Health committee  I can't speak specifically to the number of manufacturers. I will say that 70% of the Public Health Agency's contracts for the N95 respirators are domestic; 50% of the surgical masks that are procured by the Public Health Agency are domestically manufactured; 100% of the face shields procured by PHAC are domestically manufactured; and 25% of the disposable gowns have been domestically manufactured.

Health committee  The Public Health Agency has increased its resources over the course of the pandemic. That's with respect to epidemiologists and physicians, as well as a number of laboratory technologists. Certainly we are facing a pandemic that we haven't seen the nature of in a hundred years.

Health committee  Mr. Chair, the number is correct. Twenty percent of the information that is fed into the World Health Organization's epidemic intelligence does come from the global public health intelligence network. However, I would like to clarify for the committee that at no point was the global public health intelligence network silenced.

Health committee  Mr. Chair, under the independent external panel review, it was clarified that there was no documentation to identify a specific edict. Nonetheless, the department did undertake to put in place clear standard operating procedures with clarity in terms of the level of sign-off for alerts that are done not at a high, senior management level.

Health committee  What the GPHIN review did identify is that the GPHIN program did what it was intended to do. The GPHIN program did identify the outbreak in Wuhan on December 30, 2019, and included that in a report on December 31, as well as in a special stand-alone report. At that time, the information was already circulating with international partners.

Health committee  We thank the Auditor General for the attention to these important issues. A number of steps have taken place, and our focus at this time remains on continuing the fight against COVID-19 that's hurting Canadians. We've laid out a path towards addressing the recommendations from the Auditor General across a number of the audits.

Health committee  Mr. Chair, the Public Health Agency of Canada accepts the recommendations from the Office of the Auditor General, and we thank her for the attention on these important issues.

Health committee  I think for Canada, one of the critical lessons learned has been with domestic self-sufficiency in regard to personal protective equipment in particular. We saw some fantastic leaning forward by manufacturers in Canada, in everything from face shields to hand sanitizers, to quickly mobilize manufacturing in Canada.

Health committee  I think one of the primary influences that we've had in Canada has been our ability to very rapidly enact the governance structure that sits under the FPT public health response plan for biological events. That allowed us to very quickly put in place an effective FPT governance for COVID-19.

Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. With respect to the global public health intelligence network, we thank the Auditor General for her attention to this important function. A number of changes have taken place since the audit and since the independent expert panel. We've developed an action plan to address all of the recommendations.

Health committee  I call the meeting to order. Welcome to meeting number nine of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health. Today, we're meeting for two hours to hear from witnesses for our study of the emergency situation facing Canadians in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before I introduce today’s witnesses, there are a few regular reminders for hybrid meetings.