Government Operations committee  No, they're certainly producing more now. The question of the duration of contract was more about the investment required to change the production line. In Concord's case, just to compare the two, you wouldn't have seen the level of investment required in their physical structure to start producing that volume of masks, whereas with something brand new, where you're bringing in new machinery and have new buildings, you require a much more substantial investment.

Government Operations committee  On the breakdown, we may have to get back to you on that, Mr. Chair. China is still a very significant player in the PPE market. The majority of products are still being manufactured in China. The contract may not be with a company in China, though. The contract may be with a Canadian company that is acquiring through China, or you may have some directly in China.

Government Operations committee  It's fairly new. The committee has met one time, and it is really about engaging with outside experts in terms of getting advice on procurements and the supply system as a whole. We have quite a varied background of industry players there. The first meeting was very much a sharing of experiences that they're seeing in their own industries in terms of PPE, and we shared our experiences.

Government Operations committee  That's a great question, Mr. Chair. That is part of the discussion. It's one thing to say you can manufacture in Canada, but it's another thing to say you can get the raw materials to manufacture in Canada. There's the capability and the raw materials, and the companies need both at their disposal to succeed in their endeavour.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, Medicom, I think, is the only 10-year contract that I'm aware of. Arianne may wish to chime in on this one, but that was basically necessitated by the fact that to attract a manufacturing facility, you need to promise them a certain volume of business. That was the vehicle we chose to essentially make sure that the investment was warranted on their part, namely, by giving them a long-term contract.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, essentially, to start the negotiations you would have had an LOI, and then you would have had a negotiation where they would essentially respond to a statement of work, and then a negotiation from there. You would have seen a document like a proposal go through, and you would have evaluated it to make made sure that it met the needs of Canada.

Government Operations committee  Not necessarily, Mr. Chair. What you would see, though, is a discussion of the supply chain itself because what you're looking for is domestic production. So, as part of the discussion, you would have discussions about where they intend to get their supplies. However, it's up to the prime contractors where they get their supplies.

Government Operations committee  I apologize, Mr. Chair. I'm having a hard time with that today. Hopefully that's better. No, our discussion is basically with the prime contractor, and the agreement is with the prime contractor. The subcontractors are the prime contractor's business.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, we're in the range of over 200 contracts. We can't give you the exact number today because it changes daily, but let's call it 200. Arianne, do you want to correct me? You may be more current than I am.

Government Operations committee  I don't have the purchase order in front of me, Mr. Chair. Maybe my colleagues could answer, but it's very specific in terms of understanding what the standard is.

Government Operations committee  We would actually have a few more standards, Mr. Chair, in terms of being exactly specific. There are various kinds of N95s, so you'd be quite specific on that.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, I think I spoke about this the last time I was here. In general, I'd say that, with the competitive markets, the market did change from being one in which initially you had to make some prepayments to being one in which it went to 50%. Then there were companies that you could not get a contract with unless you were flowing money in advance, so there were a variety of things at play, but that was actually, and still is, the circumstance on the ground for certain types of product in China.

Government Operations committee  I'm not confirming the dollar amount, Mr. Chair, but I'm saying there were prepayments—

Government Operations committee  It turns out, Mr. Chair, there were actually no empty flights. We thought there was one that was empty, but it turns out that Air Canada was able to load some other cargo onto it. It was not Canadian government cargo, but it came back with some other cargo on it. That was the only Government of Canada flight that was rumoured to be empty.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, I'll have to get back to you, but in theory we can come up with something that would show the product that was on the flights, I'm sure.