Government Operations committee  PSPC is procuring them and bringing them into the country, but in terms of where they go, it's more of a Global Affairs, international trade type of—

Government Operations committee  That's part two of my response. Yes, absolutely. In the contract we have in place with FedEx and Innomar, part of that contract—and indeed the reason for their expertise—is the proper storage of the vaccines, because they all have unique storage requirements. PSPC does indeed have a role there through our contractor.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, no, I'm not in a position to do that just yet. It relates to both current relationships with the suppliers and to ongoing negotiations. I just don't feel it would be appropriate for me to share that information with a risk of influencing those negotiations.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, I can't predict the future here, but there's an open question on what the durability of vaccines is. Contracts are absolutely lined up for the current year in what I'll call “round one” of vaccines, but I think to properly plan, one has to be ready for the potential that vaccination becomes a multi-year type of endeavour.

Government Operations committee  There are a couple of points here, Mr. Chair. First and foremost, Canada was one of the first countries, or early countries, to get contracts in place with Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. Experience with others was different, so I'm not sure what the basis for that is. In terms of booster procurement, we're absolutely in ongoing discussions with all of the suppliers to find out what their future plans are—whether it's a new and different vaccine or a booster to their existing vaccine.

Government Operations committee  Do you mind, Mr. Chair, if I respond to that? I appreciate the nature of the question, but I—

Government Operations committee  I think it's over two billion items of PPE. In terms of what's been distributed versus what's sitting in warehouses owned or operated by the federal government—in this case, the Public Health Agency—we'd have to circle back to them to get an answer, but just to give you a sense of order of magnitude, in terms of the warehouse space that is being utilized by the Public Health Agency of Canada now, we're up over two million square feet in terms of warehouse space versus where we were when the pandemic started, just to give you a sense of the volume—

Government Operations committee  I believe that's the correct number.

Government Operations committee  I think the only thing I would offer on that front, Mr. Chair, is that the pandemic has certainly required an awful lot more joint procurement with the provinces, so more is flowing through the Public Health Agency than you would have seen in the past, and that has required an increase in the amount of space available.

Government Operations committee  I'm not certain, Mr. Chair, because I don't know what the square footage of that particular space was.

Government Operations committee  It is indeed fully operational, Mr. Chair. We'll have to get you an exact date in terms of when it became fully operational, because it was gradually building up its inventory—

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, we can come back with the requests, but I would make the point that this reserve is open to a different kind of group of industries—

Government Operations committee  Absolutely. This is where I was going with the response, Mr. Chair. When you think about the national reserve, it's very much health care related, but this essential services reserve—energy and utilities, finance, food and water, transportation, public safety—is for a broader group of industry types.

Government Operations committee  They would be private, and potentially government as well if they fell in that list of categories of industries or services that met the needs of essential services.

Government Operations committee  I'm not sure I understand the question, Mr. Chair.