Government Operations committee  Yes, Mr. Chair, in terms of addressing the backlog, we absolutely still have a priority setting. Obviously, if there's a case where an employee has received no or little pay, that's an urgent one. We've also recently put the emphasis on people approaching maternity leave or pater

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, the member's question was around whether there is still a priority-setting exercise in terms of addressing urgent cases versus less urgent cases. There absolutely is. Obviously, employees who receive zero or little pay would be high on that list. We would also put an e

Government Operations committee  In terms of resolving these cases, as mentioned earlier in the member's question, we are on track to resolve the backlog, as previously indicated. I can't speak to this case in particular, but we do have the priority setting in place to allow us to address the most urgent cases

Government Operations committee  Certainly, Mr. Chair. As we evolved our purchasing to go with new suppliers, we also realized that, frankly, the best approach was to go directly to the manufacturers while we waited for the domestic industries to come online. There were a lot of efforts in terms of on-the-grou

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, I think there are two points. That is definitely quick. When we were looking to realize contracts, number one, we realized that when there was an opportunity we had to jump on it very quickly or it was gone. An important part of the contract was also when they could fi

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. We are in the process of eliminating the backlog within the time frame that is in the mandate letter, which is one year, maybe 15 months. There's still work to do on the backlog. I think we are on track, and we continue to update our approaches to au

Government Operations committee  There are a couple of points here, Mr. Chair. Number one, I think years ago it was far more common where employees would get no pay. We've worked very hard to make those cases a priority, and they're quite rare now. That's not to say there isn't the odd one; there certainly is.

Government Operations committee  The context is that roughly 57% to 59% were met. There is about 32% or 33%—

Government Operations committee  I was going to finish my answer—

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, the contracts in question were for design. Deployment is another part. SNC was on contract to deliver up to five, so they designed—

Government Operations committee  None have been deployed yet because they have not yet been requested by the provinces.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, this is something where we had to forecast into the future to determine the needs—

Government Operations committee  PSPC first identified the need and worked—

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question, Chair. There are a couple of things. Number one is that incredibly valuable work was done by the Auditor General. We take the findings very seriously. I think there's acknowledgement that the department had to take risks. The supply situation was well

Government Operations committee  It is a huge amount, Mr. Chair. There's honestly nothing I could compare it to in terms of the experience we've had, if you look at the variety of the goods that were acquired for the Public Health Agency of Canada for eventual use by provinces and territories—because that's wher