With regard to the decision made by Public Services and Procurement Canada on November 10, 2021, to hold deliveries from Supermax Healthcare Canada to the government: (a) what are the details of the allegations that were shared with the government, including the (i) specific claims of forced labour, (ii) steps taken to authenticate those claims, (iii) details of any consultations with the Government of Malaysia to investigate the claims, (iv) details of any engagement or consultations with the United States and other trading partners to validate the claims, (v) description, including dates of all actions taken in response to the allegations; (b) what is the government's rationale for not cancelling the existing contract; (c) was there an analysis conducted as to whether this was in violation of tariff #9897 which prohibits goods mined, manufactured or produced wholly or in part by forced labour; (d) if the answer to (c) is affirmative, was this shared with a minister's office and, if so, which minister's office; (e) how many of these goods allegedly made with forced labour entered Canada and were sold by Canadian or international distributors; (f) what are the names of the other six suppliers that had allegations made against them; (g) what are the details of the investigations into such suppliers, including who was consulted, and how the investigations were conducted; (h) why was the decision made to maintain the two existing contracts with Supermax; (i) what are the details of the contracts in (h) including, (i) the value of the contract, (ii) whether it was signed, (iii) whether there was an open procurement process, (iv) the volume of goods, (v) steps taken to ensure that the goods were not manufactured with unethical labour at any point in the Supermax supply chain; (j) did the government hire any third parties or consult with any other government or non-governmental organization to validate the letter that was received by Supermax which defined their policies, audit and investigation strategies, and, if so, what are the details, including which parties were consulted; and (k) what are the government's estimates of the total volume of Supermax Healthcare Canada products that have entered the Canadian market through contracts between the government of Canada and Supermax Healthcare Canada, since March 17, 2020?
In the House of Commons on January 30th, 2023. See this statement in context.