Industry Committee on April 30th, 2020

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

Thank you very much. When it comes to CAE, it's a great Canadian success story. This is a company that is a world leader in flight simulations and is a point of pride for us, and now they're pivoting very aggressively to building ventilators here in Canada, at a very significant scale of 10,000 ventilators. As I said, this will allow us to get this very important piece of equipment to Canadians and to other parts of the world as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you, Minister.

Our next round of questions goes to MP Patzer. You have five minutes.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Minister Baines, you mentioned that about 6,000 companies applied through the online portal. How many of those companies have been engaged, or are now actively producing PPE for Canada?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

I can get back to you with the specifics on that.

There are some companies that we just partner up and match with other companies if they're looking to scale up production or produce a certain amount of equipment. Some we work through purchases as well. LuminUltra is an example. They're looking for other key raw materials. There are companies like Canada Goose and Stanfield's, for example, that were willing to ramp up, but they needed the raw material, so we looked at construction house wrap as a way to make sure we met Health Canada's requirements for medical-grade downs. There are all these different types of initiatives.

We can get back to you on the companies we have engaged directly versus those that we kind of supported with partnerships with other companies.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

I would appreciate that. Actually, in our committee meeting last week I did ask your deputy minister about a report, and one thing I want to ensure is that we get that report as quickly as possible. The last report took almost three months to get, our supplementary estimates, so if you could expedite that report, I would greatly appreciate it.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

If I can, Madam Chair, I will highlight a very quick example to illustrate the complexity. Flavio Volpe from the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association indicated to us that 77 companies in the automotive sector alone have engaged in this process to retool and scale up to deal with personal protective equipment. Imagine that, as we get the aerospace and the biotech sector and other companies that have stepped up. The magnitude is fairly significant and—

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Thank you. I appreciate that.

One thing I wanted to address is that earlier in your opening statement, minister, you mentioned several well-known companies that are retooling to make sure they fit the requirements for PPE production, which is great, which is fantastic. However, the majority of these well-known companies are located in either Montreal or Toronto. I have been looking through several of your announcements and through a lot of the contracts, trying to find companies out our here in the Prairies that are participating, but I'm having a hard time finding any. I'm wondering why that is, and if you know of any off the top of your head from the prairie region. If you could let me know about that, I would appreciate it.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

I can tell you right now that we've seen companies right across the country step up in a big way, and we'd be more than glad to provide you with the names of the companies out west that have been involved in this process. It is a point of pride, because we have expertise across the country.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Absolutely.

In March I took some manufacturers here through the online application process. They were in contact with your office and with Minister Anand's office, and they were told to just kind of sit on the sidelines. That bothers me, because there was an announcement just recently—this week, I think it was—about a company called Medicom. They're in Montreal, and they were given a contract to produce masks, but in the report it says they can't actually start producing until July. There are several companies here in the Prairies that would love to help out and would be able to help out and could produce PPE long before July. I'm just wondering why we are waiting until July.

Just as a point of reference, in France and in the U.S. that same company ramped up mask production on February 7, so why not Canada?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

Medicom is actually delivering masks presently. The specific issue that you're raising is the additional capacity that they're going to build up. That will take place in a few months, as they retool and get the equipment they need for additional masks. They'll be producing close to 40 million masks, both N95 and surgical masks. It's the same thing with GM Canada.

Medicom is already engaged with us and is delivering masks at the present time. I just want to highlight the difference. The current capacity for producing masks—

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Is that in Canada, though, or are you relying solely on those coming from France or the U.S. or other countries? Are those masks being made in Canada now?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

One thing we need to recognize is that the supply chains are integrated, so they need to work with other jurisdictions in order to deliver these products. That is why we're working with them to build up domestic capacity in order to deal with some of these supply chain issues that we've been encountering over the past few weeks and months.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Well, this again is—

Thanks, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Sorry about that.

The next round of questions goes to MP Jowhari, for five minutes.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair; and thank you, Minister.

In your opening remarks, at least the way I understood it, you stated that the restart of the economy depends on two factors: One was that the time had to be right, and the other was the need for close coordination between the provinces, territories and municipalities, as well as the data and evidence, on which I believe you were pointing to the public health authority.

My colleague talked about the testing vis-à-vis the capacity and the supply. As we're launching these initiatives for small businesses and the economy, they're taking root. Now we are to focus on the restart of the economy, and it was very interesting that you opened your remarks on that aspect. Is there a road map? Are there clear roles and responsibilities for these various levels that you've talked about? Are there some timelines that need to be developed? Do we have some guidelines to monitor?

Let's start with the roles and responsibilities that you believe the different levels of government have to play to be able to put this road map together.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

This is going to require a collaborative effort. We have to work with the provinces. We have to work with them when we're sequencing things. We also have to work with industry.

Let me just illustrate some examples that highlight that need, because the situation is very different across the country in each and every province.

Let's take the fisheries as an example, out east and out west primarily. When you're on a boat, social distancing is a bit of a challenge, so you need certain protocols in place for that. We want to make sure that's done in a very thoughtful way to protect people in the fisheries industry.

Then we can also focus on, say, the automotive sector. There's a fair amount of automation and a fair amount of space between the workers already, and workplace safety standards have made it very clear that they need to keep a certain distance from one another. Therefore, it's—

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Minister, do I understand that you're saying one approach might be sector by sector?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

No. What I'm demonstrating to you is that when the provinces are going about a reopening of their respective jurisdictions, they have to understand the unique needs within their own sectors and within their own communities.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

How does the Government of Canada play a role in monitoring this situation or in developing guidelines?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

One of the overarching guidelines and views we've had is that we have to be very clear that public health authorities and agencies are engaged so that the health and well-being of Canadians is not compromised. As I've stated, the Prime Minister has stated, and many of my colleagues, including the Minister of Health, we've worked very hard to flatten the curve and to build up capacity, and we have to be mindful of a potential second or third wave if we don't take into account the advice of our public health agencies and the individuals responsible.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

What tool do we use to monitor that? Are testing and the number of tests being done the tools to use? Are there guidelines around testing that are being developed?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

Testing is one such example, and in this conversation today, contact tracing has been another initiative. These are examples of tools that we need to look at to demonstrate confidence for the broader Canadian public, to make sure they understand that their health will not be compromised, to make sure that people feel empowered when they go out there and feel they have appropriate tools at their disposal to keep them safe and protected.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Is it fair to say that testing and contact tracing, whether it's digital or by other means, are going to be the drivers, or is it data that the government is going to look to, to be able to provide the general guidelines?

A lot of my constituents and lot of small businesses are looking for a road map with certain timelines and certain key drivers to tell them when the economy or their industry or segment is going to start. Is something in the works whereby we could say it's going to happen with that road map and those drivers within a month, two months, or three months?

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Malton, ON]

Very quickly, I want to highlight that each jurisdiction is going to have its own timelines. They're going to deal with the unique economic circumstances in the different sectors that are going to be engaged in this process. We need to be thoughtful and deliberate about that and understand that we can't have a one-size-fits-all policy. We're going to have unique guidelines, but each jurisdiction is going to be sequencing this process in different stages.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you very much.

Our next round of questions goes to Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay.

You have the floor for two and a half minutes.