Government Operations Committee on Nov. 24th, 2022

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

I have 15 seconds, which I yield to you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you, sir.

Ms. Vignola, please, you have six minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to thank Ms. Jaczek and everyone on her team for being here today.

For my first question, I'd like to follow up on a previous line of questioning.

What barriers do first nations-owned businesses run into that other minority-owned businesses seldom or never do? I'm talking about businesses that are similar in size and type. Let's not compare apples and oranges.

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

Thank you for your question.

Obviously, there are similarities. There are barriers for marginalized people across the board.

I think it starts, first of all, with the knowledge that there is an opportunity. People need to be aware that they can in fact look at a list of tendered projects and have the opportunity to engage.

Our current system is paper-based, but we're trying to make things much more accessible in terms of websites. If you go on the Government of Canada website and you look for procurement opportunities, you get to CanadaBuys. Some of those improvements are more accessible for people and perhaps less intimidating.

There is a registry, as I understand it, that we're trying to compile of indigenous businesses. We're going across the country to reach out and make—in this case particularly—indigenous people aware of their opportunities to participate. There is an office, as I understand it, where they give direct one-on-one assistance as required as well.

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

Thank you.

As you mentioned in your opening statement, Public Services and Procurement Canada is requesting access to $135.9 million to support Canada’s ongoing response to COVID‑19. The funding will be used to secure services, supplies and vaccines. I want to focus on supplies.

What supplies does Canada need to secure for the ongoing response to COVID‑19? Can you give me two or three examples? Can you also tell me where those supplies will come from?

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

I was interested in this as well. That $135 million was something that is not exactly directed to preventing or treating COVID. It is actually the storage of four mobile health units that are being warehoused. They are in the possession now of PSPC. I believe two of them were used during the pandemic to assist hospitals, so they were an additional, outside of the emergency department, opportunity for patients to be seen and to be treated in triage right in these units.

I'm not quite sure of the proportion of the $135 million that is required, obviously, for these mobile health units, but I just wanted to mention that because it was something I was completely unaware of. When it comes to COVID itself, again, one of the things that is maybe more current to where we are in the pandemic is—

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

Sorry to cut you off, Ms. Jaczek, but I don't have a lot of time. I asked you for a few examples of supplies. Your explanation is fascinating, but I'd like a more concrete answer, please.

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

Okay. As an example, there are the vaccines. Most recently, as you probably know, we have been purchasing the bivalent BA.4/BA.5 variant of the vaccine. That is a current strain of the actual vaccine that is—

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

Again, I have to cut you off.

You mentioned services, supplies and vaccines. Unless I'm mistaken, vaccines are not considered to be supplies.

When you say supplies, what exactly are you referring to? All I want are two or three examples, please.

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

Obviously, things like personal protective equipment, masks and ventilators were used in the past, and gowns for health care personnel.

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

I'm surprised to hear that ventilators are among the supplies that the $135.9 million will be used to purchase. I would point out that a $237‑million contract was previously awarded for the purchase of 40,000 ventilators, and only 12,500 of them were used. Whenever I ask whether the government is going to be reimbursed for the ventilators it doesn't use or whether it plans to sell them to the rest of the world, either I don't get an answer or I'm told that there are plans. The answer is always quite vague.

You can understand my surprise, then, to learn that some of the $135.9 million will be used to purchase more ventilators. We've already bought nearly 30,000 too many. We didn't receive the 40,000 ventilators, but it's quite an impressive amount. It translates to about a hundred ventilators per health care facility, if you take into account facilities with just an employee or two as well as bigger institutions like hospitals.

This comes as a surprise, I must say.

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

I think our chief financial officer can probably give you—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I'm afraid we're out of time for this round. Perhaps we can get back to it in the next round.

Mr. Johns, you have six minutes, please.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Thank you, Minister, for being here today.

Nearly a year and a half ago the expert task force on substance use set up by Health Canada recommended, “An expert committee should be convened within three months of this report to lead the design of a national safer supply program, with the goal to increase access to safer supply for up to one (1) million Canadians at risk of death from drug toxicity.” The task force further indicated that such a committee could “Develop a plan for deploying an expanded health response with resources commensurate with those allocated to responding to other emergencies such as COVID-19.”

