Thank you, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to speak to you today about the progress the Public Health Agency of Canada has made to address the recommendations in the Auditor General's report regarding personal protective equipment—PPE—and medical devices.
Joining me today is Ms. Cindy Evans, vice-president of the emergency management branch. This is the branch responsible for managing the national emergency strategic stockpile, commonly referred to as the NESS.
The Public Health Agency of Canada manages the NESS to provide surge support to provinces and territories during an emergency, when their own resources are insufficient, such as during infectious disease outbreaks, natural disasters and other public health events. The stockpile includes a variety of medical supplies, such as PPE, vaccine ancillary supplies, medical equipment and pharmaceuticals, and social service supplies, such as beds and blankets.
Throughout the pandemic, the agency quickly adapted and responded to the changing circumstances, including risks posed by emerging variants, updates to public health guidance, changes to clinical practices, impacts of provincial and territorial decisions about public health measures within their jurisdictions, and emerging health technologies.
PHAC continues to work with provincial and territorial partners to monitor the sufficiency of NESS inventories. As of February 9, key supplies within the national emergency strategic stockpile inventory include around 19.7 million units of N95 respirators, 282 million units of surgical masks, 13 million units of face shields, 810 million pairs of nitrile gloves, 111 million units of disposable gowns and 210 million units of needles and syringes.
We continue and will continue to take steps to address emerging supply gaps if required. We continue to proactively distribute incoming medical supply equipment, such as PPE and vaccine ancillary supplies, to provinces and territories to support Canada's COVID-19 response.
While significant strides have been made since the beginning of the pandemic, the Public Health Agency of Canada acknowledges it was not as prepared as it could have been prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency, however, is committed to enhancing its preparedness for future public health emergencies, including working on improvements on the management of NESS.
We appreciate the Auditor General's recognition of the significant work undertaken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the acknowledgement that the Public Health Agency of Canada helped to meet the needs of provincial and territorial governments for PPE and medical devices during the pandemic.
PHAC accepts all the recommendations from the Auditor General. We recognize that the performance audit identifies areas for improvement that are already guiding the agency to be better prepared for future health events. The agency agreed with the recommendation of the Auditor General to develop a comprehensive management plan for NESS to support responses to future public health emergencies. The plan will focus on key areas, such as optimizing life cycle materiel management, enhancing infrastructure and systems, and working closely with provinces, territories and other key partners.
The Auditor General also recommended that the agency enforce the terms and conditions in its contract with third party warehousing. This includes the long-term contract signed in September 2020 for the provision of timely, accurate and complete data. The agency took lessons learned from early contracts with the third party warehousing and logistics services provider and included clear service-level expectations in the long-term contract signed in September 2020.
In conclusion, Madam Chair, the agency is still in active response mode and is working with our provincial and territorial partners to finish the fight against COVID-19. We're committed to responding to the Auditor General's recommendation in full within the established timelines. In the meantime, I assure the committee that we'll continue to work closely with provinces and territories to review, assess and respond to Canada's emergency management and response needs.
Thank you very much.