It's an excellent question. I guess it depends on the medical supply we're talking about. Here, a lot of the excess is N95 masks, which would have been purchased as a result of commitments entered into during the pandemic. If you plan ahead, you can really turn to hospitals across the country, to northern communities and to the provinces and territories and their stockpiles. If you really coordinate a pan-Canadian assessment of what is needed to respond in an emergency, then you can minimize that wastage.
There will likely always be wastage, because the stockpile is meant for a rainy day. I guess it determines if you think that's wastage if you say that we were better prepared in case something happened, but not being as prepared with a stockpile as we should have been is why there was the need to buy so much personal protective equipment in the pandemic when it was really a seller's market instead of a buyer's market. The cost of so many things went up at that point.
Here's a chance to get better value, when you plan ahead. That includes knowing when things are going to expire. You would do the same thing if you bought milk. You wouldn't buy four litres of milk if you know that every week you're only going to use one litre. You'll end up throwing away expired milk. You need to know your needs, buy accordingly and then monitor expiry dates