Health Committee on Feb. 28th, 2022

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Allison.

I'll go back to you again, sir. The following recommendation is in paragraph 8.80:

The Public Health Agency of Canada should appropriately utilize its Global Public Health Intelligence Network monitoring capabilities to detect and provide early warning of potential public health threats and, in particular, clarify decision making for issuing alerts.

In the response, naturally the agency once again agreed, and said it “will work to make further improvement to GPHIN” and to one of the program components—the alert process, specifically, which continues.

Can you tell me why, specifically, the alert process, and what improvement has been done? Do we have any indication that we need to issue any potential alerts?

[Christopher Allison]

Mr. Chair, I'm going to pass that question over to my colleague, Cindy Evans.

[Laila Goodridge]

Thank you.

The external review panel did include, in its recommendations, that we should include early warning signals, currently known as alerts, which should remain a core function of GPHIN's operations. As I mentioned, that is one of several products that comes out of the GPHIN program.

What we have done since the audit was done, and since the review, is to improve and streamline our decision-making process for the GPHIN alerts and other GPHIN products and processes. In looking in detail at the report that came from the independent review panel.... They also suggested that we look at the terminology that we're using around the use of alerts, and work with international colleagues to make sure there's alignment in the nature of alerts and the degree to which an assessment forms part of those alerts.

We have undertaken some work to bring that clarity, but, in my view, it was also a nod from the external panel in terms of the importance of early warning in general, and events-based surveillance systems, and the role that they can play in pandemic preparedness.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Ms. Evans.

Mr. Thériault, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Report number 10, entitled “Securing Personal Protective Equipment and Medical Devices”, published by the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, states that the most significant risks were linked to contracts with an advance payment clause. It also states that measures were taken to recover amounts when services were not rendered.

Ms. Evans, could you update us on the status of the cost recovery process?

[Laila Goodridge]

Questions related to the contracts and advance payments would best be answered by my colleagues at PSPC.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Mr. Chair, because the sound was cut off, I was unable to hear the answer.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Okay.

[Laila Goodridge]

I'm happy to repeat my answer.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Just one moment, Ms. Evans. It's probably a technical problem on our end, so we'll need to get it resolved and then we'll start over.

[Laila Goodridge]

I'll wait for your signal, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Does it work now? Okay.

We'll reset the clock, Monsieur Thériault.

You have the floor for two and half minutes.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Ms. Evans, could you repeat the answer, since I was unable to hear it?

[Laila Goodridge]

With respect to the process for advance payments and the contracts, my colleagues at PSPC would be best placed to answer those questions.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Will my question be answered?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Ms. Evans specified that it falls under the responsibility of another department.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

All right.

The problem was that interpretation wasn't working.

The Office of the Auditor General of Canada's report identifies management problems with the National Emergency Strategic Stockpile. There were problems at the beginning of the pandemic. These problems, which were present in 2018, were already there in 2010, according to what was revealed.

What steps have you taken to address these issues affecting the stockpile and personal protective equipment?

[Laila Goodridge]

Mr. Chair, first, I'd say that the national emergency strategic stockpile is similar to our colleagues' one in the United States. It's seen an evolution in its mandate and the scope of the programming. Certainly, from its inception in 1952 when it was focused more on health care supplies, there's been an evolution where post the 9/11 crisis, the mandate has been expanded to look more towards medical countermeasures for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear.... With the post-SARS environment we looked more at scoping in the antivirals. Personal protective equipment had not formed a large part of the mandate or need for the national emergency strategic stockpile.

Despite this, with the onset of COVID-19 and the fierce global competitive market that we saw, the federal government leaned forward to do bulk procurement of personal protective equipment and was able to actively bring in a significant number. We were able to purchase 3.8 billion units of personal protective equipment to supply the provinces and territories.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Did...

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, M. Thériault.

We have Mr. Davies for two and a half minutes.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you.

Ms. Evans, I think it would be helpful to ask you to undertake to provide the committee with a breakdown by category and number of everything that was in the national emergency strategic stockpile as of December 31, 2019, and then perhaps with a breakdown of what category of supplies the stockpile now has and in what number. That may help us get the answers we need.

Would you undertake to provide the committee with that, please?

[Laila Goodridge]

Mr. Chair, our national emergency strategic stockpile forms part of our emergency critical infrastructure, and there are a number of holdings that we don't disclose to the public for national security reasons.

That being said, in 2021 we did revisit our disclosure policy and looked at the unprecedented COVID-19 response. As a result, there are some information holdings that may be disclosed, and we certainly could share some of the types and global quantities of the personal protective and medical equipment and supplies that were purchased as a result of COVID-19. We'd be happy to provide that information to the committee.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Thank you.

In answer to my colleague you made it quite clear that we have eight weeks of supply now, but I don't know of what. We had less than eight weeks of supply before COVID; I don't know of what. Do you know how many weeks of supply we had under the eight weeks prior to the COVID pandemic? Are you just unable to tell us, or is that a number you can provide to the committee when you go back and research?

[Laila Goodridge]

Mr. Chair, with respect to the question, when I speak to the eight weeks of supply of personal protective equipment, there are five key commodities that are quite important for a respiratory illness like COVID-19. Those are N95 respirators, surgical masks, gloves, face shields and disposable gowns. We do have over an eight-week supply of those key commodities. We are not able to provide that measure for the pre-COVID environment for the personal protective equipment.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Sorry, can I ask why? Why can't you? If you can give those numbers now, why can't you tell us what the numbers were for those categories prior to COVID?