House of Commons Hansard #11 of the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was training.

Topics

COVID-19 Emergency ResponseAdjournment Proceedings

6:45 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès) Liberal Alexandra Mendes

The hon. member for Red Deer—Lacombe.

COVID-19 Emergency ResponseAdjournment Proceedings

6:50 p.m.

Conservative

Blaine Calkins Conservative Red Deer—Lacombe, AB

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to follow up on my question from Friday and hopefully get some clarification on the Liberal government's lack of transparency when it comes to the procurement of essential PPE. To reiterate, the Liberal government has been using national security exceptions in order to prevent Canadians from knowing who is being awarded contracts for items such as disposable, non-medical masks.

When asked on October 1 by the member for Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles about contracts not being disclosed due to national security reasons, the Minister of Public Services and Procurement said, and I quote, “we made all of our contracts public on our website at the end of July in the interest of full transparency for Canadians.”

Then when my colleague from Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman pushed back on that reply, the minister doubled down saying, “in the interest of full transparency we revealed on our website at the end of July all of our contracts and suppliers.” That is a definitive statement. It leaves no room for interpretation or doubt.

On Friday, when I raised in question period that I have an email from the minister's departmental staff confirming to a business in my riding that contract recipients for non-medical, disposable masks were being withheld based on the national security exception, the parliamentary secretary changed the government's tune.

The parliamentary secretary acknowledged that they had been using the national security exception in order to prevent Canadians from knowing who is getting contracts for made-in-Canada PPE. Apparently, this is happening so regularly that the Liberals need to plan for a big document dump after the fact.

Setting aside that the Minister of Public Services and Procurement appears to have misled the House and risked putting herself in contempt of Parliament, given what we know to be true based on the department's own website and the parliamentary secretary's recent admissions, it sounds like the Liberals are trying to use the same tactics they did when they released the WE scandal documents. They tried to bury the opposition with redacted paperwork.

If I were a betting man, I would guess that this additional information will come out right before a constituency week or maybe late in December before the House adjourns, or maybe even in June when it adjourns again. That is the real issue.

The government can use the national security exception to prevent foreign companies or governments from bidding on these contracts. However, that does not mean they need to use the secrecy components to prevent Canadian taxpayers from knowing how much the federal government is paying for our own domestic PPE and other protective equipment, and who we are buying it from. How can Canadian companies know they are competitive with other Canadian companies if all of this information is withheld?

To say that we cannot know who is awarded a domestic-only contract for non-medical, disposable masks because it would put our supply at risk seems very disingenuous, especially when the posted list of interested suppliers is on the website, with the company names, emails and phone numbers to get in touch with them. What it comes down to is this: My constituents no longer believe that the government is spending their tax dollars wisely.

After the WE scandal and the Frank Baylis debacle, and with the procurement ombudsman looking into the former minister of environment's contracting practices, just to name a few recent examples, the Liberal government has proven time and again that they do not deserve the benefit of the doubt.

When will the government release the names of the companies that received contracts for PPE so that Canadian taxpayers can be assured their money is not being funnelled to well-connected Liberal insiders?

COVID-19 Emergency ResponseAdjournment Proceedings

6:55 p.m.

Gatineau Québec

Liberal

Steven MacKinnon LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Services and Procurement

I want to thank my hon. friend from Red Deer—Lacombe for his intervention and his interest in this issue. I listened with interest to his comments. I can say very simply that, when the global pandemic was declared, we faced a situation where the personal protective equipment and equipment of all kinds that Canadians and health care workers would require on an urgent basis had to be sourced, in some cases from countries around the world and in some cases from Canada. We applaud all of those suppliers.

I refer my hon. friend to the comments I just made to his colleague from Manitoba. Let me very briefly assure the hon. member that the procurement professionals at Public Services and Procurement, along with our colleagues at the Public Health Agency of Canada and of course partners across the country, are working extremely hard to ensure that Canadians have the supply of personal protective equipment and health care equipment of all kinds that is required.

We are also very grateful to those domestic suppliers who have stepped up and supplied the government with equipment of all kinds. Their contributions will go a long way in ensuring that Canada has a sustainable supply of domestic equipment and other materials available for use as we traverse this incredible public health crisis.

The company the hon. member references in his riding is welcome to offer to the department and to officials the equipment it may be in the process of or may have the capability of producing. I know that our officials have entertained thousands of such offers from across Canada and I know that they will deal with the member's with the same level of interest. I want to thank him for offering that up.

In conclusion, the professionals at Public Services and Procurement Canada, just like those across the Government of Canada and throughout, first responders in the health care system, are owed a great debt of thanks for the night and day work that they have done for the six months of this pandemic to make sure that Canadians are safe and have access to the equipment that they need.

COVID-19 Emergency ResponseAdjournment Proceedings

7 p.m.

Conservative

Blaine Calkins Conservative Red Deer—Lacombe, AB

Madam Speaker, the parliamentary secretary is trying to skirt the issue again. He is not actually hearing the question I am asking.

The people I represent, who have asked me to look into this matter on their behalf, would be more than happy to be suppliers. In fact, they did bid on a contract, but they were unable to find out why they were unsuccessful in their bid. This does not make any sense, because there is nothing sensitive about non-medical, disposable masks. Given the fact that we are now months down the road, there seems to be no reason or rational explanation for the need to hide some of this information from the taxpayers of Canada.

I want to know from the parliamentary secretary when this information can be released. Are future contracts where PPE might go to tender from the Government of Canada going to have the same national security exceptions, given the fact that we know much more now than we did several months ago?

Frankly, I too share respect for the bureaucracy—

COVID-19 Emergency ResponseAdjournment Proceedings

7 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès) Liberal Alexandra Mendes

The hon. parliamentary secretary.

COVID-19 Emergency ResponseAdjournment Proceedings

7 p.m.

Liberal

Steven MacKinnon Liberal Gatineau, QC

Madam Speaker, I assure the hon. member that the national security exemption is applied in situations where officials believe it is in Canada's interest, and in the interest of our citizens, our partners in the provinces and our health care workers, that Canada have ready access to contracting for equipment that is urgently required and that the details, in some cases, represent a strategic interest of Canada.

We have released details of dozens of contracts on our website. We will continue to apply the same levels of accountability and transparency to our procurements and, yes, in the future, continue on to more competitive procurements.

In conclusion, I assure the member that as a first order of business—

COVID-19 Emergency ResponseAdjournment Proceedings

7 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès) Liberal Alexandra Mendes

I apologize, but I have to respect the timelines.

The motion that the House do now adjourn is deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly, the House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 10 a.m. pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 7:03 p.m.)