Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to take this opportunity, on behalf of the New Democratic Party of Canada, to thank all of those Canadians, health care workers, transport workers, cleaners, allied health workers, everybody who is working in trying circumstances and helping to keep us all safe. I think I speak for all parliamentarians when I say how important your work is and what a debt Canadians owe to you.
I'm going to ask my first question to Mr. Lucas of Health Canada. On March 9, Deputy Prime Minister Freeland wrote to the provincial and territorial premiers, asking them to inform the federal government of any critical gaps in supplies or in their capacity to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, things like ventilators, N95 masks, testing equipment, face shields, etc.
I'd like to know what the major gaps identified to the federal government were. Can you give us an approximation of the size of those gaps, please?