Government Operations committee  We have strict physical distancing procedures, shift work, and a maximum number of people who can be on site at a given time, and most of our staff are working from home.

Government Operations committee  I would say, in these crazy times that we live in, that the experience was exemplary. I mentioned in my opening statement that we started on March 20, after the call to action by the Prime Minister, and within only a couple of days, we had gotten in touch with the people we knew could help the most, who were those at PHAC.

Government Operations committee  We haven't had any limitations ourselves. We already use substantial amounts of PPE in our manufacturing facilities, and so we had gloves, N95 masks, face shields and all of these things already on hand. We haven't had any kind of interruption in that supply chain just based on its maturity.

Government Operations committee  There are 10 different provincial health laboratories, one in each province, and then there's the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, and we are shipping to those 11 specific locations.

Government Operations committee  Speaking for Atlantic Canada, it is one of the best-kept secrets, of course, in that we have some of the friendliest and hardest-working people in North America, if not the world. We also have some of the smartest people in the world. We believe we can scale up effectively through the population here in Atlantic Canada, as well as with Atlantic Canadians who would like to repatriate from other parts of the country.

Government Operations committee  From our side, we are providing one component of the overall test regime, and the per test cost for us is around $3.50. Then there are some other components that are sourced from other locations, and we're currently looking at shoring up those supply lines as well.

Government Operations committee  For us, similar to Dr. Lem's company, our traditional business is providing more of a complete test kit where we provide the swabs, the equipment and all of the reagents as well, so we already have a version of this style of test that would also be used for testing surfaces, air, water and sewage, all of the vectors of potential point-to-point contamination for COVID-19 and other pathogenic diseases.

Government Operations committee  That is something we are investigating, as we do have a very large cloud-based software infrastructure. We're just getting into understanding the possibilities of that right now, but we're following the old adage at the moment of focusing on the things you need to focus on now and leaving the other stuff to the future.

Government Operations committee  I could certainly extend by another 10 or 15 minutes if required, Mr. Chair.

Government Operations committee  From the equipment side of things, as Dr. Lem pointed out, we certainly need to have equipment available that can go into more places than just large laboratory settings. That is something we're working on as well, having smaller-scale, multiple sample processing equipment that can go in different places like clinics and smaller hospitals, things of that nature.

Government Operations committee  We are ramping up our production to be able to provide 20 million to 30 million tests per week. That's the number we're shooting for.

Government Operations committee  Well, there are certain chemicals that are shared between both what we do and what Dr. Lem does. We have similar base materials of very sophisticated enzymes and other base chemicals that are primarily manufactured in the United States. With regard to why those have not been manufactured in Canada, I'm not the best person to speak to on that.

Government Operations committee  Yes, absolutely, and as I commented previously, we are already doing that. The good news is that the capabilities are absolutely available here in Canada. It's simply a matter of putting the right people and the right equipment to bear on the right things, and we're going to be able to do it.

Government Operations committee  Ours already started off fairly low, given the robustness of our existing infrastructure, so I would say they have not changed.

Government Operations committee  I can't speak to whether the supply of reagents is a single source. There are other companies out there that provide similar things. I think we were simply able to provide a custom material that PHAC was looking for to be able to fuel the provincial health laboratories. As far as dealings with other parties, I can't speak to that.