Government Operations committee  We were in touch with a mix. On the long-term care facilities I mentioned, those would have been a conglomerate of private. We also heard, though, from some hospitals and others looking for assistance as well. It was a mix.

Government Operations committee  The funding does break down across the three buckets, as the member suggested. Grosso modo, we have committed $5.9 billion in contracts. The vast majority of that—it would not be a surprise to people, I think, to understand—is for front-line health workers through the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Government Operations committee  There are a couple of key points there. One is that the applicant would have to belong to one of the 12 essential services, which I've listed before. That's the first test. It has to be an acute need. Part of the assessment is proving that they've gone through and exhausted all other means, and it really is a necessary intervention, that they have no other alternative or there will be an impact on Canadians.

Government Operations committee  Yes, the lowest compliant bid. You had to have a product that met the requirements, and then there was a price factor.

Government Operations committee  Let me know if you can't hear me. I'm getting a message that my Internet connection is weak as well. This was a competition, and it was based on two things: meeting the requirements as defined—

Government Operations committee  This is a standing offer that will allow for the machines to be ordered, if desired. The requirement at the time identified that the client had no security requirement on these machines. Global Affairs Canada has now indicated it wants to have another look at that, because that would result in a very different type of competition—

Government Operations committee  Global Affairs was our main client to put the standing offer in place, but the intent was that, if other departments wanted to order from it, they could, but they would have to understand, again, what their security requirements were.

Government Operations committee  No. Every province would have a location, because provinces are the primary providers of PPE and health care. They would all have a central location that they would use to then manage distribution.

Government Operations committee  As I said, there's no activity going on right now against the contract. We have been using Purolator and Canada Post heavily, as well as other companies, to help us deliver on these things. I think it depends on the model. A relatively simple model, as we have right now in terms of location of deliveries, requires one sort of expertise.

Government Operations committee  The Amazon question is an interesting one. Yes, the first part of the contract was at zero profit. They were going to learn what it took to actually operate this business. The other part of Amazon was that we were anticipating, with our colleagues at Public Health, a model in which the Public Health Agency would be delivering goods to a broad range of locations, many locations in every province.

Government Operations committee  I think it was out of a desire to help. They're not the only ones we've seen doing that. We've also seen some of the gown manufacturers in Canada want to contribute and keep their workforce busy, so they're offering us pricing that's effectively at cost. It's something we've seen, although not across the board, by any means.

Government Operations committee  The actual amount paid to Amazon was about $200,000, give or take. As I said, there is no activity going on against the contract now, because the deliveries to the provinces are still to centralized places.

Government Operations committee  I think part of that question would have to be answered by the Public Health Agency and, in some respects, the provinces, as provinces are kind of the front line. How we organize as a federal government is very much done in concert with our relationship with the provinces.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of points on this one. In terms of why it's August 3, we wanted to make sure it was up and running, the process was clear and people had a chance to investigate the process before applying.

Government Operations committee  Why not earlier? It's a few days after the announcement just to give people some time to be ready. We're getting close to being ready to go, but it's about a week or so away, a week and a bit, I guess. Who can apply? In terms of the first kind of lens, are you in one of the twelve essential services?