Your colleague, the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, said in September the government is moving towards a regulated safer supply of drugs. However, it's unclear what work is taking place to make that a reality and stop the thousands of deaths we're seeing every year because of the contaminated drug supply.

Have you engaged with the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions on how PSPC might support the development of a national safer supply program?

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Johns. Obviously, this is an issue of tremendous importance for our country. I know that you have been at the forefront of bringing it to our attention.

Just to be clear, PSPC is the department that responds to requests from other departments for the acquisition of products or services. I'm not aware of any direct requests from either the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions or Health Canada, or even the Public Health Agency of Canada, to our department, which I think is the very specific question you asked.

Deputy, are you aware of any particular request on safer supply?

[Paul Thompson]

No. We don't have any. It would require the funding to be provided and the department to give us a specific requisition for the procurement of services—

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Yes, so this is what you did with COVID, and it's disturbing to hear this. Canadians are dying and lives are being shattered every day because of a contaminated drug supply. You responded to COVID in a very different way. The lives of over 30,000 Canadians have been lost. It's the number one killer in unnatural death in my home province of British Columbia. In my community, the numbers are skyrocketing because of the toxic drug supply.

We know that the leader of the Conservative Party wants to double down on the failed war on drugs rather than listen to experts in health and law enforcement and people with lived experience, but your government, Minister, says the approach to the toxic drug crisis is different. You're sitting on clear recommendations from your own expert task force on substance use. You're in that cabinet. To turn the tide on this crisis, you need to move past the stigma and the failed status quo.

Minister, across the country, life-saving supervised consumption sites are struggling to meet the needs of their communities because of a lack of adequate funding. Has PSPC discussed with the Public Health Agency of Canada or Health Canada the possibility of bulk purchasing harm reduction supplies to help reduce operating costs for these services?

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

The answer to your direct question is no.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Minister, I'm hoping you're going to speak to your colleagues and ask them why. Why are they not asking you to supply a safer supply, given the magnitude of this crisis? Do you understand and see this as the health emergency that it is?

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

Mr. Johns, I commit to you that I will have that discussion with the minister.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

You are the procurement minister. It is something that your government is pledging is a top priority, but you're not responding like it is. I'm concerned.

Minister, at the beginning of the pandemic, Canada was caught unprepared with respect to personal protective equipment, which put frontline workers at unacceptable risk. The value of having a domestically manufactured supply of essential PPE became abundantly clear. The government encouraged Canadian industry to fill that void. Canadian businesses answered the call, but many small and medium-sized enterprises have since shut down or are at risk of closing because the government has awarded contracts to multinationals instead of supporting this emerging domestic industry.

Wayward Distillery is in my riding. It's owned by Dave Brimacombe, who pivoted in the early days of the pandemic to produce ethanol for hand sanitizer. He was unable to secure government contracts and had to sell his stock at a $400,000 loss. This is a former veteran, Minister. If Canada does not support its own PPE industry, it will disappear. We're at risk of going back to where we were in 2020, once again being caught unprepared when global demand exceeds supply.

What is PSPC doing to support Canadian PPE manufacturers as it continues to procure supplies for the health care system?

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

I'll turn to my deputy for the specifics on PPE. That was certainly well before I became the minister.

I'm sure you have a great deal of information.

[Paul Thompson]

We have actually produced a regular report that is available online with all the PPE production the department has supported over the course of the pandemic. I would be happy to refer the member to that source of information.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Okay.

I'm just saying that it's going to take decades for people to recover from this. These were people who stepped to the plate and provided PPE for frontline first responders, for health care workers and for people in law enforcement. These were people like Dave Brimacombe, who owns Wayward Distillery in Courtenay, in my riding. These were true heroes, and they got left behind.

I've seen the list. It failed. Going back to those suppliers who stepped up to the plate at the beginning of the pandemic, I wish the government would reach out and support those manufacturers and ensure that they're going forward with a system that will put them as a priority and at the top of the list.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

That's your round, Mr. Johns. Thanks very much.

Mrs. Block, you have five minutes please.