Perhaps, if we were to return here with the departments alongside us, they could help explain their course of action. However, even in hindsight it is questionable as to why they were increasing their inventory when the existing inventory was being used at such a low rate. Why did they do that? The department is in the best position to answer that.
It's easy to look at the past and talk about the mistakes that were made, but as Auditor General Hogan mentioned, these aren't one-off mistakes in terms of the management of vaccines, going back to COVID, SARS, H1N1 and so on. Let's learn from these instances and do a better job, before the next emergency, to be ready. That's the focus of our recommendation in this audit.