Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My thanks to the witnesses for joining us today.
I have received complaints from colleagues about personal protective equipment. The people involved work for the federal public service, including Canada Post, and the protective equipment they received was not adequate. The management of the procurement during the pandemic ran into some problems, especially with certain types of equipment. That led me to introduce a notice of motion to the committee a few days ago. Now that the required time frame has passed, therefore, I propose the following motion:
That the committee, as part of its study on the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, invite representatives from Tango Communication Marketing, as well as relevant officials from Health Canada and Public Services and Procurement Canada to appear to provide testimony on the procurement of KN95 respirators by the Government of Canada.
As you know, last week, we learned in the media that the Government of Canada had sent $81 million to a Montreal company, Tango Communication Marketing, for the purchase of masks that turned out to be ineffective. No one even received the masks. Health Canada rejected them. We lost $81 million on one contract and we do not even understand how that happened.
We feel that it's important to shed light on the matter and to understand why the federal government handed over the money without knowing about the quality of the product.