Government Operations committee  As I mentioned, it's a dispute, so it's hard to say where this will go. It could end up on a number of fronts.

Government Operations committee  Certainly. The essential services contingency reserve was set up as a vehicle to acquire and distribute PPE to industries and businesses that are in the essential category, that would not have been eligible to draw from the NESS but might have been in a world where they were st

Government Operations committee  We'll have to come back in terms of actual distribution, but the types of industries we're talking about here would have been agricultural, so think of food inspection or meat-processing plants. Utilities were on the list as well. It was essentially businesses that were necessary

Government Operations committee  The provision of goods by PHAC to the provinces is done without charge. The federal government is absorbing that cost. There were some purchases that were done jointly with provinces, so there might be the odd one-off. On the essential services continency reserve, in that envir

Government Operations committee  That is correct in terms of the flow-through to the provinces. Absolutely.

Government Operations committee  There are two points to make here. There was analysis done on who was in the market, and two contracts were awarded, one to Weatherhaven and one to SNC-Lavalin, because they were both companies that were providing similar services: one to the U.S. army and I believe one to the Re

Government Operations committee  I'd have to get back to you, Mr. Chair, with the details, but I'd flag that there are three elements. One is the design, two is the actual unit and three is supply deployment.

Government Operations committee  Again, we'll have to go back to the details on the split between the two. The hospital that is currently being deployed for Ontario is the Weatherhaven model.

Government Operations committee  Again, Mr. Chair, we can get back to you with specifics. I think it's probably relevant to see both.

Government Operations committee  The way these—

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, I can help you with this now. I understand the premise now.

Government Operations committee  The urgency was around the design, because we had to be up and ready in case there was an ask. You can't put these into place once there's an ask. We had the idea that there were asks coming from the provinces, and—

Government Operations committee  Again, Mr. Chair, this was a planned backstop. Hospitals were filling up and it was about having a backstop ready, or in fact, two, and to lock down some of the supplies necessary in case they were needed. However, this was very much a backstop, and as we've discussed, one has be

Government Operations committee  There were ongoing discussions with the provinces, through Health Canada, around hospitals filling up and what capacity was there, and then PSPC moved to actually put the contracts in place with the two companies.

Government Operations committee  Again, Mr. Chair, if you waited until there was a request for this, you'd be too late. The analysis of the market was that these supplies were being snapped up.