Mr. Speaker, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit earlier this year, the national emergency stockpile had already been grossly mismanaged, with three warehouses shut down and millions of pieces of PPE thrown into the trash.
Canadian companies have started producing PPE but over fears of being outbid again, the government refuses to make the names of these companies public to ensure that the supply remains available to Canada. If the government is admitting that free-market capitalism is putting us at risk, then we must commit to starting government production of PPE as a part of our just recovery for the manufacturing workers and to ensure that Canadians will always have access to safe, affordable and reliable PPE.
With close to 10,000 deaths and the second wave upon us, the Liberals must, at a minimum, confirm that the contracts signed with the Canadian PPE producers ensure that Canada will have first access to PPE indefinitely, or we risk being outbid once again.