Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Again I would ask that we adopt MP Housefather's amendment and remove the language about “deplorable”. Again I emphasize the fact that we don't have the facts in front of us.
Really, this is an inauspicious start to this committee. When I was reading out the routine motions, they talked about the “spirit of collaboration”. We haven't even discussed the basis of facts. We don't have those facts in front of us. We do not have a single testimony. We do not have a single document that tells us anything about the numbers of PPE that were procured, how it was distributed, what is the plan moving forward—nothing. This is not how a committee is supposed to work. We're supposed to work from fundamental facts, establish those facts and then communicate them.
I'll be honest with you. I feel broadsided by this motion in general. Again, I want to debate. I think it's an absolutely critical issue to debate, but we need to have the time to debate it and have the proper facts before we make a statement.
As of July, there were 2.7 billion pieces of PPE that were procured by PSPC—2.7 billion pieces of PPE that were procured—and they were procured because we needed PPE en masse and we needed it quickly to protect the health and safety of Canadians and to protect the health and safety of our frontline workers. There were 190 million N95 masks procured, 77 million non-medical masks that were procured by this government, 11 million cloth masks that were procured by this government and 450 million surgical masks procured by this government to protect Canadians—those in hospitals, those in homes and those on the Hill.
To MP Housefather's point, we should have a discussion about Canadian-made PPE and promoting Canadian PPE, absolutely, but we need to have some facts here as to how that PPE is procured and how that PPE is distributed. Is it purchased in bulk?
What was the rationale? Are these masks the masks that were purchased six months ago when there was a dearth of PPE or 10 months ago when there was a dearth of PPE and a fierce competition for PPE across the world?