small and Medium Enterprises that places particular emphasis on groups such as indigenous companies to help them understand both the opportunities and the government procurement process to help them navigate the process and increase their chances of success.

I should have added, Mr. Chair, that the OSME group also reaches out directly to trade associations, business groups, etc., to have better access to those types of organizations.

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

Thank you for that.

Do we have a sense as to how much of that PPE procurement overall ended up going to indigenous-owned business? I ask this because I know there has been an overall target for PSPC to meet a 5% threshold for federal contracts going to indigenous-owned businesses.

[Bill Matthews]

I'm going to let my colleagues correct me if my numbers are outdated, but I have between 30 and 35 contracts with indigenous companies related to the COVID response, valued somewhere around $120 million. Before we take that as official, Mr. Mills or Arianne, do you want to correct that?

[Michael Vandergrift, Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services]

I'll say that's correct.

[Bill Matthews]

That's correct. Okay. Mr. Vandergrift, thank you.

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

This may be my last question, because my time's running out.

Getting back to COVAX, how much is Canada's per capita level of investment in COVAX relative to other countries around the world?

[Bill Matthews]

Canada is one of the leading contributors to COVAX in terms of financial contributions, so we're right up there.

We could probably come back with an exact ranking if it's helpful, Mr. Chair, if there's one available, but I know we are one of the leading countries.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Mr. Matthews, and thank you, Mr. Weiler.

Thank you, everybody, for today. We started at 4:07 by the clock on my computer, and it is 6:07 at this point. We were right on time, and I appreciate that.

Mr. Matthews, thank you to you, Ms. Reza, Mr. Mills and Mr. Vandergrift for staying with us to this time. We appreciate your answers.

You did indicate that you might have one or two further responses you could provide to us, and we would appreciate it if you would forward them to our clerk as soon as you can.

[Bill Matthews]

We will do that, Mr. Chair.

Can I take 10 seconds? There was an earlier question around the update of our website. There are two aspects to that. One is on vaccines, which was updated April 9, the other was on PPE, which has not been updated for some time. That update is quarterly, not monthly, so the next updates for the website for PPE will be towards the end of May.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you very much, and thank you for the clarification.

I'd like to thank the technicians, the interpreters, the clerk and everybody here for the great work they've done to get this stirring today.

We're in the same room we were in on Monday and we did not have glitches and delays, so I appreciate everyone for being here and doing that.

With that said, I declare the meeting adjourned.