Absolutely.
Evidence of meeting #31 for Health in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was vaccine.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #31 for Health in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was vaccine.
A recording is available from Parliament.
2:10 p.m.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
Okay.
Do you think it's important for Canada to ask for more trade with China? I think it would be important to have less trade with China.
2:10 p.m.
Senior Director, Health System Strategies, Medtronic Canada
I'm not an expert on international politics.
I just think that, thanks to what's been done so far and to our own experience with the supply chain, we've been able to increase our production capacity. Also, in order to meet the needs as quickly as possible, we've opened up our intellectual property to certain technologies.
In addition, staff on the ground helped to get ventilators that had been left on shelves back in operation, install them and train health care staff.
2:10 p.m.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
Do you think we'll see any changes in the supply chains since the reliance on China for supplying equipment is liable to decrease?
2:10 p.m.
Senior Director, Health System Strategies, Medtronic Canada
I hope there will always be good planning.
As I said in my introduction, I think the procurement system should be seen as a very strategic aspect of moving forward, and it should be built on policy-based principles that allow us to access solutions, not volume or technology as such.
My guess is, if we're looking for solutions, technology will follow. That's how we're going to meet the demand. That requires strategic procurement expertise.
2:15 p.m.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
I think it's important to have expertise in foreign affairs, but it's also important to have the industry's opinion because they know exactly what we need. I think it's really important to have the industry's co-operation.
During the pandemic, what have we learned about the second wave or a future pandemic?
2:15 p.m.
Senior Director, Health System Strategies, Medtronic Canada
First off, I have to say that I agree with you completely: the industry has an important role to play. I also think that experience has been gained, both by SMEs and by multinationals such as ours.
I'm speaking on behalf of Medtronic Canada only. Since the company has a global presence, we've been in contact with different health care systems. Our expertise in this regard has allowed us to see how this has been done with the industry.
As I said in my introduction, if the industry wants to move forward, it must be seen not only as a supplier, but also as a true partner that can offer solutions without putting our health care system at risk. Indeed, it must remain public. We are very proud of the current health care system.
In my opinion, it would be horrible to do without another eligible party, either the supplier or the industry, in order to ask about certain solutions related to the future. We should start doing that immediately.
2:15 p.m.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
Do you think the government has been a good partner so far in determining the exact inventory we have right now, but also in determining what we're going to need in the future?
We said that when the pandemic began—
2:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Excuse me, but we need a very quick answer. We're out of time.
Please go ahead.
2:15 p.m.
Senior Director, Health System Strategies, Medtronic Canada
Listen, I think that having such a commission will help to find solutions. It's easy at this stage to go back and comment on the situation. It's been difficult to predict the scale of this pandemic, but I welcome the openness and the fact that we have this kind of exchange to learn quickly and take action before a potential second wave.
2:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Mr. Kelloway, you have five minutes. If you're able to do it in three minutes, that would be most helpful.
2:15 p.m.
Liberal
Mike Kelloway Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
I will do that, Mr. Chair. I have just a couple of questions with respect to Medtronic Canada.
I understand that your organization has recently been named as a top workplace in Ontario for supporting the mental health of its employees. Can you tell us a little bit about your organization and what it has done to support the mental health of the employees in this pandemic? I'm looking at best practices, and I think sometimes the mental health side of things tends to get not as noticed as other things.
I'm wondering if you could briefly speak to that. Then I have one more question.
2:15 p.m.
Senior Director, Health System Strategies, Medtronic Canada
Thank you for the question, Mr. Kelloway, and thank you for mentioning this recognition we received.
We do different things. First, it's all part of our mission. Medtronic Canada's mission was written 60 years ago by its founder, Earl E. Bakken, and it's all about that. It's essentially about making sure that we can relieve pain, prolong life and restore health to patients.
We are obviously very close to patients, and we see in a very real way the effect of our technologies on their health. This inspires our employees and gives meaning to what we do in practice. Often, employees tell us that when they go through a bit of a difficult or discouraging time, they remember this mission and the impact it has on patients. Sometimes even patients who benefit from our technology come and tell us firsthand about the benefits of our technology. That obviously has a big impact on all of us at Medtronic Canada.
2:20 p.m.
Liberal
Mike Kelloway Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
Thank you so much.
I have one last question, Mr. Chair. Then I will give up my time.
Dr. Possamai, as a former senior adviser on the SARS investigation commission, you've talked about this, but if you had to look at the now and in the future, which is not that far if we look at a potential second wave, I'm wondering what you would recommend now for front-line health care workers, of which I have many in my family, in terms of a number of ways to maintain their safety during the pandemic.
2:20 p.m.
Senior Advisor, Commission to Investigate the Introduction and Spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), 2003-2007, As an Individual
First of all, I think we need to move to the precautionary principle in protecting them. We need to go to airborne precautions. As we now move, as the government has said, to domestic production of N95s, we should really ramp that up to make sure we have enough supplies to do that.
We need to urgently try to find alternatives as well, because N95s are not the end-all and be-all. There are other ways. Unfortunately, PHAC doesn't have the internal worker safety expertise to really do that. I think it's important to reach out to health safety experts and industry to advise PHAC on doing that.
2:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Thank you, Mr. Kelloway. I appreciate your help.
We'll go now to Mr. Desilets.
You have two and a half minutes, strictly, but if you could make it less, that would be very helpful.
2:20 p.m.
Bloc
Luc Desilets Bloc Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My question is again for Mr. Possamai.
You mentioned earlier that it was important for the federal government to produce an annual report so that we don't end up in a situation similar to the one we've experienced and are still experiencing.
Can you tell me a little bit more specifically what you'd like to see in this report? Would it deal with stock levels, contingency plans? What would it deal with specifically?
2:20 p.m.
Senior Advisor, Commission to Investigate the Introduction and Spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), 2003-2007, As an Individual
That's a great question.
We need to know if we have enough supplies, enough N95 respirators, and we need to know where they are located. More importantly, we need to know if we have the right worker safety culture across the country in different settings, because the N95 is only part of what makes a workplace safe. There is a hierarchy of control. We need to engineer control.
It's really a holistic approach that leads to safety, and it goes beyond worker safety. It's also having the industrial support in place if we need to ramp up supplies in certain areas.
2:20 p.m.
Bloc
Luc Desilets Bloc Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Thank you.
Mr. Hupé, do you think Quebec currently has all the respirators it needs?
2:20 p.m.
Senior Director, Health System Strategies, Medtronic Canada
That's a good question, but it's very difficult to answer. The Department of Health may have that information, but we, as suppliers, have difficulty collecting it. We aren't the only suppliers. There are a number of others, so it would be difficult for us to give a definitive and comprehensive opinion.
2:20 p.m.
Bloc
Luc Desilets Bloc Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Great.
Should there be a second wave that is larger than the one we've just had, could the problem with respirators be even bigger still? If not, will there be time over the next two months to meet the potentially greater needs?
2:25 p.m.
Senior Director, Health System Strategies, Medtronic Canada
Concrete steps have certainly been taken. I'm not clairvoyant, but for our part, we've quintupled the production of the ventilators I mentioned, which are quite sophisticated. That will certainly be helpful.
We've also made our intellectual property available so that groups such as Ventilators for Canadians, with Baylis, which is headquartered in Montreal, as you know, can also produce another type of ventilator. Certainly, the quantity available will be greater than it was on March 12 or 13.