Health Committee on Feb. 10th, 2026

[Nancy Hamzawi]

We don't have that information, but we can follow up on that.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Thank you.

I'll give you some more to chew on.

The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre has linked ThermoFisher Scientific with knowingly selling its technology to Chinese police or surveillance companies.

Cardinal Health signed an act of attestation in 2025 that it does not have any forced labour in its supply chain and filed it with Public Safety Canada.

I'll note that ThermoFisher Scientific stated that its kits were made for Chinese national DNA database and “designed” for the Chinese population, including “ethnic minorities like Uyghurs and Tibetans”.

I look forward to a response back to the committee.

With respect to question 604(k), I asked about the government's rationale to continue to do business with multinational suppliers that failed to deliver during the pandemic. Were any multinational suppliers subject to penalties, contract terminations, suspensions or exclusion from any future procurement as a result of pandemic era non-performance?

[Stacey Mantha]

If I understand your question correctly, it's whether or not we chose not to enter into procurement with any suppliers that we dealt with during the pandemic.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

I'll add a supplemental question.

Is there any ongoing litigation in which the federal government isn't the defendant because of the procurement practices?

[Stacey Mantha]

I cannot speak to ongoing litigation. Matters may be before the courts.

We advertise our need for product through PSPC, CanadaBuys, Buyandsell and that is how we advance our request for procurements.

Again, we ran through some of the requirements that we look for. We look for suppliers that are in good standing with medical or drug establishment authorizations. We look for suppliers that meet the requirements that we have collected from our 13 jurisdictions and domestically.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Thank you.

Has PHAC been made aware of any falsified—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have 30 seconds.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

—fraudulent or misleading laboratory test reports relating to gowns or other PPE submitted in connection with the NESS during COVID-19, between 2020 and 2023?

If so, when did you become aware? Which suppliers were involved? What corrective enforcement actions were taken? Were any contracts suspended, terminated or referred to law enforcement?

Perhaps this is what is subject to litigation.

[Stacey Mantha]

During the pandemic.... I cannot speak to specific time frames, but we did just have a bit of a 101 about the NESS quality management system. As part of that system, when we were advised that there may be potential quality issues with any of the product we were either acquiring or we held, we undertook to quarantine that product until we could explore the quality further either ourselves, through the testing capabilities we have, or through third party independent testing.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I'll go to Ms. Jaczek for five minutes, please.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to all the officials with us today.

As a former medical officer of health in charge of a public health unit serving some 1.2 million people, obviously I was extremely aware of the expensive vaccines that were stored in freezer units, etc. Not only did we have alarm systems, but, of course, we had a visual, personal inspection on a daily basis, because technology can fail.

Going back to the loss of the $20 million worth of product, could you clearly describe what your previous protocols were to ensure the safety of this product and the changes that you have now made that will hopefully mean that this will not occur again?

[Stacey Mantha]

As just discussed in the in camera session, we did do a full and comprehensive root cause analysis.

I am confident that we have addressed the root cause that was identified as a system issue. A contributing factor was our real-time 24-7 monitoring system for our refrigerator and freezer units. We have made enhancements to the oversight and monitoring of those freezer units. The 24-7 monitoring still does occur. We have staff available to respond to those alarms on a 24-7 basis. We have increased oversight and management at the warehouse in terms of personnel, as well as our regulatory affairs and quality assurance teams, and the teams that manage the equipment and maintenance.

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

You've heard some suggestions here. Mr. Bailey suggested a locking mechanism, as did MP Eyolfson. I think it wasn't so much from a security point of view that those suggestions were made but perhaps to keep the units airtight, without any possibility of a door remaining...even a sheet of a paper width of an opening. Has anyone else ever made a suggestion like that to you?

[Stephen Bent, Vice-President, Regulatory, Operations and Emergency Management Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada]

I think I should also clarify that these units do have a locking mechanism on them. It's an industrial locking mechanism that ensures that the door stays closed. It's not like a regular refrigerator where there is no control point. It's a standard type of mechanism that's used on many of these industrial freezers.

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

Okay, thank you.

We know that the Auditor General is looking at this issue. Did you consult with other jurisdictions, like-minded jurisdictions, as to the various protocols that they have put in place to ensure that vaccines are safe?

[Stacey Mantha]

In this specific circumstance, no, we did not. We do, however, dialogue regularly with our federal, provincial and territorial counterparts that manage similar products and acquire product from our stockpile as well.

We take these opportunities, whenever we do have to deploy a product, to walk through the protocols that we implement. We hear about the protocols that they have in place. That helps us refine our plans for deployment. As you can imagine, there are not only cold chain considerations; there are also regulatory considerations with these. Each one of these interactions does provide us with an opportunity to learn from one another in an open and frank exchange of information.

[Nancy Hamzawi]

Perhaps I might add that I'm in month number seven as president of the agency. I have met with my counterparts. I'm particularly focused on my G7 counterparts. Among the issues that we have been discussing are our strategic stockpiles, and I look forward to those continued dialogues and deepening those dialogues with our counterparts.

For example, we look forward to a new joint action plan with the European CDC shortly, and we are signing a new memorandum of understanding with the United Kingdom, where all of these issues are included.

That's just to say that, at a higher level, those conversations are happening with our strategic stockpiles as a key area of focus.

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

How much time is left, Madam Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have 13 seconds left.

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

I will cede that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

Mr. Blanchette-Joncas, you have two and a half minutes.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I would like an answer to the following question. Before the funding for the Canadian Consortium for Clinical Trial Training was terminated in August 2025, are you aware of whether any impact analysis was conducted by the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research or any other federal agency on the consequences of this decision for health emergency preparedness, as well as on Canada's national capacity to conduct clinical trials?

[Nancy Hamzawi]

In this portfolio, there are several organizations involved in clinical trials, including Health Canada, because of its responsibility as a regulator. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research is also involved in research. So there are a number of players. However, when we look solely at the national stockpile, we see that the Public Health Agency of Canada is the beneficiary of all these innovations.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC]

I appreciate that. My question was whether you did a study before stopping funding for the Canadian Consortium for Clinical Trial Training. If you don't know the answer, you can answer me in writing. No problem.