Evidence of meeting #21 for Health in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was pandemic.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Conservative
Dave Epp Conservative Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON
Thank you.
I'm going to continue back to the OP Q-604 and pick up on the comment you made earlier in the meeting that one of the lessons learned is that PHAC is working toward domestic long-term contracts.
In OP Q-604 (c), I asked how much the federal government spent on reshoring and supporting domestically sourced PPE between March 2020 and December 2022. PHAC's response listed five contracts.
Since, however, Precision ADM acquired Roswell Downhole Technologies in August 2021, were the standing offers awarded to these two entities presented to them as separate recipients or as part of a single corporate group?
Again, if you don't have that, just respond in writing.
February 10th, 2026 / 5:35 p.m.
Director General, Regional Operations and Emergency Management Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada
I don't have that here. I can respond in writing.
Conservative
Dave Epp Conservative Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON
Okay.
Following up on that, in light of the appointment in May 2024 of BDO Canada Limited as the receiver for Precision ADM, PADM Medical and Roswell Downhole Technologies, what due diligence or financial risk assessments were conducted prior to awarding funds to companies that later became insolvent or entered receivership?
Director General, Regional Operations and Emergency Management Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada
I will note that that portion of the response was actually provided by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. We'd be happy to refer that question to our colleagues.
Conservative
Dave Epp Conservative Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON
Has either PHAC or ISED conducted any postpandemic evaluation of PPE reshoring initiatives to determine whether these investments reduced reliance on foreign suppliers during or after the pandemic?
Director General, Regional Operations and Emergency Management Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada
Again, this would be a question for our colleagues at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. We'd be happy to refer that.
Conservative
Dave Epp Conservative Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON
Further to that, did any postpandemic reviews identify the loss of domestic PPE manufacturers as a risk to future emergency readiness?
President, Public Health Agency of Canada
We'd have to follow up on that and get back to the committee.
Conservative
Dave Epp Conservative Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON
Okay.
I'm going to flip over to (e) in that same Order Paper questions, Q-604.
Conservative
Dave Epp Conservative Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON
Thank you.
What was the original procurement value of the expired PPE currently being warehoused by item type at the time it expired?
Director General, Regional Operations and Emergency Management Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada
Just to confirm, you asked what is the current estimated volume and value?
Conservative
Dave Epp Conservative Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON
What was the original procurement value of what's presently expired?
Director General, Regional Operations and Emergency Management Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada
The assets were originally procured at an overall cost of approximately $150 million.
Conservative
Dave Epp Conservative Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON
That's presently expired.
What inventory management systems does PHAC use to track expiry dates? What measures are in place to prevent large volumes of PPE from expiring in storage?
Director General, Regional Operations and Emergency Management Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada
We use a proprietary warehouse management solution and inventory management solution within the Public Health Agency. Our president described some of the efforts that we make to have non-expired product used before it expires. We have options available to us that involve transfer to other government departments or other levels of government. Then we proceed to sale and then to donations. We have been active on all those fronts.
Again, we have no direct connection to the health care industry in Canada.
Through those efforts, we endeavour to divest as much as we can before it expires. These are significant volumes that we're talking about.
Conservative
Dave Epp Conservative Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON
Right.
We're presently paying for warehouse storage of expired PPE. You mentioned that you don't have any direct connection, so your sales—
Liberal
Liberal
Maggie Chi Liberal Don Valley North, ON
Thank you, Chair.
To the Public Health Agency, could you confirm for the committee that the recent loss doesn't compromise our ability to respond to public health emergencies? When you responded that it was restocked, was that to its full level?
President, Public Health Agency of Canada
That is correct. There's no risk. We have restocked the loss in full.
Liberal
Maggie Chi Liberal Don Valley North, ON
Thank you.
Going forward, there are some questions and discussions about mitigation strategies and plans. Could you confirm that this matter will not happen again—this specific incident?
President, Public Health Agency of Canada
Absolutely. A number of actions have been taken. Most of the action plan has been completed relative to what the investigation recommended. Most of those actions are taken.
We can't ever say that 100% of all risks can be eliminated. It is very difficult to say it's 100%, but we're in a very different place from where we were. We're very comfortable with the significant changes that have been made.
Liberal
Maggie Chi Liberal Don Valley North, ON
Thank you so much.
For the benefit of the committee, can you explain how PHAC assesses and manages risk within the stockpile today, specifically how decisions are made about redundancy and substitution when a particular product is lost? How are demand modelling and scenario planning used to determine what constitutes an acceptable level of risk? How does PHAC ensure that replenishment timelines align with realistic threat assessments?
Director General, Regional Operations and Emergency Management Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada
In defining the requirements that help us decide what we stock and how much we stock, we start first with threat and risk assessments. I'm talking predominantly about the chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear events that we plan for. We conduct threat and risk assessments with our security and intelligence partners. That helps us inform scenarios that they should be considering and that we should be considering to respond to.
Once we've looked at the different scenarios, we determine how many people might we need to treat for those types of scenarios. That helps us decide how many treatment courses, effectively, we have. We then look at the range of available medical countermeasures. We set acquisition and divestment plans based on those.
As it relates to something like pandemic preparedness, we're currently working with provinces and territories, as we did during the pandemic, to conduct modelling to identify what would be a national target. For example, how many masks should Canada have in order to be prepared to respond during a surge until supply becomes available, if there are supply constraints? That work is being undertaken in support of the Canadian pandemic preparedness plan that is anticipated to be delivered this year and help us collectively, as a country, define those targets and then assign a surge requirement for the NESS as well as for provinces and territories.
