Thank you, John.
I speak to you today as the CEO of StarFish Medical and also as the chair of the LifeSciences British Columbia industry association. As the premier company in this space in Canada, we are proud to have an opportunity to contribute to this important initiative.
Like so many companies in the industry, we mobilized early to develop capacity as required, but we were a little unsure of how best to contribute. It was only when the CEO of NGen called to suggest that we step into ventilators that we actually connected the dots. Then, as John elegantly laid out, we were able to mobilize quickly.
Also, LifeSciences British Columbia mobilized on their own initiative. Like many industry associations, their lifeblood is holding events, which you can't do at this time. They hired a supply chain person and started managing PPE. They mobilized local industry to start assembling testing capacity and supplies. We're very proud of that organization and other industry associations across Canada for their contributions.
We have seen a lot of well-meaning initiatives that foundered, unlike Dr. McDonald's initiative, which managed to get through the regulatory requirements. Any number of initiatives by well-meaning people who did not understand the regulatory environment of our industry were not successful. By and large, we think it is a good thing that Health Canada is finding a balance between what's safe for Canadians and responding effectively at this important time.
It's also evident that national borders are becoming thicker, as Jeff mentioned, and if we want to have strategic capacity for critical supplies, we have a ways to go. In Canada, the industry runs about a $7-billion-per-year deficit on medical devices. Largely, we just have huge specialized companies sprinkled across the country, and that's one observation I would like to make.
However, overall, we're proud of the contribution we've made and of being able to contribute, and also the contribution of government and government agencies across the country. We feel we've done something truly meaningful.
Thank you.